OpenType combines Postscript and TrueType into one: a single file contains all of the outline, bitmap, and metric data needed for both screen and print use. A key feature is that OpenType can be used on both Mac and Windows platforms. The OpenType format, developed in the 1990s by Adobe and Microsoft, solved the cross-platform problem and is the current standard. If I created a magazine layout in Quark XPress and wanted feedback from someone working on a PC, I usually had to send them a print-out. It used to be difficult for designers on different platforms to collaborate because sharing files was such a challenge. Mac fonts cannot be used on a Windows PC, or vice versa. You can print with Truetype, but you may see ragged edges.īoth Postscript and TrueType are platform-specific. They don’t contain as much information as a Postscript font and thus cannot generate smooth-edged type to a printed page as beautifully as Postscript fonts can. They are bitmapped, rather than outlined. TrueType fonts have only the screen font suitcase component. Failure to do this is the number 1 prepress problem faced by printers. It is crucial that you package the fonts with all of the other files you send to the vendor, since you shouldn’t assume that the vendor has them. The 2 components are linked: the printer font has information in it that can be sent to the operating system to create screen font sizes beyond those inside the suitcase. Its format is compatible with the Postscript Page Description Language that output devices use to rasterize the printed page. Postscript fonts are built with 2 components: the screen font suitcase that generates the type in specific sizes on the computer screen, and the printer font that is a scalable outline technology used when printing. Both democratized typography and contributed greatly to the desktop publishing revolution. TrueType fonts were intended for viewing on the computer screen, and some were included as default typefaces on your computer (Geneva, New York, and Monaco, for example).

Several resided on the printer ( Palatino and Times Roman, for example), while others were downloaded to the output device automatically when you hit the “Print” button in the software program you were using. When I first started working on a Mac in the 1980s, there were 2 kinds of font formats: Postscript and TrueType.

Install font suitcase mac