Re: OpenType fonts

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com>]

Idris Samawi Hamid wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> OpenType fonts are all the rage today. Are there any critiqes of the  
> format, or discussions of its limitations?

Despite it's apparent "smartness" and a lot of media hype, OpenType
is still just a collection of glyphs and metainformation.

XeTeX makes OpenType look intelligent, but that is because the program
logic is wholly embedded in Mac OS X. At the core level, the real big
difference with TTF and Type 1 is just that there is *more* metainfo
(I am over simplifying it a bit, but not much).

Aleph, or pdfetex, for that matter, will need extensions to make
actual use of the extra metainformation. Whether that needs a new
kind of OpenType-Font-Metric file or whether it can be done in
macros/primitives is not clear yet (at least not for pdftex)

> How many typesetting applications can actually take full advantage of  
> opentype fonts?

There is a table at:

   http://www.opentype.com/html/opentype.aspx

but how up-to-date that is, I do not know.

> What are the chances that OpenType (at least some of its advanced  
> features) will go the way of MultipleMaster fonts?

Do you mean "embedded metaness" or "terminated for marketing reasons"?
the first, I doubt (too many font vendors involved with the spec; they
can make more money from selling separate fonts) the latter is, of
course, always possible but seems unlikely in short and medium time.

Cheers, Taco