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I
It_sNotMyFault
Participant
February 26, 2008
Question

Office 2008 Fonts - Best Management Techniques

  • February 26, 2008
  • 1 reply
  • 1163 views
Hi, we manage our fonts extensively (using Suitcase Fusion), and only the bare minimum system fonts are left handled by the system. We use a lot of our own fonts to override system fonts, etc. We keep it real clean.

So we just got the new MS Office 2008 suite. It comes with about 130 fonts. A lot are fonts we already have. Some are .ttf versions of PostScript fonts we have. Some are upgraded versions of fonts shipped with previous versions of Office.

- Anyone have a good handle and management strategy for all of these fonts?

- How about preference to keeping our PostScript versions vs. the TT fonts that are included? I've heard the fonts included are Unicode. Any value?

We just do NOT want to have multiple versions of the same fonts. In the past our PostScript versions of fonts were usually more complete, having a greater range of weights, etc. But I don't know if the Office apps need the Unicode functionality of these new TT fonts.

We would prefer to use OpenType fonts exclusively going forward, but can't purchase yet a 3rd version of all these crazy fonts.

Any ideas???
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    1 reply

    T
    Thomas Phinney
    Inspiring
    February 29, 2008
    Office 2007/2008 (and Vista) come with some brand-new typefaces, all of which start with "C." The full set is Calibri, Candara, Constantia, Corbel, Cambria and Consolas. These are OpenType fonts with TrueType outlines (at least they are on Windows - I'm assuming MS shipped the same fonts for Mac OS.) Some of these are default fonts for Office and/or Vista.

    I can't guarantee Office does not rely on any other fonts, but I don't think so.

    For cases where the MS-supplied fonts conflict with ones you already have, I'd keep the ones you have for compatibility reasons, unless the MS-supplied ones have some obvious advantage (such as a bigger family).

    TrueType and OpenType fonts use a Unicode encoding. This is a clearer and more reliable way for apps and OSes to associate characters with glyphs, but is not absolutely necessary. In particular, using a Unicode encoding does not mean the font has more glyphs (or encoded characters). TrueType and OpenType fonts *can* have more language coverage, but that doesn't mean that any given font necessarily does. OpenType fonts (with either kind of outlines) can also have added typographic features using alternate glyphs, but again they don't *necessarily* have them.

    Note that the "C" fonts mentioned earlier have both added language coverage and some nice typographic features (such as oldstyle figures and true small caps).

    Regards,

    T
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