Open Sans: difference between Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts?

[mycc]

Hi,

there are 13 font types of Open Sans in the Adobe library (3 of them of the Condensed family): 

https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/open-sans

... vs. (12 fonts in) Google:

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans

But e.g. is the style "Regular" / "Regular 400" exactly the same (using it in print publications) and therefore does it not matter which one I use?

Thanks!

mycc

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi mycc,

Thank you for reaching out and sorry for the delay in response. I have shared your question with our Fonts team so that I can give you the right information. The team is on vacation. Hence, please expect a delay in response. 

I will make sure to get back to you as soon as I hear back from the team.

I really appreciate your patience.

Happy New Year in advance. 

Thanks,

Harshika

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Thank you for your patience, mycc. Here is the answer to your question-

As to the discrepancy in the number of fonts listed (13 vs 12): we include the 3 “Condensed” in the main “Open Sans” family, while Google does not include those, and Google includes 2 “Medium” (upright & italic) that we do not include in our listing.

About whether our “Regular” is exactly the same as Google’s “Regular 400” —our team is investigating on this one if there is a discrepency.

Thanks,

Harshika

[Christian27200516osxt]

Hi Harshika,

We have noticed that the width of the "Open Sans" font package is not identical in the "italic" font styles. The font delivered and activated through Adobe Cloud behaves differently than the font loaded and activated directly from Google (vendor). The "Google variant" runs slightly longer than the Adobe variant. Can this be?

Best regards
Christian

[Bobby Henderson]

Are you using the same application to test the version of Open Sans downloaded from Google Fonts and the version synced via Adobe Fonts?

If there are slight tracking length differences between the two versions of Open Sans it's possible one version is a different build of the typeface. It is common for typefaces to be updated from time to time for various reasons. There could be one or more bugs that need to be fixed. Sometimes type designers add additional characters and/or features to a type family or they make refinements to existing glyphs. Sometimes they expand the type family with more styles (more weights, widths, etc). People who have bought copies of type families from vendors like MyFonts can often get the updated fonts for free. In the case of Google the updated fonts would replace the old ones.

[Christian27200516osxt]

The application is the same. InDesign on macOS.

We cannot determine whether it is a "modified" version. But the running width in "italic" is already noticeably different.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm on the Windows platform; I don't know if OSX will provide additional details when checking a font file's properties. The copy I downloaded from Google Fonts, which includes two variable styles and 36 static styles, shows "file version 3.000." Some free fonts sites, such as Font Squirrel, are still offering an old version (1.10) with only 10 static fonts. The Open Sans collection on Adobe Fonts features 13 font files; I can't tell what file version is being used. Obviously there are different generations of Open Sans floating around on various computer systems. If you're sharing layouts with other people it's going to be critical for everyone involved to be using the same vesrion of Open Sans downloaded or synced from the same source, be it Google, Adobe Fonts, Font Squirrel, etc.