PostScript or TrueType in 2015?

[macmac2000]

I'm organizing my fonts, and wondering if it's still the norm to keep the PostScript versions over the TrueType versions for print? I'm running Mac OS 10.10 using CC. Any info would be helpful

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

To start out with, what do you mean by PostScript fonts? The fact is that TrueType fonts are every bit as much “PostScript fonts” as are Type 1 fonts (assuming that is what you mean by PostScript fonts). TrueType fonts are native to PostScript as well as PostScript and have been so for at least twenty years now!

In choosing fonts, you should be choosing on the basis of the design merits of the fonts as well as the reliability and reputation of the font vendor. A well-designed and executed TrueType font will print every bit as well as a Type 1 font and vice versa with regards to use on-screen!

What you should be seriously considering these days is use of OpenType fonts. OpenType fonts are in two flavours, OpenType CFF fonts have Bezier curve outlines, comparable to the outlines used in Type 1 fonts and OpenType TrueType fonts have quadratic curves similar to the the outlines used in TrueType fonts. OpenType fonts of both flavours are cross-platform compatible, unlike the old Type 1 fonts and MacOS TrueType and .dfont fonts.

You should also be aware that although old style Type 1 fonts continue to be supported in Adobe applications (and will always be supported in PostScript and PDF), the latest versions of MacOS don't support them nor do recent versions of Microsoft Office applications on both platforms.

          - Dov

[macmac2000]

Hi Dov,

Thank you so much for all the information!

Yes, I did mean Type 1 fonts. I do use OpenType where available but my old font library has only Type 1 and TrueType. So it sounds like I should keep the TrueType versions if Type 1 aren't supported with all software?

[Dov Isaacs]

Please note that even if you have a Type 1 font and a TrueType font with the exact same names (not the file name, but the internal font name), that doesn't mean that they totally match each other in terms of glyph complement, metrics, and even design. In other words, they are usually not fully interchangeable for an existing design. Be careful what you discard!   

            - Dov

[macmac2000]

Good point! Thanks again