Daily Dose of DTP: 14. Be True to Your Type

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Daily Dose of DTP 14. Be True to Your Type From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing More font terms? Yes. More font terms. But today we go digital. Until recently one of the biggest font decisions faced by those doing desktop publishing was whether to use TrueType or Type 1 fonts. You can find many strong opinions on the subject. At one time serious desktop publishing required Type 1 fonts, period. Despite what some people continue to believe, TrueType fonts aren't just for amateurs anymore. But just when we were getting comfortable saying "Yes, I use TrueType" along comes something called OpenType. Before we get bogged down in the "my font format is better than your font format" debate, let's make sure we understand who the players are. Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printing > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls) Today's Definitions PostScript Type 1 Fonts They may be Type 1 but it takes 2... TrueType Fonts The reigning champ of the Windows world. OpenType Fonts Desktop Publishing giant Adobe has converted their extensive Type Library to OpenType and OpenType is fast becoming the new standard. Hmmmm... Today's Trivia It Seemed Like a Good Idea At some time in the course of your travels you may encounter a thing called Multiple Master Fonts. The idea behind this format developed by Adobe was that you, the designer, could take a master font and bend it to your will -- specifying wider strokes, less spacing, whatever you needed. Basically, you could create your own customized font using Adobe Type Manager and a Multiple Master Font. Neat idea that never quite took hold. You may find some Multiple Master Fonts still floating around out there but they really aren't a contender in the font format wars. Learn more... Base 14 Fonts (Take Away the Dingbats and You Have Base 13) Base 14 fonts are specific common Type 1 fonts installed as a part of the Adobe Acrobat installation. By default, when creating a Screen Optimized PDF with Distiller or any PDF from PDF Writer, the Base 14 fonts are not embedded in the document. Since these fonts are available in Acrobat Reader it is assumed that they will be available to any viewer and embedding would simply add unnecessarily to the file size. However... Learn more... This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Daily Dose of DTP' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement