Macintosh Bible, 8th Edition, The

Font Formats

Life would be too simple if there were only one font format, and the competitive nature of the computer business ensures that life never remains simple for very long. Although for years Adobe's PostScript fonts were the de facto font format for the Mac, Apple (not happy to be beholden to another company for such a key System element) set about creating its own font format—TrueType—in collaboration with Microsoft. Over the past few years, to create a single font standard again and to make fonts easier to use, Adobe and Microsoft have collaborated on a hybrid font format—OpenType—intended to combine the best of PostScript and TrueType and eliminate the confusion that multiple font standards have created.

The System handles these various ...