OS	OpenType	Win TT	Mac TT	Win PS	Mac PS
Windows 95	Yes (1)	Yes	No	Yes (1)	No
Windows NT 4.0	Yes (1)	Yes	No	Yes (4)	No
Windows 98	Yes (1)	Yes	No	Yes (1)	No
Windows 2000	Yes (1)	Yes	No	Yes (2)	No
Windows Me	Yes (1)	Yes	No	Yes (2)	No
Windows XP	Yes (2)	Yes	No	Yes (2)	No
Windows Vista	Yes (2)	Yes	No	Yes (2)	No
Mac OS 8.0	No	No	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS 8.1	No	No	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS 8.5	No (3)	No	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS 8.6	Yes (3)	No (3)	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS 9.0	Yes (3)	No (3)	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS 9.1	Yes (3)	No (3)	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS X 10.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Mac OS 9.2	Yes (3)	No (3)	Yes	No	Yes (1)
Mac OS X 10.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Mac OS X 10.2	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Mac OS X 10.3	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Mac OS X 10.4	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Mac OS X 10.5	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
(1) Latest version of Adobe Type Manager required for CFF/PostScript-based fonts (2) Native support, but with some applications ignoring CFF/PostScript-based fonts. (3) CFF-based OpenType requires Adobe Type Manager. Despite extensive testing, we have been unable to replicate the functionality for TrueType-based OpenType fonts claimed in Apple's documentation. (4) Fonts can be automatically converted to TrueType on installation, or used natively via Adobe Type Manager.

History

In 1984, when Apple released the first Macintosh, it was soon followed by the LaserWriter - the first PostScript printer. Due to its speed, reliability and application support, PostScript became the de facto standard for page description in the publishing world.

PostScript Type 1

Initially, PostScript's powerful native font format, Type 1, was kept as a trade secret by Adobe, allowing Adobe to build a large library of fonts in the format. Other foundries had to release fonts for PostScript printers in the less powerful, less compact, lower quality Type 3 format - essentially a collection of procedures written in native PostScript.

With the publishing of the Type 1 specification and the launch of Fontographer, soon every foundry was able to craft good quality fonts in Type 1 format.

TrueType

TrueType was developed in 1989 by Apple as part of a cross-licencing deal with Microsoft to challenge Adobe's dominance, and support first appeared in MacOS in 1991. TrueType's major advantage over what had gone before was the quality it could achieve on screen. Its rich, flexible instruction set allowed the font designer and engineer to have exact control over final rasterized output on any device, at any size, at any resolution. Its output quality at print resolutions always was, and still is, despite propaganda to the contrary, as good as any other font format.

When Microsoft launched Windows 3.1 in early 1992, it featured Microsoft's implementation of the TrueType rasterizer - bringing high quality fonts to its home and office user base for the very first time. The Windows core fonts are still exemplary font implementations, even today.

With Windows 95, Microsoft evolved TrueType further to an advanced, but backwards compatible, format, TrueType Open, geared to provide typographic features for the Arabic and Indic language markets. These script systems rely on much larger character sets and more intricate typography than our Latin script.

The Format War

Through a lack of support for TrueType fonts in early versions of the PostScript language, and a mix of misinformation and propaganda, many designers and service bureaux came to the conclusion that TrueType was inferior - in both design and technology - to the PostScript fonts they were used to. Even today, most designers believe that TrueType is "a Windows thing" and therefore, by definition, inferior to the Mac solution. The fact that TrueType was an Apple invention seems not to have passed into the collective consciousness of designers yet.

With your software correctly installed and configured, with the right supporting RIPs and printers, the TrueType output will be as good as the PostScript font output on screen and on paper; in many cases the TrueType output will be vastly superior to the PostScript font output, especially on screen.

The font war was declared over long ago with the advent of OpenType, yet skirmished still break out, and still we meet the occassional service bureau with a hatred for TrueType. You can read more about OpenType in our guide.

ClearType and CoolType

ClearType and CoolType are two trademarks (ClearType is Microsoft's, CoolType is Adobe's) for the same thing - an idea known generically as subpixel rendering. It's not a font format, but a way of rasterizing a font to increase its apparent resolution and sharpness.

While subpixel rendering excels on an LCD screen (the technique exploits the arrangements of the subpixels within each addessable pixel), it can also be effective on high-end CRT screens. You can read more about ClearType, the first commercialized subpixel font renderer, at Microsoft's website.