Font formats
Std, Pro, Com, W1G (WGl4)
OpenType - the latest font format - was developed jointly between Adobe and Microsoft. TrueType and OpenType fonts contain both the screen and printer font data in a single file. OpenType format has many unique capabilities including support for multiple platforms and expanded character sets.
They can be used on either Macintosh or Windows operating systems and permits the storage of up to 65,000 characters in a single fileproviding type designers with the freedom to include add-ons such as small caps, old style figures, alternate characters and other extras that previously needed to be distributed as separate fonts. The suffixes Pro, Com and W1G are frequently used by designers and foundries to distinguish OpenType fonts that include these extra features and characters.
Std, Pro, Com, W1G (WGl4)
The differences between each variety of OpenType font are reflected in the amount of language support and font features offered.
OpenType Std (Standard)
This is the most “basic” of OpenType formats. Fonts in the OpenType Std category contain an extended Latin character set, which supports 21 languages. (Afrikaans, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Gaelic (Irish, Scots), German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Saami (Southern), Spanish, Swahili, Swedish). In some cases, additional non-Latin languages and typographical character variants may be included in these fonts.
OpenType Pro
The OpenType Pro category contains all the language support found in the OpenType Std format, and includes additional characters that support Central European and other Latin-based written languages. (Afrikaans, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic (Irish, Scots), German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Saami [Southern], Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish).
OpenType Com
OpenType Com fonts are ideal for use in international communications. Included is the Linotype Extended European Character set (LEEC), which has a minimum of 387 characters and guarantees that 56 languages can be supported by every OpenType Com font. (Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gaelic [Irish, Scots], Gagauz [Latin], Galician, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Karelian, Ladin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Moldavian [Latin], Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romanic, Romanian, Saami [Southern], Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Turkmen [Latin]).
OpenType W1G Fonts (WGL4)
OpenType W1G ( also known as WGL4) fonts have an extended character set that supports many languages based on the Latin alphabet, as well as several languages based on the Cyrillic alphabet and monotonic Greek. Drawing from more than 600 characters, OpenType W1G (WGL4) includes support for at least 89 languages:
Latin: Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Arumanian, Asturian, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Cebuano, Chichewa, Cornish, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gaelic, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, German, Greenlandic, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Karelian, Ladin, Latin (Lingua Latina), Latvian, Lithuanian, Luba, Maltese, Moldavian (Latin), Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Rheto-Romance, Romanian, Sámi (Lule), Sámi (Northern), Sámi (Southern), Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Vepsian, Welsh, Wolof, Zulu.
Cyrillic: Agul, Avar, Balkar, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Erzya, Gagauz, Ingush, Karachay, Khvarshi, Komi, Komi-Permyak, Lezgian, Macedonian, Moldavian, Nenets Tundra, Ossetian, Russian, Rutul, Serbian, Ukrainian.
Application support
OpenType-PostScript (CFF) .OTF: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP and MacOS X offer basic Roman support of OpenType PS fonts natively. Though OpenType fonts include multilingual and advanced typographic features, not every application provides access to these features. Check your application User Manual or latest updates for this information.