[Brad]

Here are a few question that have bothered me for years and for which I've never really found conclusive answers:

• Is there a "best" font format as a user (with no intent to edit the fonts themselves) for Mac OS X?
• Is there a "best" font format for cross-platform purposes, eg. putting on a Windows or Linux box?
• Is there a "best" font format for using when embedding/exporting into PDFs?
• If so, which one for these cases? PostScript Type 1, "suitcase", "dfont", TrueType/TTF, OpenType/OTF, WTF?
• If not, what are your general preferences, or does it really not matter at all?

Curious minds are (slowly) dying to know!

I did find this document from Adobe that explains the origins of the formats. The doc says pretty clearly that OpenType (OTF) is the way to go, going so far as to call it the "savior in the font wars", but I'd appreciate the input from people who actually end up using the different formats in daily real-world work use (I'm picturing creative types like Mr. Scates ).

Thanks in advance.

[ezkcdude]

I thought it used to matter more because the "good" printers had postscript, and it looked crappy if you emulated it. Nowadays, everything usually comes out looking good on pretty much any device (virtual or physical). I use LaTex for my most important documents, and there it's always postscript/ghostscript. No worries.

[pscates2.0]

In the past, prior to OS X, I always stuck with the Postcript Type 1 stuff (home and work). I never had any problems (provided I remembered to them on the disk I sent to the printer or service place ). But I always read in my various books and magazines back then that those were the way to go.

In recent years, for jobs going out, I still stick to that. But it may be out of habit at this point, and the fact I've got an amazing collection of Type 1 faces.

But if I'm doing stuff in Illustrator that isn't very type heavy (or at least on the big, headline part), I'll use whatever I like or that look right, because I'm often converting it to outlines to do other things with anyway (Pathfinder operations, etc.). I'll use all kinds, but I try to be aware of what's what, and where it's used.

I've used all, but I tend to stick to the Type 1 stuff for jobs going to press.

A lot of things I've done in recent years wind up getting rasterized in Photoshop or converted to outlines in Illustrator, so they don't even get sent out as "live fonts" and are, instead, vector lines or pixels by the time I'm done (a poster or some sort of illustration that's light on type).