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OpenType

Created jointly by Adobe and Microsoft during the 1990s, OpenType represents a universal font architecture and format designed to grant users seamless access to advanced typographic capabilities built directly into a typeface.

The word “opentype” set twice in black, the t drawn as a 7-shaped form. A small blue arrow points down from the first line to the second, where that character has been swapped for an alternate, picked out in pink along with the following y — an OpenType feature substituting one glyph for another inside the same font.

Created jointly by Adobe and Microsoft during the 1990s, OpenType represents a universal font architecture and format designed to grant users seamless access to advanced typographic capabilities built directly into a typeface. Although originally confined to desktop publishing, this technology saw massive integration across internet platforms between 2010 and 2015, effectively transferring sophisticated print mechanisms like proportional numerals, custom character connections, and precise letter spacing directly into web browsers.

The framework has continued to evolve, recently incorporating a major upgrade known officially as OpenType Font Variations, which introduces highly adaptable, flexible letterforms into a single file structure.

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About the author
Iveta Stoyanova

Iveta is the Social Media & Community Manager at Fontfabric. With a background in Rhetoric & Speech Communication, she writes about the human side of typography, the inspiration behind new typefaces, choosing the right font for your project, and font licensing.