OTF file format is used by OpenType font files, a format codeveloped by Adobe and Microsoft. The format had its debut on boths Mac OS X and Windows 2000 operating systems. OTF file stores all the data necessary for the fonts to be used.

Merging two formats into one

OTF format structure is similar to the structure of TTF (TrueType Font) format as OTF is a combination of two formats – said TTF and PostScript – to create a format that shares characteristics of both.

OTF format features and advantages

Thanks to its combined nature, OpenType format offers many additonal features, since the format developers ambition was to create and universal font format available for all platforms. OTF fonts are fully scalable without any quality loss. Some features offered by OTF are:

• alternative characters;
• typographic characters;
• support for character embedding in web browser to display fonts even in they are not found on user’s local disk.