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On a Mac, when I'm downloading fonts am often given the choice between OTF (OpenType Format) and TTF (TrueType Format).

Is there any difference in the way ligatures work or anything between the two formats?

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OTF is more likely to be a “better” font, as it supports more advanced typesetting features (smallcaps, alternates, ligatures and so on actually inside the font rather than in fiddly separate expert set fonts). It can also contain either spline (TTF-style) or Bezier (PostScript Type 1-style) curves, so hopefully you're getting the shapes the font was originally designed in and not a potentially-poorer-quality conversion.

On the other hand, if you're downloading free fonts from shovelware sites, you're unlikely to get any of that. Indeed, you may simple be getting a TTF font renamed to OTF.

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    That's interesting - I'd assumed OTF. Is it actually an open format?
    – Rich Bradshaw
    Jan 15, 2010 at 22:35
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    Yes, it's ISO14496-22. See microsoft.com/typography/otspec . TrueType might also be considered open, for values ‘x’ of ‘open’. See developer.apple.com/textfonts/TTRefMan/index.html (and the OTF spec is also relevant as it builds on TTF). However, there is no public patent grant associated with either format and there have been patent issues in the past (see FreeType and the TT hinting bytecode instruction set).
    – bobince
    Jan 15, 2010 at 22:41
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OTF is a more recent format than TTF, so OTF has some features that TTF doesn't. (Which is a moot point if the font's creator didn't use them.)

One note from personal experience however: depending on what you're going to be doing with these fonts, I've found it's much easier to get tools that work with TTF as opposed to OTF. If you're just using them for desktop publishing / word processing, either will work fine, but if you're going to be doing anything programmatic, I'd recommend TTF just due to the higher number of tools / libraries out there.

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    That's a good point actually - seems that imagemacgick works better with ttf for instance.
    – Rich Bradshaw
    Jan 16, 2010 at 8:59
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Please note that when file endings are converned, both .otf and .ttf may denote fonts in the OpenType format. (See OpenType in Wikipedia – actually, this is more accurately pronounced in the German version.)

This comes a little confusing as some .ttf font files may look as if they are in legacy ANSI-Windows TrueType format, whereas in fact they may be full featured OpenType fonts.

The main difference between both flavours being that .ttf style fonts use quadratic Bézier splines whereas .otf style fonts use cubic Bézier splines. (Historically, quadratic Bézier curves have been used for the ‘legacy’ TrueType format; cubic Bézier curves have come from a PostScript background.) Cubic Béziers are potentially more accurate (every quadratic Bézier curve can be exactly reproduced with a cubic Bézier curve) but may be approximated with smaller segmented sequences of quadratic Béziers. (Also note that neither cubic nor quadratic Bézier splines may exactly reproduce a circle. There is always some approximation error.)

Another minor difference in the specification seems to be that ttf flavoured OpenType fonts may address the same glyph with several code points. Therefore, this saves some space, if e.g. the upper case versions of b, β and в (read: latin, greek and cyrillic ‘B’) have the same shape.

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  • Bezier splines can never reproduce a circle, this has nothing to do with it being quadratic or cubic or quartic or quintic...
    – Pacerier
    Feb 24, 2013 at 6:36
  • Yes, that’s also true but doesn’t matter that much in this case.
    – Debilski
    Feb 24, 2013 at 15:34
  • I've got two versions of a font, one with otf and one with ttf. Both use otf layouts, but the otf one uses postscript outlines and the ttf one uses ttf outlines. The ttf one is also reported as being signed in windows.
    – Shaun Bouckaert
    Jun 11, 2017 at 4:37
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I don’t agree with those who say that OTF is the best format. TTF offers the designer the possibility to change the details of the rasterization on screen and in print (if the designer knows how to do it).

For example:

TTF vs OTF

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    Details please..
    – Pacerier
    Feb 24, 2013 at 6:37
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    The graphic is interesting, but to the inexperienced (like me) doesn't immediately support the claim TTF has better hinting. Actually it looks like the opposite, as the OTF row, on the right side, appears to have 4+ times the resolution and take advantage of partial shading. Please expand.
    – matt wilkie
    Jul 9, 2015 at 16:25
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    OTF was based on TTF. Since TTF is a subset of OTF then it should support all the same features.
    – David C. Bishop
    Aug 31, 2015 at 6:55
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    +matt It's not that the resolution is higher - the point of this image is to show how crisp and defined the TTF braille dots are, whereas the OTF ones are blurred. Many are unreadable. In the top example, the font designer's hinting was heeded by the rasterization engine (when it scaled them to a resolution that was not an integer multiple of their base resolution).
    – Travis Bemrose
    Dec 2, 2015 at 0:54
  • See this post for a discussion on the difference between ttf and otf hinting. TTF and OTF uses different approaches to hinting. OTF relies on the expressiveness of the font and intelligence of the rasterizer to reduce the need for hinting, this allows OTF to have reduced hinting information. Although in some use cases this reduced hinting can cause problems. Since OTF fonts can use either TrueType style or PostScript style hinting, it isn’t strictly true that TTF hinting is better than OTF hinting.
    – Jade
    Mar 14, 2018 at 14:55
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I found this useful, and it answered my questions enough to stop digging deeper.

MS: What's the difference between TrueType, PostScript, and OpenType fonts?

TrueType fonts can be scaled to any size and are clear and readable in all sizes. They can be sent to any printer or other output device that is supported by Windows. OpenType fonts are related to TrueType fonts, but they incorporate a greater extension of the basic character set, including small capitalization, old-style numerals, and more detailed shapes, such as glyphs and ligatures. OpenType fonts can also be scaled to any size, are clear and readable in all sizes, and can be sent to any printer or other output device that is supported by Windows.

PostScript fonts are smooth, detailed, and of high quality. They are often used for printing, especially professional-quality printing, such as books or magazines.

Which font format will work best for me?

It depends. If you want a font that prints well and is easy to read on the screen, then consider using a TrueType font. If you need a large character set for language coverage and fine typography, then you might want to use an OpenType font. If you need to print professional-quality print publications, such as glossy magazines or commercial printing, PostScript is a good choice. For more information, see Fonts: frequently asked questions.

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