Key to glyph sets included with each font

Basic
All Monotype OpenType® fonts contain the character set shown above. This includes upper and lowercase letterforms, figures, accented characters and punctuation. They also contain currency symbols including the Euro, standard ligatures, common fractions, common mathematics, operators, superscript numerals, common delimiters and other symbols.

Ligatures
These fonts contain ligatures additional to the ‘Basic’ set. A ligature is a special character that combines two (or sometimes three) letters into a single character. Type designers create ligatures because they look better than setting the same character combinations individually, and also to solve the problem of characters that “crash’ into each other when set in adjacent positions; such as the unattractive collision that occurs in some typefaces between the hook of the ‘f’ and the dot of the ‘i’ or the ascender of the ‘l’ or second ‘f’ (see illustration).

Small Caps
Used frequently for setting title pages and page headings, small caps are often suitable for headlines, subheads and column headings. You’ll also find small caps in lead-ins for opening paragraphs, often following an initial cap. Small caps are a great alternative to all caps for abbreviations such as states (MA and OR), times (A.M. and P.M.), educational degrees (BA and BS) and acronyms (PC, OEM). Unlike all-cap settings, small caps stand out nicely without disturbing the balance and colour of lowercase copy, and they require less space than all caps.

Old style Figures
Oldstyle figures are a style of numeral which approximate lowercase letterforms by having an x-height and varying ascenders and descenders. Old style figures are considerably different from the more common “lining” (or “aligning”) figures which are all-cap height and typically monospaced in text faces so that they line up vertically on charts. Old style figures afford a traditional, classic look. The figures are proportionately spaced, eliminating the white spaces that result from monospaced lining figures, especially around the numeral one.

Tabular and Proportional Lining Figures
Most fonts include lining figures. Tabular figures each have the same total character width (that’s the width of the numeral itself plus the white space on both sides). Tabular spacing (also referred to as monospacing) allows numerals to align vertically in tables, financial statements and other columns of figures. Tabular figures are usually lining figures, meaning that they sit on the baseline and have the same height as the capital letters, but on occasion you’ll see old style figures that are tabular. (Old style figures are also called lowercase or non-aligning figures.)

Display typefaces usually contain proportional figures. The total character widths of these figures are based on the width of the numeral itself plus a small amount of white space around it, so an 8 takes up more width than a 1, for example. Proportional figures can be of the lining or old style variety. In either case, their varying widths give them a more even colour and texture, especially around the numeral 1. Proportional figures are not intended for use in charts and tables, since they won't align in vertical columns.

Diagonal Fractions
These fonts include a more extensive set of fractions than is offered in the basic character set. Some fonts may include denominators and numerators enabling users with OpenType supported applications to create their own fractions.

Superscript/Subscript
Superscript and subscript letterforms also known as superior and inferior figures are used for chemical compounds, footnote references, and as mathematical exponents.

Ordinals and Superior Letters
Ordinals and superior letters enable the user to set a numeric position such as 1st or make a common abbreviation such as that for Madame in French.

Swashes
Swashes are decorative letterforms with a flowing style akin to handwriting that are ideal for display use.

Alternate characters
These fonts may offer additional ligatures, lowercase letters and lowercase with uppercase combined forms for decorative purposes.

Titling Capitals
A titling capital (or initial letter/cap, as they are also called) is an enlarged letter that is used as the first character of a paragraph. It can sit above, below, to the left of, or even behind the body text and can be set in a contrasting weight, style or colour.

Ornaments
Ornaments designed to work with a specific typeface are useful for embellishment, borders and text breaks.

Case Forms
These fonts offer alternative letterforms and punctuation for setting text in capitals

Historic Blackletter
The forceful visual presence of blackletter typestyles evolved from the early handwritten forms of liturgical writings and illuminated manuscripts. Blackletter typefaces, sometimes referred to as Gothic or Old English, are characterised by a dense black texture and highly decorated caps. The lowercase letterforms consist of narrow, angular forms with dramatic thick-to-thin strokes and serifs. They are highly stylised, yet legible.

Linguistic Support

Monotype OpenType fonts support most western languages and include the following: Afrikaans, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili and Swedish. Monotype OpenType Pro fonts provide wider language support.

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