Skip to main content

OpenType and TypeKit

Lesson 4 from: Adobe InDesign CC Intermediate: Beyond the Basics

Erica Gamet

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

4. OpenType and TypeKit

Next Lesson: Text Effects

Lesson Info

OpenType and TypeKit

Let's talk about some of this text that we actually have in here. I'm gonna change this to a different font. I'm gonna come in here and make sure that I have a nice OpenType sample here, and Gothic actually will probably work for me, even though, actually let's try, yeah let's go with Gotham. I just wanna make sure I have enough typefaces for it. Yeah it's good, so I'm gonna go ahead, I've got this set as Gotham, and Gotham is an OpenType font, and that just means... The OpenType font is, it's not even new anymore, it's just the newest type that we have available. We've had PostScript fonts, TrueType fonts, and we still have those, but OpenType font is sort of this, it was a magical unicorn when it came out, because you were able to use the same font file, whether you are on a PC or on a Mac, and that was huge at the time. And so the nice thing is if I own it on my Mac, and somebody else owns it on their PC, it's the same font, I can send them this file, and I know that it will work, a...

nd it will flow the same way. So if I've gone through all the trouble of setting up these text threads, and I know it'll flow the same way on my machine that it will on theirs. And that being said, all the Typekit fonts are OpenType fonts, and we're gonna get into Typekit in just a second. But what OpenType allows us to do, is it allows us to really get in and it allows the person who created it to have so many glyphs, or individual characters available to them. So for instance, if you wanna have different alternates, so you want fancier capital letters, and you have three to choose from, you can put that in this OpenType font. An OpenType font can have up to 65,000 glyphs. So keep that in mind that they're big files as well. But it just gives you a lot more options, so when you're purchasing fonts, OpenType is the way to go. But how we can tell it's an OpenType, if we click inside the text, and go up to the font menu, either here in the control panel, or in the character panel, but this is the same thing. I'm gonna work in the control panel. We can come in here and I can see that that is an OpenType font, that O is telling me that it's an OpenType font. And so I know that we probably have a lot of different glyphs available, and also if I scroll down, I can see that I may have a lot of different typefaces, or type styles, available to me. And that's something I'm constantly looking for when I choose a font, is I wanna make sure that I'm going to have options when I use a font. So I wanna make sure that I have several different versions, let's say for instance, if I come down to Nimbus, I have light, regular, and bold, and the italic of each of those as well. So I wanna make sure that I have ways to vary my type. So I've got headers, and subheads, and body text, but I don't wanna be looking for a different font every time. I wanna try to keep one font, and just have different styles available to me. So OpenType usually affords us that luxury. Not always. So we'll look at glyphs in just a minute, but I do wanna talk about Typekit a little bit. So this is the Adobe InDesign CC course, and so one of the things you get with the CC, or the Creative Cloud, is if you have a Creative Cloud subscription, you get an access to Typekit. And Typekit is an online repository of fonts from many different font foundries. And it's a nice way to just be able to turn fonts on and off via the Cloud, and have them available to you. So, how do we get there? If we're in text, we can go into the type menu, again, in the control panel, or the character panel. And I can choose to just see what Typekit fonts I have, by clicking this little Typekit thing here, the little symbol. Or I can go ahead and add fonts from Typekit, or I can just go out to typekit.com, and we'll log in with our Adobe ID. So I can say add fonts from Typekit. So it's really this simple to be looking for fonts. If I decide I've got a whole new... If I wanna try a whole new font, and nothing I have is really doing it for me, I can come into Typekit, and you wanna make sure you're signed into your account, because otherwise, it has no way of telling InDesign that you've synced to this font. So basically, we're not downloading the font, we're gonna sync it, and it's gonna sync it through the Cloud. Obviously you need internet access for this. So let's say I've decided I want this font here. Actually let's find one that has multiple fonts. This one's great. Real life, this one here, it's called Aglet Slab, haven't used this one before, but it has 14 fonts, and that's something I wanna see, if I'm doing, especially something with text, I want that bold, I want the bold italic, I want the regular, I want a light version, I want an ultra bold one. So I'm gonna click on that. And you can look for sans serif fonts, serif fonts, script, monotype, et cetera. So this just shows me what's there, and I can see that those are the different fonts that I have available. And you notice some of them are blue, and some are green. And the blue one, this is kind of new, there's a marketplace, where you can actually buy fonts. So the blue ones are not included in your plan, but it sounds limited, but it's not, because they actually added this. They already had thousands of fonts available, and now they've also given us an option to buy extra. So we can see that a couple of them are green. So it means that the bold version, and the regular version, are available for us to sync and use in our print documents. So we'll grab one of those, we'll grab the bold and the regular. So even though it said 14, I can't get all 14, unless I wanna buy some of them, and that's fine. I don't run into that actually very often. This one's obviously a new one, I hadn't seen this one. So I'm gonna click sync, and we'll sync that one, and we'll sync this guy too. And then we'll try and remember the name so I can find it in the font menu. But before I go back to InDesign, I'm gonna come over here to my synced fonts, and you can sync 100 at a time, but the nice thing is if you want more, you can see I'm really close, I'm generally right at 100 actually. So if I need more, I can just unsync some that I'm not using. So it's not like I have to give them up or anything, I can just unsync them. So I can see all the ones that I have available right now that I've synced, and some of them, I've synced several fonts. This one, I have six available there. So again, I can unsync any ones that I'm not using, to make room for any new ones that I needed to come up with. I'm gonna go back to the main page here. And I can go ahead and browse by style, so I know what style I'm looking for, I can browse simply by that style. Or maybe you know what font you're looking for, you can just put in the name. But basically, I tend to look at what's new, or maybe I know that I need, let's say a script. If I look at the scripts, I can scroll through until I find one that I like, and I do like that you can put in some text, which is nice, if you know there's something you want to actually type in it, you can kinda get a feel for what it'll look like in there. And I kinda like this guy, so I'm gonna go ahead and look at that, it's one font, obviously it's a script. We don't have a lot of different typefaces available. And I'm gonna go ahead and sync that one as well. And that one's going to put is pretty close to the limit that I have. So I'm gonna jump back to InDesign, and I'm gonna select this text, and we're not gonna put that in the script. We're gonna put that in the first one that we downloaded. Now again, I can tell it, only look for Typekit fonts, and that's good because I have a lot of those, and now I'm not being distracted by the other ones. Now that first one hasn't shown up yet, so again it might take awhile to show up. You notice it changed as I hovered over these, I'm actually changing these, 'cause I used my... Whoops, we do not want that. Let's see if that one shows up. Alright well it doesn't show up, the Cortado one also hasn't shown up yet. So again it's just a matter of syncing, so it may take a few minutes for it to actually get the message, but you should not need to restart. Just be patient sometimes with it. If it doesn't show up, that's alright. We've got these other ones that we have brought in from there. So one of the ones that I did, actually, was the one that I was just looking at, that Nimbus Sans. That's one of the ones we just looked and saw, that that was in my Typekit font there, or in my Typekit account, so we'll change to that. So, being able to choose a font right from InDesign, from your font menu, is great because I can jump out, try it, and just wait for it to sync up, and then it's ready for us to use. I didn't have to download anything, I didn't have to open up a font manager at all, its just automatically there for me. Also in the fonts, while we're back in here, is some of the other things we can do if we're not just looking for Typekit ones. We can come in here and I can choose to show just my favorites. I don't have any, 'cause I don't have anything selected, favorite-wise, but I have been using Nimbus Sans a lot, so let's put that in there. And I do like Museo a lot, let's put that in there as well. So I'm just gonna go ahead and filter those, as I click those, then only those show up, and it's just easier to find that way. So come in here and put this regular, put this back how I have it, and undo the favorites. Let's see if our Typekit ones ever showed up. They did not. Again, sometimes it could be the server, the Adobe server, could be your internet connection, it could just be how the stars are aligned, I really don't know sometimes. (laughs) Sometimes I'm quite sure that I didn't do something right, and I'll go back and check my account, and see that it's there, and sometimes it is just a matter of waiting for it to show up. But I do have plenty of Typekit fonts already loaded, so we don't need to even wait for that.

Ratings and Reviews

Marianne Stewart
 

I've been using InDesign for a decade, and decided to take this class to see what else I could learn. Wow! Erica taught me ways to do repetitive tasks easier, faster, and cleaner. She showed me many, many ways that I wasn't using InDesign to it's fullest potential (and now I am!). Her teaching style is very thorough and in-depth, but also easy to follow and understand. I highly recommend this class!

Ivan
 

Great class, but as a former professional typesetter (before InDesign, PageMaker and QuarkXpress), Erica uses the term "Justified Left" incorrectly! (sorry!) There is no such thing. Justified refers only to text that spans the width of it's column from edge to edge. The spacing in-between words will vary. Used primarily in newsprint where the columns widths are narrow. The other proper terms for text alignment are: Flush Left Ragged Right (or) Left-Aligned Flush Right Ragged Left (or) Right-Aligned Centered Justified The oddball is "Justified". It's the only option where word spacing is variable. This is the least desirable because it creates "Rivers and Valleys" of white space that distract the eye. Letter and word spacing can be tightened or tweaked to improve the overall look, but at cost in time.

Sarah
 

Great class and very informative. Erica’s a good instructor. Given the volume of information presented I’d like to see class materials included. It makes the course much easier to follow.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES