Font Folio OpenType Edition

Question

Press Release Source: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe Announces OpenType Edition of Font Folio
Monday August 11, 8:12 am ET
New Version Offers the Adobe Type Library in Enhanced Cross-Platform Font Format
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 11, 2003--Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE - News), the leader in network publishing, today introduced a new version of Adobe® Font Folio(TM) featuring the Adobe Type Library in OpenType® format on one CD-ROM. The Adobe Font Folio (OpenType Edition) product contains more than 2,000 fonts in OpenType format, which allows for richer linguistic support and more advanced typographic control in any print, Web or dynamic media project. Adobe also announced the availability of a new special version with a 10-computer license, making it more affordable for small design shops to access the entire Adobe Type Library.
Adobe and Microsoft Corporation created the OpenType font format to improve cross-platform document portability and simplify font management, by introducing one font file that works on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Creative professionals benefit from extended foreign language support and the inclusion of expert typographic glyphs, such as small caps, old style figures and swashes, in many OpenType fonts.
"The OpenType font format is much more convenient than the old Type 1 or TrueType fonts," said David Blatner, co-author of Real World InDesign, InDesign for QuarkXPress Users and Real World Photoshop. "With Adobe's new Font Folio in OpenType format, I love having large character sets in the same font instead of having to work with a whole array of related font files."
Pricing and Availability
The Adobe Font Folio [OpenType Edition] product is available immediately and will be sold primarily through the Adobe store at www.adobe.com, Adobe retail and licensing channels, and includes a standard 20-computer license for US$8,999. License extensions are also available and Font Folio is included in Adobe's transactional and contractual licensing programs. Upgrade pricing from Font Folio versions 8 or 9 to Font Folio OpenType Edition is US$2,499. Adobe is also releasing a special 10-computer license of Font Folio OpenType Edition for smaller design workplaces that is available for US$4,999. International English versions are available where localized versions are not sold.
Full Press Release:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200308/081103FONTFOLIO.html
Product page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/fontfolio/main.html

Answer 1

> "Adobe's applications DO allow selection of the individually styled fonts." Or something like that.
No, they don't. At least not as I understand the term. When Mac users talk about not being able to see fonts in Windows, they mean they can't see each and every variant in the font menu as a separate entry. So, Times Bold sits alongside Times Itals and Times Bold Itals in the font menu, and you can get from TNR Bold to Minion Pro Itals with one mouse click. In Adobe apps, you can't do this and you don't see all the variants in the one menu - you have a font family menu and a variant (or style) menu. You have to choose the font family first, then the variant, and you can't get from TNR Bold to Minion Pro Itals with one mouse click.
Although Adobe apps do style-link all font variants (a great advantage over Windows default limit of four family members), you are still choosing the family, then the style. In this, it's no different from choosing bold, itals, and bold itals in other Windows apps like Word, Ventura, FrameMaker, etc (and my post was referring only to these three variants, not to styles like black, condensed, etc, which may show up as separate entries). So, I stick by my statement that "bold, italic, and bold italic variations don't show up as separate fonts in menus in Windows apps".
(And Dov's right, we don't know this is the user's problem, but I was just raising a common issue, based on the limited info we had at hand.)