30th anniversary of OpenType (May 6)

Ray Larabie

For the 20th anniversary, I joked that maybe by the 25th anniversary, basic OpenType features would finally work consistently in PowerPoint.

For the 25th anniversary, I joked that maybe by the 30th anniversary, PowerPoint would finally support basic OpenType features properly.

Well, here we are at 30.

As far as I can tell, PowerPoint still treats advanced typography like a suspicious new experimental technology from the future. Kerning classes remain unreliable; stylistic sets, alternates and other standard OpenType features are still mostly absent from the UI or inconsistently supported.

At this rate, I’m optimistic that by the 35th anniversary, presentation software may finally discover typography from the age of from the age of Tamagotchis.

mitradranirban

Fortunately Libreoffice Impress supports Opentype Features such as Stylistic alternates and can be a drop-in replacement for Power Point