The emerging file standard in digital typography is the OpenType font standard, jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe. OpenType fonts are natively supported by several popular operating systems and have many features and advantages that make them desirable for high-quality typography. However, OpenType fonts are not natively supported by the standard TeX engine. This article is a practical guide to installing OpenType fonts for use as text fonts in LaTeX.

The steps to install an OpenType font for use in LaTeX are:

• For each OpenType font file, and for each combination of attributes for that font file, generate and install font metric and encoding files.
• Next, for each font family, generate and install a font description (.fd) file that maps LaTeX font selection commands to the installed font files.
• Finally, write and install a style (.sty) file that allows the user to select the font and its options for use within TeX.

We begin by discussing font background, the TeX font handling scheme, and existing font tools, then describe each of the three steps above in detail.