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× CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:13 am
by Jonne Haven
Erwin,

I have version FontCreator 9.1.1991 and am no longer able to export or install with the CFF format because of a security release by microsoft and Windows 10 being incompatible (I am running 8.1 but those I wish to sell my font to will have windows 10). I respectfully request an update so that I can export to this format as the cursive font I created looks much better with that format. If you are unable or uninterested in creating a patch for those of us who cannot afford FontCreator 10, I understand.

Thanks so much!

Jonne

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:55 am
by Bhikkhu Pesala
I am curious why you think your font looks better in CFF format. I would expect a hinted Truetype font to look better than an unhinted CFF font,

If you prefer the unhinted look, then you export a TTF without hinting. Or is there some way that Windows 10 renders CFF outlines differently to TTF outlines?

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:38 pm
by Jonne Haven
Hey Bhikkhu,

The reason I wish to use CFF is because of something that is not the fault of FontCreator but that of Word. When I send a document to someone with my font I have to send it pdf and Word does a terrible job kerning TTF formatted documents but does a pretty good job with the CFF format. This is something I have to investigate, I'm sure I could use a different pdf program, just have to figure out how. But Word does a great job of mucking up the delicate kerning of the cursive font when it exports to pdf.

The autohinting is not a big deal with this font. I can see no obvious difference whether it be on or off...maybe I should take a closer look. It's set to be on right now.

Thanks for your thoughts...I was hoping it'd be as easy as a patch, but I see why y'all wouldn't want to work backwards.

Blessings, I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

Jonne

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:56 pm
by MikeW
Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:I am curious why you think your font looks better in CFF format. I would expect a hinted Truetype font to look better than an unhinted CFF font,

If you prefer the unhinted look, then you export a TTF without hinting. Or is there some way that Windows 10 renders CFF outlines differently to TTF outlines?
Mac disregards hinting in TTF.

Windows is getting to the same state with DirectWrite. TTF requires hinting to look good and the Windows rasterizer still utilizes the hinting instruction. CFF OpenType carries little hinting information (when available anyway, which isn't possible with directly output CFF in FC) and relies on the Windows rasterizer to make CFF outlines hinted. With each Windows OS since XP (and Vista), the on-the-fly hinting gets better.

On my system there is no difference between professionally hinted TTF and professionally made CFF/OTF fonts in any application I use daily.

As regards Word (at least since Word 2010), there really shouldn't be a difference between kerning of TTF and OTF fonts. At least if they are compiled with both kerning options in the export dialog. I don't recall an issue with FC 8-10 in this regard and Word version of 2010 and higher. In fact, for Word to utilize OT-type features, including kerning, I believe one has to turn on OT capabilities. Could be worng as regards GPOS kerning, but that is true of other OT features.

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:59 am
by Erwin Denissen
I'm sorry but due to the way we develop our software, we can't provide patches for previous releases.

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:34 pm
by Jonne Haven
I understand.

Jonne

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 9:54 am
by Erwin Denissen
Jonne Haven wrote:The reason I wish to use CFF is because of something that is not the fault of FontCreator but that of Word. When I send a document to someone with my font I have to send it pdf and Word does a terrible job kerning TTF formatted documents but does a pretty good job with the CFF format.
Can you please send us the font project along with a Word document, so we can look into this?

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:26 am
by Jonne Haven
Thanks for getting back to me Erwin,

I have news to update my last post which impugned Word as looking bad in TTF format. I take that back. In Word 2013 my cursive font looks fine...it's when I export the font to pdf and read it with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC that makes the font look bad. So I simply switched to PDF Complete Corporate Edition to read documents exported from Word to pdf and they look very good. So I don't know why it doesn't look good in Acrobat, maybe it's TOO honest or just doesn't like the kerning job that I've done, which makes me doubt my work, but that it appears perfect in other PDF readers and Word tells me that I've kerned acceptably well.

So basically I don't use Acrobat DC to read my pdfs and things are fine. Unfortunately it's probably the most used PDF reader...there's nothing I can do about that.

Be happy to hear your thoughts on how I can possibly make the font look correct in Acrobat, but I suspect that, that is beyond the scope of your job, so I'll leave it you...if you wish to investigate this problem further, I'd be happy to supply samples and font.

Blessings,

Jonne

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:39 am
by Jonne Haven
P.S.

You've seen an example of my font from a screen shot of my cursive font in FontCreator...That's how it's supposed to look, no edges on the kerning between letters so you know that, at least in the FontCreator and Word, I've kerned correctly in my mind.

Thanks

Jonne

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:56 am
by Erwin Denissen
Good to know the fonts work just fine in Word.

I don't know why you still have an issue with documents displayed in Acrobat. If you send me the font along with a Word document I'll perform some tests here to see if I can find the cause of the problem.

Re: CFF Format Support for FontCreator 9.1 Please!

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:27 pm
by Jonne Haven
An update on my issue as Erwin has worked on my font...

It appears to be an issue with acrobat and how it renders on monitors because when I print, my kerns are perfect.

Thanks goes out to Erwin for his swift response to my issue.

Blessings,

Jonne