Cant see font in type designer

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Anne Hext
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Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

I have the font I am working on loaded into font creator 8. When I first opened Type Designer it said upgrade to use, so I did and the font populated the screen of the type designer immediately. However since then it has not come up when I open the type designer and I cannot find how to get it into the type designer manually. I use windows 7 Any suggestions? :(
Anne
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I am afraid you have lost me there. There's an option in FontCreator that reopens the font projects that were open when it was last used — Tools, Options, General, Startup. What is that setting?

Recently opened projects and fonts can be reopened from the File menu.
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Anne Hext
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:50 am
Location: england

Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

Hello

I have the font projects I am working on loaded into Font creator fine and I can use font creator until I open type designer - when I open type designer the font is not in the screen that comes up nor is there the option to click on the Scripts features or lookups there is nothing there.
Do I need to load them separately into the Type designer, if I do how do I do it.

Regards
Anne
Anne
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Did your font have any OpenType features or kerning before you upgraded FontCreator?

The OpenType Designer allows you to import and export scripts, so you could import scripts exported from another font, rather than creating your own from scratch.

That's more or less what I do. I created one script, and import that into other fonts.
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Anne Hext
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

If scripts were created in the background in Font Creator 4 Yes, otherwise no. . I used as my base a font I had done in 2003 with font creator 4. Type Designer wasn't in there then.
Is there any info on what exactly a script consists of and how to format one.

It still confuses me that the font came up in the screen with the scripts and look ups already in there when I first upgraded. It was only when I restarted the prog the next day that they disappeared.

Anne
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

If the font that you open contains a kerning table you would see a script for Kerning Adjustment pairs in the OpenType Designer. If it's an ordinary font from FC4 without any kerning, then it won't have any scripts or lookups.

The old kern table is now outdated. Pro fonts from the likes of Adobe don't even include them, but use Kerning Adjustment pairs instead. It is called GPOS (Glyph Positioning). Modern GPOS kerning tables are language specific and can contain many more kerning pairs. If you open a Windows font like Calibri in FontCreator and look in the OpenType Designer you will see a shocking lot of scripts and lookups. It's a bit overwhelming for anyone who's not an expert in font editing.

GSUB (Glyph Substitution) OpenType features like ligatures are displayed in the OpenType Layout Feature editor.

What do you actually want to include in your font? The help file provides basic help, and there is some more information on my review page, but there is a long learning curve.

OpenType Feature Support
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Anne Hext
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

Hello,

Thanks for the informative reply. I have opened Ariel Normal and the scripts and lookups are all there. So maybe I had a finished font open when I upgraded.

I want to look at the kerning of each pair and alter them by hand where necessary.

I have printed off the manual but not found how to import my font into type designer to start.
I have exported my font into a font file and checked the export settings are set to default where possible. Then reopened it in font creator and opened Type Designer to see if I can see it but I cant. Then I chose import from bottom left of the Type designer screen and chose one of my fonts from the font file to see if that brought it up but I still have nothing in my type designer screen. Sorry to be so un - initiated.


Anne
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Anne Hext wrote:I have printed off the manual but not found how to import my font into type designer to start.
You don't import your font into the OpenType Designer. You open it in FontCreator. If it contains any OpenType features, which your font does not, they will be translated into OpenType scripts that will show in the OpenType Layout feature editor.

If your font contains any legacy "kern" table, that will be imported as Pair Adjustment lookup and script in the OpenType Designer.

To import a script into your font, you first need a script to import (which you can export from another font).
  1. Extract my Cankama Font from the attached archive.
  2. Open it in FontCreator
  3. Open the OpenType Designer
  4. Export the kerning script and give it a suitable name, e.g. "kern_cankama.otlfd" (the extension is shorthand for OpenType Layout Feature Definition)
  5. Open your own font and import that text file
  6. Right-click on the Pair Adjustment lookup, and select Autokern from the context menu. You should now have some kerning pairs suitable for your font. Scroll through them to make sure they look right.
  7. Switch back to my font, and open the OpenType Layout Feature Editor
  8. Export that script and give it a suitable name, e.g. "gsub_cankama.otlfd"
  9. Switch back to your own font and open the OpenType Layout Feature Editor
  10. Import the text file "gsub_cankama.otlfd" . You will see some errors because your font won't have the same glyphs as mine, but with luck, some OpenType layout features will be created.
I hope that gets you started. Read up on OpenType, but don't be too ambitious. Delete features and kerning pairs or groups that you don't need in your font, until you have something that you can manage. Then export your own script for reuse in other fonts.
Attachments
Cankama.zip
(236.85 KiB) Downloaded 247 times
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Anne Hext
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:50 am
Location: england

Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

Thank you.
I will get going on that and post my results when I'm done
Anne
Anne
Anne Hext
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:50 am
Location: england

Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

Hello,

OK I have some of the scripts showing in the Open type designer.
I now have two questions on the import. I imported the kerning pairs and auto kerned as per your instructions. then I was unsure what 'that script ' was so I just clicked at the top and imported everything I could see and re did the auto kerning bit.
This will have overwritten the first import. Is that right.
I2) I have added a couple to kerning pairs : Ta Tz Te they show nicely in the type design screen. I have saved the changes and reinstalled the font but the changes did not work. When I did the test page from the font drop down list that did not reflect the changes either.
so I suspect I have not done one of the steps correctly.
fI have attached my font as it is in case this is difficult.
Thank you for letting me use your fonts scripts to play with. Most helpful

Anne
Attachments
Annes CleanAndClearN.fcp
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Anne
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I don't know how you got to there from my font, but the kerning is working fine in FontCreator.

The Export Settings do not include the legacy "kern" table, so if the application you're testing on (any Serif application for example) doesn't support GPOS kerning, then kerning won't work.

Kerning is usually size dependent too — i.e. kern above a certain point size.
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Anne Hext
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:50 am
Location: england

Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Anne Hext »

Hello Bhikkhu,
I have done some more kerning in the type designer but when I run the test font screen none of the changes show. :( :( :(

Also can you define for me what 'that script' in item 8 of your action list. ( 8.Export that script and give it a suitable name, e.g. "gsub_cankama.otlfd") consists of. I am not quite sure which lines I high light and put into the open type feature.

Thanks
Anne
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Re: Cant see font in type designer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Anne Hext wrote:Hello Bhikkhu,
I have done some more kerning in the type designer but when I run the test font screen none of the changes show. :( :( :(

Also can you define for me what 'that script' in item 8 of your action list. ( 8.Export that script and give it a suitable name, e.g. "gsub_cankama.otlfd") consists of. I am not quite sure which lines I high light and put into the open type feature.

Thanks
My mistake. Item 7 should have been “Open the OpenType Layout feature editor.” Later these two editors will be merged. For now, they are separated into GSUB and GPOS.

The Test Font Window doesn't support kerning. Use the Preview Toolbar, or open the Test Font Window, then select the FontCreator Test font in another Windows application to see the effect of kerning.

OpenType Features (GSUB) can most easily be tested in Firefox by using the Test WOFF feature on the Font menu. If you're designing OpenType features for a specific program that supports them like Word 2010, InDesign, or PagePlus, then it would be best to test them in that program.
PagePlus OpenType Features.png
PagePlus OpenType Features.png (6.67 KiB) Viewed 7131 times
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