Help with Kerning Pairs

[misskris]

I just upgraded to 8.0 from 7.5 and I'm thinking I've made a HUGE mistake. I've been taking handwriting and turning it into a .ttf for several years for clients and I've never had any problem kerning. I see that's all been changed with the Open Type Designer. I thought I had it all figured out - I'll create anywhere from 20-800 pairs depending on the font. But with 8.0 - I can no longer see the kerning in the preview, where I could in 7.5, and I can't get it to show the kerning changes when I export the .ttf and install in my Adobe applications.

I'm not a font designer, I generally can only spend about 30 minutes per font - so if someone could give me the general steps to ensure that the kerning pairs I create will actually work - that would be awesome. I have never had a kerning pair not be recognized before this version, and I just don't understand what might be some of the common reasons why a kerning pair is created, but isn't recognized.

And last question - because the old kerning table has been discontinued in this version - does this mean that .ttf can no longer be kerned? Will I have to save as an .otf?

Thank you so much for any help!!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The legacy "kern" table has not been discontinued.
You can choose to include either or both "kern" and "GPOS" tables in your fonts in the export settings.

Professional fonts from Adobe contain only GPOS tables so if Adobe applications are your main target, GPOS alone will be fine. Serif applications currently only support "kern" tables, and not GPOS, which is only supported in the latest version of DrawPlus.

It would be a mistake to stay with legacy tables only. GPOS kerning and Class-based kerning is much more powerful, but it does take some effort to learn.

If you open an old font with kerning, FontCreator 8.0 will create the OpenType Kerning feature and pair adjustments lookup automatically. There's nothing that you need to change. Only you need to select the right export options.

See this earlier thread and my Review Page for some explanation of the kerning improvements.

My free fonts contain thousands of kerning pairs, so editing that lot without kerning groups is a non-starter.

Kerning Pair Classes.png (101.46 KiB) Viewed 3499 times

[misskris]

Thank you so much for your quick reply! Seriously - I would bring you cookies if I could

I would love to take the time to dive in and learn all this, and will eventually - but I just don't have that luxury right now. I have a deadline, and I just had NO idea the learning curve with this new version was so steep. I pick up things very quickly - but the Open Type stuff is Greek to me. I did do a happy dance when I figured out I could adjust the y axis in kerning pairs. That will help my cursive clients a lot!

I've brought in older fonts that I created in 7.5, into 8.0, and paid attention to the settings in Open Type Designer - and I made sure I was using the same settings when I created a new one from scratch within 8.0 today. (I hope that sentence made sense) The 7.5 fonts, that have been brought into 8, work beautifully, displaying all the kerning pairs I created when I export. But the one I'm creating from scratch - isn't showing the kerning pairs when I export. I've selected both Legacy Kern Tables and GPOS tables when I export, but I cannot figure out what else I'm missing.

[misskris]

Got it to work! On EXPORT settings - Custom GSUB table was set to Custom Script. Why - I don't know. Once I changed it to Default Script - it worked!

Thanks again Bhikkhu for your kind help! It is much appreciated

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

When you get one font to work, export the script from the OpenType Designer and import it into other fonts.

I didn't take too long to get to grips with FontCreator 8.0, but then I do spend a lot of time editing fonts every time a new version comes out. It's not my day job though, and don't let the Expert Typographer label fool you — its just related to my post count.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Got it to work! On EXPORT settings - Custom GSUB table was set to Custom Script. Why - I don't know. Once I changed it to Default Script - it worked!

Thanks again Bhikkhu for your kind help! It is much appreciated

The default script doesn't contain any kerning adjustment pairs, just GSUB features like Small Capitals. What you're getting is a font without GPOS kerning but with onky "kern" tables, which may be why it now works.

Don't quote me on this, but it may be that your application needs one table or the other, but not both. Attach the font project if you don't mind sharing it .