Font Forum

Greets all,

So I'm trying to write a document that contains " ‘ " followed by a g, for example ‘good’. It kerns correctly in OT preview however when I test it with the OTF tester, it does not obey the kerning I set for it. Stranger is that it works with Word, but if I export the document to PDF through Word, the kerning for that combination is ignored. Same goes for printing, the kerning is ignored...this has me worried that perhaps some of my other kerns are being ignored. I have emailed you that file, Erwin. You'll see that within FontCreator with the exception of "Test TTF/OTF", the kerning is obeyed and showed. But try to PDF it and the kerning is ignored (set to 0 I think).

Thankyou!

Jonne

You are right, it fails with quoteleft g but it works with quotesingle g.

I don't know why it fails. Maybe it is a glyph name issue, but it requires some further testing.

Thanks for the quick response. Glad you're on the case.

Thankyou and Blessings,

Jonne

I noticed quoteleft is in the last sub table. I remember long ago I read about an issue that only the first sub table was processed with a specific word processor, but I don't remember if it was Word.

So I did some more experiments, but so far I'm not able to make it work in the PDF. Maybe it is a bug in the PDF producer.

Erwin,

Thanks for your efforts. I thought about the subtables being a problem and I made a version without multiple subtables. It still did not work. I will try putting the quoteleft in the first subtable in the meantime and I'll report back with the results.

Thanks,

Jonne

Erwin,

No luck with putting quoteleft in subtable 1. Also, Word is kerning and PDF-ing kerns outside of subtable one correctly so that can't be it either. I'm clueless.

Have you any luck?

Blessings,

Jonne

Erwin just to let you know "quotedblleft" also does not kern properly either.

Erwin,

Just realized quoteleft and quotedblleft also don't kern with y. I'd be willing to bet it ignores negative kerns with those glyphs?...or perhaps it ignores them all.

Jonne

Erwin,

Not intending you to feel rushed, I'm sure you're very busy. It's been a couple of week and I wondered if you'd had any progress to do with my issue and/or strategies to resolve this. It wouldn't be a that big a deal if it only occurred doing pdfs, but the issue is present while printing as well.

Blessings,

Jonne

I suspect it is a bug in Word or at least in the way it processes OpenType layout features. You could try to contact Microsoft and ask if they can confirm and fix this issue.

Erwin,

Just to put a stamp on this issue, I believe you are right. It is a bug with how Word 2013 exports or prints. I say this after trying Adobe Illustrator to find that it obeys all kerning, both in exporting and printing.

Thanks for your efforts though it's unlikely that I will get any help from Microsoft. I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with 'smart quotes' not behaving correctly. I wish I weren't so dependent on Word.

Blessings,

Jonne

Erwin,

If I could ask, what is the name of this font that your site is using for what I'm writing? It's for a friend who is preparing a resume and is looking for a good looking font that's easily readable without weird spacings.

Thanks,

Jonne