One-Click Subfamily Set, Hard/Soft Max Kern

[SteveMB]

After experimenting with FontCreator for a while, two ideas:

1. A one-click option that would set all the naming data (family and subfamily names, Windows and Mac types, Pantone types) for each of the four basic varieties (Regular, Italic, Bold, BoldItalic). I had to go through quite a bit of fumbling to tweak a font that didn't have the subfamily names separated out from the family names (so each of the four appeared as a separate font in pull-down lists) to get the results to work correctly after saving.

2. The most common type of correction I've needed to do to autokern results is correction of excessive kern for some pairs (e.g. A' A" F, F.). A maximum value option would fix this problem (either a simple maximum or a "soft limit" function that is linear for low values and asymptotic as the limit is approached, along the lines of:

if k <= 2L/3 k-new = k
if k > 2L/3 k-new = L*k/(k + L/3)

k = initially calculated kern
L = soft limit value

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

1. Use the Italic Transformation to convert a regular to italic typeface, and bold to bolditalic.

Italic Transform.png (20.01 KiB) Viewed 5403 times

2. Kerning still needs some improvements. Its a known issue.

[SteveMB]

That helps once the font has the "Bold" subfamily name, but getting to that point has to be done the more complex way (setting each of the info flags for a "bold" font) manually, which is more error-prone (I've stumbled the first few times, getting a font that looks bold but shows up with a "Regular" subfamily name).