Changing Glyph Names

FontCreator - Font Editor FontCreator - Support
1

I want to make sure that all my fonts share the same glyph names.
Seems simple…

a) Is it sufficient to edit a copy of glyphnames.dat in my working directory?
b) When will FC7 read the edited file?
c) Does FC7 ever write to glyphnames.dat?

Can I ignore glyphlist.dat or must I also edit it also?

Mike

2
  1. I am glad you brought this up again. I have been editing glyphnames.dat in the Program folder, and restoring it from a backup after each update. It makes more sense to edit the copy in %AppData%\FontCreator. I believe that is sufficient, though you should still keep backups.
  2. In my tests, FontCreator read the edited file on loading a Truetype/OpenType font, but not on reloading existing projects. I am not sure if it is working right when creating new projects or inserting characters. I would expect it to be used to name glyphs when inserting new characters to an existing project.
  3. Not as far as I know. It might be nice to have a “Save glyphnames” feature, but I can live without it.
  4. I haven’t yet worked out what purpose glyphlist.dat serves.
3

Thanks Bhikkhu,
What do you mean by %AppData%\FontCreator? How does one set up %AppData% or is it done automatically?
Mike

4

It is done automatically. %AppData% is a Windows system variable like %Temp%

Press the Windows key + R, type %AppData%, and press Enter to locate the folder on your OS. Applications use it to save Application Data.

In my FontCreator folder there are a load of Kern text files, bookmarks.txt, preview.txt, and guidelines.dat files from FontCreator 6.5. There’s also a “CurrentTransformProgram.xml” with the data that I recently used to set the advance width for Maths symbols and digits from the Glyph Transform Wizard.
AppDataFolder.png

5

As Bhikkhu Pesala pointed out, it is recommended to copy the original to your application data folder, and edit that file.

As soon as you start FontCreator, so you’ll have to restart FontCreator when you’ve made changes to that file.

No, but when a new update becomes available, it is possible the installer replaces the current version with a more recent version. The installer will only override the file located in the program files folder, so that’s why it is best use your own version located in your application data folder. On my windows 7 computer it is:
C:\Users\EDenissen\AppData\Roaming\FontCreator

That file contains glyph names that FontCreator uses when you export a font. This ensures other software can copy and paste characters from your fonts. For example Adobe software rely on the glyph names within a PDF document. FontCreator should take care of this.

The glyphnames.dat file is used by FontCreator to provide user friendly names for your glyphs. This is done on opening a font file, adding characters, and when you click the auto complete glyph name button on the Glyph Properties tool window. FontCreator also uses them to compile OpenType layout features.

Tip: To check which file is used by FontCrewator, do add this line to your custom glyphnames.dat, and update it to your likings:
FB20;custom_v1.0.0

Then you can open a font, and within the Glyph Properties dialog, set the codepoints to $FB20. Then click the auto complete glyph name button to verify you are actually using the correct file. And don’t hit the apply button :wink:

6

Thanks Erwin, It’s a lot clearer now.

I put my glyph names into glyphnames.dat and they appear in the Glyph Overwiew window…
with one exception:
Hebrew letter alternative ayin, codepoint $FB20 still has the old name uni05E2.alt.
In glyphnames.dat, I have:
FB20:altayin

I see that this is the codepoint you suggested in your previous post
to use (as a temporary storage trick) for the font version number!
Whats happening here?
Mike

7

I wonder why he chose that code-point— better to choose a reserved codepoint like $2072.

You seem to have used a colon instead of a semicolon. It should be

FB20;altayin
8

I guess it was a lack of inspiration. I agree your suggested codepoint is way better.

9

I settled on using this as the first line in glyphnames.dat because F000 is easier to remember:

F000;ver 12-6-2013

That’s the Apple Logo if it exists in the font.

10

For existing projects you can use the new Generate Glyph Names feature from the Tools menu.

It can also be used with Symbol fonts to give them meaningful “keyboard” names.

11

I just added to glyphnames.dat as the last line:
F000;ver 12-14-2013
Next I opened a font file in FC7 and opened Glyph Properties
for a randomly chosen glyph. Under codepoint I entered $F000
followed by Enter, then tried [Apply].
The glyph name did not change to “ver 12-14-2013”.
What am I missing?
Mike

12

Did you first restart FontCreator after you made changes to glyphnames.dat?

13

I got it to work by creating a new glyph with that code point.
However I’m not happy with that solution. If I have already
modified the font with real improvementS I will want to save my changes
but not to save anything to do with "F000;ver 12-14-2013
MIKE

14

You don’t have to use the apply button. If you have a suitable easy to remember glyph such as $F000 to use in your font, select it, open the Glyph Properties toolbar, and click the button next to the glyph name to see the glyphnames.dat version number/date. In fact, you can select any glyph and do the same but you have to type “$F000” not “F000”
Glyphnames Version.png
Glyphnames Version 2.png

15

Thanks Bhikkhu