[FIXED] FontCreator 8.0 demo crashing:

[Leon_Gauthier]

I’ve added four glyphs to an existing font file. Three of them were missing but are in the standard unicode collection ($1DCB, $1DCC and $222A) and the fourth is one I created in the private area at codepoint $F000. Except for $222A, each of these are glyphs to be combined with the Latin vowels to indicate modified weightings for syllables. I’ve added anchors to these glyphs and $1DCB and $1DCC map properly in the preview but $F000 refuses to comply with the Open Type Designer.


I edited the anchors in $1DCC, moving them to x=0


and when I used the forward arrow to view the next glyph, I got an “Argument out of range” message.

You can see that the background has advanced to the next glyph except, the anchor window still shows the anchors for $1DCC. When I click ok, I get an Access violation error message

and the editor has advanced to the next glyph, $1DCB while displaying the empty Anchors window from the previous glyph, $222A. The message clears when I click ok but the Anchors window remains empty when there are indeed anchors in glyph $1DCB. The program seems to have gotten out of sync.

I can exit the editor and when I double-click the last glyph, $F000, the editor opens but the anchors window is empty even though the anchors can still be seen in the drawing. When I exit the editor again and double-click glyph $1DCB, I get another access violation error with a different address

I saved the project with a new name and it seemed to be ok when I reloaded it; the anchor changes were there. I saw now way to “unlock” the anchors but I can “edit” them but it always results in these errors. Actually, I’d like to delete some anchors I don’t really need.

However, $F000 will not take the position defined and demonstrated in the Open Type Designer while the other two glyphs behave as expected.

The error messages might be the result of me doing something I ought not (I am still trying to make sense of all of this) but the program should be able to prevent these memory crashes. I cannot see why $F000 does not work like the other two. Could it have something to do with my use of the private area?

[ErwinDenissen]

Do send us the project file and we will look into it. You can send it through our ticket system.
http://www.high-logic.com/support/tickets/open.php

[Leon_Gauthier]

Well, the good news is … I was able to get the glyph I’d created @ $F000 to work by copying it to a new empty glyph @ $1DCD and giving it the name “pureshort” (the name is not important, I was just making it clear that this is not the glyph assigned). I really don’t want to create a different glyph than the glyph which has been assigned to $1DCD, combining double circumflex, but I wanted to see if my problem stemmed from using the private area. It seems that it does; this new glyph obeys the Open Type Design.

I figured that the only way to “unlock” the anchors would be to delete the glyph from any groups it may be in under the Open Type Design and, indeed, that is the trick. Caution, you must ok twice; once in the group manager once you’ve made the deletion and then again in the Open Type Designer which just blanks out, resets, after the deletion. Apparently, it really needs that second ok in order to write the changes (I had simply closed the window so the changes were not saved and the glyphs would still show up and the anchors remained locked.)

Still, I would get the “Argument out of range” error when I stepped to the next glyph after editing the anchors in a glyph. In fact, I actually lost the anchor data for every glyph after the edited glyph as well as the edited glyph when using the “Next Glyph” button. If you edit the anchors, DO NOT USE the next or previous glyph buttons; close the editor instead. I do not know what the “Lock Anchors” button does. One might assume that it toggles the lock on and off but that seems not to be the case.

[ErwinDenissen]

Please respect the end user license agreement of the fonts you intend to miduy. If you are not sure if you are allowed to make modifcations, do contact the font vendor.

@Leon Gauthier

Well, the good news is … I was able to get the glyph I’d created @ $F000 to work by copying it to a new empty glyph @ $1DCD and giving it the name “pureshort” (the name is not important, I was just making it clear that this is not the glyph assigned). I really don’t want to create a different glyph than the glyph which has been assigned to $1DCD, combining double circumflex, but I wanted to see if my problem stemmed from using the private area. It seems that it does; this new glyph obeys the Open Type Design.

I’m glad you found a way to solve the problem.

@Leon Gauthier

I figured that the only way to “unlock” the anchors would be to delete the glyph from any groups it may be in under the Open Type Design and, indeed, that is the trick.

Yes that is correct. As long as an anchor is used by the OpenType layout features, it is “linked”, and can’t be deleted. The icon to show this, is confusing, so I’ll replace it with a “link” icon in a future version of FontCreator.

@Leon Gauthier

Caution, you must ok twice; once in the group manager once you’ve made the deletion and then again in the Open Type Designer which just blanks out, resets, after the deletion. Apparently, it really needs that second ok in order to write the changes (I had simply closed the window so the changes were not saved and the glyphs would still show up and the anchors remained locked.)

I’m aware of this, and I’m thinking about adding a warning when you close the dialog through the “X” or the cancel button.

@Leon Gauthier

Still, I would get the “Argument out of range” error when I stepped to the next glyph after editing the anchors in a glyph. In fact, I actually lost the anchor data for every glyph after the edited glyph as well as the edited glyph when using the “Next Glyph” button. If you edit the anchors, DO NOT USE the next or previous glyph buttons; close the editor instead. I do not know what the “Lock Anchors” button does. One might assume that it toggles the lock on and off but that seems not to be the case.

This is indeed a bug which will be fixed in the next upcoming major release.

[Leon_Gauthier]

Erwin, I thank you for your swift and thorough reply. First, please allow me to relieve any fears you may have that I am abusing your software to violate the copyrights of others. I assure you that this is not the case. Currently, I am evaluation your product, FontCreator 8.0, to determine if it can help me achieve my goal of either modifying and using an existing font, within the terms of its license, or creating one of my own in order to embed it in epubs I am creating. Rather than testing your product on material which may be sub par or somehow non-standard, I am seeing how well it can handle a large, well established font. Obviously, at this stage I cannot produce a usable font with you software. Nonetheless, it is not my intention to pirate the work of others (Although, I have now pretty much given up the idea of creating one of my own from scratch, that would require much too much time) rather, I need to have the ability to add some glyphs that are not so readily available and reduce the file size to no more than what is needed.

Erwin Denissen wrote: I’m glad you found a way to solve the problem.

By this, do you mean to say that the private area cannot be used for combining glyphs in FontCreator or in general? If it be the latter, then one would be forced to use a codepoint which has already been assigned a glyph in the Unicode standard, correct?

Erwin Denissen wrote: The icon to show this, is confusing, so I’ll replace it with a “link” icon in a future version of FontCreator.”

Which icon might this be? The “Lock Anchor” button which seems to do nothing or another I am not aware of?

Obviously, I am not aware of just how the Open Type Designer functions. I was using it to “browse” anchors and try to get a grasp of the various groups and how they are being used. Doing this, I managed to add seven new anchors to the capital A (all at 0,0), change one and unlock three, all inadvertently. And these are just the ones I am aware of, Lord knows what else I’ve done.


May I suggest that the manual entry for “Mark to Base and Mark to Mark” needs substantial clarification without causing any offense? Meanwhile, I’ll do some research on Open Type features. I look forward to the new version,