I have created a font but am unable to see the quotes or apostrophe when I run “Test Font”
Please advise
From the FAQ Sticky Thread at the top of the Support Forum.
Q: Why don’t quotation marks work in Microsoft Word?
A: Word-processors often use autocorrect to convert the straight apostrophe (') and straight quote or inches character (") to typographical quotation marks (“), (”), (‘) and (’), also known as smart or curly quotes. If your font doesn’t have mappings to these characters, you will see rectangles instead. When the quotes aren’t showing at all, you need to add outlines to the corresponding glyphs. Make sure that your font contains all of the recommended glyphs.
It is not seen in “Test Font” within the software. Also, quotes are not seen in Photoshop CS3. Smart quotes are turned on in Word.
The Test Font window installs your font temporarily to display the default sample text. If the smart quote glyphs do not exist in your font then they cannot be shown in the Test Font window or anywhere else. A square rectangle — the .notdef glyph — will be used instead. If the .notdef glyph (the first glyph) is empty, then an empty space is all you will get.
If your font does not yet have these recommended glyphs, you need to add them. They are not required, but definitely recommended.
The following generic glyphs are added when creating a new font if you opt to Include Outlines — this is intended to give new users a head start in creating a usable font until they are confident enough to create their own glyphs, to replace the generic glyphs. Experienced users may prefer not to include the generic glyphs when starting a new font.
GenericGlyphs.png
I have gyphs in both the single quote ($000A) and doublequote ($0005) cells. They show up fine in Test Font, but don’t appear in any software What am I doing wrong?
Thanks
You probably need to reinstall the font and/or restart the application. What application is it? Do the quotes show up in Wordpad or Word?
It works in Wordpad, but not Word or WordPerfect. I have deleted and reinstalled several times with no change.
Then you have not defined the smart quotes yet, but only straight quotes.
Remembering the following from previously in the thread.
The $000A and $0005 are glyph index values when the Tools Options… General Hexadecimal option has been chosen and the Tools Options… Overview Glyph Index has been chosen and a High-Logic new font has been generated.
If those options are in force and no cells have been deleted from the font nor any glyphs added to the font, then the glyph index values of the four cells to which you need to add glyph designs are as follows.
$00CC
$00CD
$00CF
$00D0
Which display option is set for the heading at the top of each cell is a matter of personal choice. My own choice is to use Tools Options… Overview Postscript name.
With that setting the cells to which you need to add glyphs are named as follows.
quoteleft
quoteright
quotedblleft
quotedblright
Those names will stay with the cells even if some other cells are deleted from the font or if any cells are added to the font.
You might find it helpful, as a test, to start another font using File New… using FontCreator 5.6 and use a name such as test and use the default option of Include outlines. The test font will have glyphs in the abovementioned cells, respectively as what might be called 6-style, 9-style, 66-style and 99-style raised quotation marks as when writing on paper with pen and ink. The test font is just for the above test so as to show the sort of glyph design that is needed.
I hope that this helps.
William Overington
12 November 2008
I have glyphs with titles “quoteleft”, “quoteright”, “quotedblleft”, and “quotedblright”. How do i make them Smart Quotes?
Those are the smart quotes. WordPerfect or other wordprocessors will substitute them whenever you type straight quotes.
If reinstalling the font still doesn’t work, you can send my your font for testing.
Thanks for sending the font.
The smart quotes have incorrect mappings. Those codes given above by William are not mappings, but Glyph Indexes, i.e. just the numerical code (in hexidecimal notation) of the glyph’s order in the font.
(Edited this paragraph to correct my error. William did not give the mappings)
Add the mappings: $2018, $2019, $201C, $201D (hex) or 8216, 8217, 8220, 8221 (if you’re using decimal).
To add mappings, select the glyph in the overview, press Alter Enter to bring up the Glyph Properties dialogue, click on the Mappings tab, and add the appropriate value from the Value field using the Add button. Remove the incorrect mappings at the same time.
You could also do as suggested, start a new font including the outlines, then copy and paste your glyphs to the appropriate cells in the new font. A few other useful glyphs like em-dash and ¶ § will already be defined, and it is easy to see which glyphs need to be modified to suit your font’s design.
The option to include glyph outlines in a new font was added to make things easier for new users, and specifically to avoid this very frequently asked question, "“Why don’t my quotes work in Word?”
Although the generic glyphs will probably be the wrong design for a different font, at least they will be present and correctly mapped, saving all these problems. Reshaping the existing glyphs, or replacing them with new ones via import image is much easier than learning how to add characters with the correct mappings.
BTW: If you’re still using FontCreator 5.5, I recommend a free upgrade to version 5.6.
Thank you for editing your post.
William
Thank you for editing your earlier post.
William
Glyph Index values can change depending on the font sort order, so they are not useful. In the font sent to me, the quotes were mapped to these values: 00CC, O0DD, 00CF, 00D0.
Yes.
Well, that depends. If someone starts a new font using FontCreator 5.6 with the Don’t include outlines option and then cannot get smart quotes to work, and the values $000A and $0005 are mentioned in relation to quote and double quotes, then mentioning $00CC, $00CD, $00CF and $00D0 could be helpful in locating the cells where the glyphs for the smart quotes need to be placed, bearing in mind that in a new FontCreator 5.6 font that the mappings would already be in place.
Well, then there arises the possibility that that may possibly have happened as a result of the glyph index values which I provided being used as mapping values. If that is indeed what happened then maybe I should have added some more information at that time so as clearly to distinguish glyph index values from mappings and saying what the mappings should be and also saying that the mappings are already in a new FontCreator font and so if a new FontCreator font is being used then there is no need to alter the mappings.
William Overington
13 November 2008
thanks for all the help. It work perfectly. Also, I did upgrade to 5.6 - much improved