Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Got a request? Post it here. Please do not post bug reports here.
Post Reply
harryspier123
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:28 pm

Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by harryspier123 »

Microsoft Office and I think LibreOffice require a DSIG table (can be a dummy DSIG table) for Open Type Features to work.

Is it possible to add a feature to FontCreator to add either a dummy or a valid DSIG to a font.

Thanks,
Harry
Erwin Denissen
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11107
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:41 am
Location: Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by Erwin Denissen »

I'm not that familiar with LibreOffice, but I've never had any issues with our fonts and Office.

The DSIG table contains the digital signature of the OpenType font and used to make Windows show the OpenType icon instead of the TrueType icon in Windows Explorer. This is true for all TrueType based OpenType fonts. PostScript based OpenType fonts always show the OpenType icon. With Windows 10 I always see a default plain icon, or a preview of the font in case you view icons instead of details.
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
harryspier123
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:28 pm

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by harryspier123 »

With Word 2013 and Windows 7 I had to add a dummy DSIG to get my ligatures lookup table to work otherwise it didn't apply open type features. I've also seen in the Fontcreator forums other people say also that Word wont apply open type features without a DSIG (or dummy DSIG) in the font.

Are you saying this is no longer the case in Windows 10.

Thanks,
Harry
Erwin Denissen
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11107
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:41 am
Location: Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by Erwin Denissen »

I remember such issues with Word 2013 and Windows XP, but we've never had issues with this for the last five years. Right now running Windows 10 with the latest Office suite, but prior to that Windows 7 along with Word 2013 and iirc that worked fine without DSIG table.
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
harryspier123
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:28 pm

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by harryspier123 »

Thank you Erwin,

It might be that the font was created in Fontographer years ago and then edited by me to add ligature lookup tables in fontforge a few months ago (this was before I purchased FontCreator) and I then had to add a DSIG in fontforge to make the ligatures work.

I will try some experiments removing the DSIG , creating a font from scratch without DSIG etc.

Harry
ClintGoss
Posts: 128
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:18 pm
Location: Westport, CT
Contact:

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by ClintGoss »

It appears that this is still an issue.

Fontbakery issues a FAIL if no DSIG is present, I think based on the behavior Word 2013 (which they point out is still under extended support until April 2023).

See https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery/issues/1845.
ClintGoss
Posts: 128
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:18 pm
Location: Westport, CT
Contact:

Re: Feature request - ability to add DSIG to a font

Post by ClintGoss »

There is a tool available to patch in a dummy DSIG table to the font, if needed.

https://github.com/googlefonts/gftools/ ... ix-dsig.py

It requires Python3 and the FontTools package to be installed - kind of a heavyweight fix for what amounts to an eight-byte addition to the font. Be sure to use the --autofix option to that tool to add the needed DSIG.
Post Reply