WOFF and WOFF2 file format support

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WhiteOwl
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Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2022 10:05 am

WOFF and WOFF2 file format support

Post by WhiteOwl »

As a web developer, I frequently use font files having the woff or woff2 file format. Currently, these files are not recognized and added as fonts when using the Groups Panel, clicking on "Add a new font folder", clicking on "Browse" in the opened "Add font folder" window, and selecting a folder which contains fonts in woff or woff2 file format.
It were very helpful if MainType would support these file formats. Of course, operating systems (OS) probably don't support to activate or install fonts in these formats. Therefore, MainType should support to convert such files to TTF and OTF file formats. This can happen explicitly (by a menu or context menu item), or implicitly in the case when the user wants to activate or install the font on the local OS. The opposite conversion direction (i.e. from ttf or otf to woff or woff2) can also be very helpful, as font files may be present as a ttf or otf file but the user wants to have the file in a woff or woff2 file format, because he/she wants to use the font on a website (if the font license allows it) or prefers the higher compression rate and smaller file size of woff and woff2 files.
I also tested other font manager software (FontBase, FontExpert, Typograf, and FontAgent), but they don't support the woff and woff2 file formats, too. MainType could become the first of all these font manager software products supporting the woff and woff2 file formats.
Erwin Denissen
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Re: WOFF and WOFF2 file format support

Post by Erwin Denissen »

It might be a nice feature, but it would also confuse most users as they would expect to only see fonts that can actually work on their machine. You correctly mentioned both woff and woff2 are not supported by the Windows operating system, so for now we don't intend to add this soon.
Erwin Denissen
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WhiteOwl
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Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2022 10:05 am

Re: WOFF and WOFF2 file format support

Post by WhiteOwl »

How I suggested, You could also add the possibility to convert WOFF, and WOFF2 files to TTF or other formats supported by the operating system. In that case, users would not be confused, but get the ability to use these fonts on their computers, as well as on web pages. You could also add a preference setting, to explicitly trigger the support for WOFF, or WOFF2 files. By default, that trigger could disallow the support, and the user could explicitly activate the support. Maybe, that is not confusing for the users.
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