FIXED] Error Generating Hinting for Complex Glyph

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

When exporting the attached font project to TTF/OTF, I got the error message about Autohinting. Apparently glyph $2328 is too complex because if I make it empty, the error disappears. I already ran the font validator — there were no errors detected.

Hinting Error.png (53.77 KiB) Viewed 8574 times

Too Many Nodes.png (19.82 KiB) Viewed 8574 times

[Alfred]

Confirmed in FC8.0. FC 7.5 reports that the project was created in a later version and cannot be opened.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

There's an ini file for the Autohinter in the FontCreator program folder, but I don't know which to change. Increasing the hinting-limit to 500 made no difference.

Code: Select all

[autohinting]
latin-fallback=false
hinting-limit=200
ignore-restrictions=true
hinting-range-min=8
hinting-range-max=50
no-info=true
strong-stem-width=G
increase-x-height=14
; You can add additional parameters here
extraparams=

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Other fonts, like Pali Bold, with the exact same glyph, don't trigger this error.

[Erwin Denissen]

I suggest you contact Werner Lemberg as he is the developer of ttfautohint which is the TrueType Automatic Hinter used by FontCreator.

He continues to improve the utility, and I'm sure he will look into this.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

One of the Initial Forms had a contour overlapping. However, because the glyph was too complex, the Validation toolbar didn't find the error. When I increased the Validation limits, I found the error, fixed it, and then managed to export the font with hinting.

Why deleting the keyboard glyph should have stopped the hinting error from happening, I have no idea, but it lead me astray.

Edit: I spoke too soon. It has started generating the error again.

Glyph too Complex.png (28.6 KiB) Viewed 8502 times

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I did eventually find a satisfactory workaround:

1. Export the project with Autohinting after making the Technical Symbols keyboard glyph empty
2. Undo make empty, and save the project again
3. Open the autohinted font
4. Copy the keyboard glyph from the saved project to the autohinted font
5. Export As TrueType keeping the original hinting

I now have a font with only one glyph unhinted.

[Erwin Denissen]

The most creative work-around I've ever heard of

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I suggest you contact Werner Lemberg as he is the developer of ttfautohint which is the TrueType Automatic Hinter used by FontCreator.

He continues to improve the utility, and I'm sure he will look into this.

I did eventually get around to contacting him and got this reply:

And now actually using the 1.1 binary of ttfautohint I can reproduce the crash. This has been fixed already in the git repository; I hope to make a new release in mid-September.

If anyone has the brain-power to understand autohinting, this discussion may give some tips on getting the best results out of ttfautohinter.exe

[Erwin Denissen]

That is good news.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Were you able to find the updated binary for autohinter.exe to install with FC8.1 ?

[Erwin Denissen]

I haven't looked for it yet, as the final release of FontCreator 8.1 is not ready yet.