EOT not functional

Glyphs
1

How to create a functional EOT from Glyphs? The files don’t work in IE, and I expect it’s the name table as always with EOT-files.

Is there a way to get this working without having to go through TTX and manually change the name table? If not, maybe the EOT-checkbox should not be there?

Thanks,
G

2

EOT and the CSS for EOTs are difficult to get to run in IE and there are many reasons why. My incomplete list:

A few tips:

  • avoid style linking (“this is the bold of …”)
  • avoid the Webfont Only setting for EOTs (turn it off)
  • check IE’s developer mode (F12, or gear menu in top right > Dev Mode) to find out the exact error code. I usually get CSS3111
  • IE is very picky about the CSS when it comes to EOTs:
    "IE has a problem finding the .eot file if the [CSS] family name is different [from] the full name of the font"
    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13323370/eot-not-working-in-ie
3

Have the same issues with exported EOTs here. I was thinking that there may be a name table issue as you said, with the Family Name not being the same as the Full Font Name in the exported font, hence why I was asking about the Name Table Entry parameter last week — Name Table Entry + Win ID4

Could it be this is causing the problem, as further mentioned here — http://fontface.codeandmore.com/blog/ie-7-8-error-with-eot-css3111/

4

Phil: I was able to get Krista’s font to work just by adjusting the CSS. No special name table entry necessary. I admit I did give the font a simpler name at export to make my typing easier, but the solution is usual how you address the font in CSS. IE seems to be very picky about that.

5

Thanks Eric. I had experimented with a few CSS alternatives on a different typeface but without success. I’ll take another look.

6

So far as I know:

1- Full name should be postscript name like syntax, that means not spaces, no more than 31 characters and one hyphen splitting family from style.
2- Family name should be exactly as the first part of the Family name.

e.g.

Family Name: My Font MyFont
Style Name: Bold
Full Name: My Font-Bold MyFont-Bold

Another issue, it seems that IE6/IE8 in Windows 7 is less strict with TT flavors than with CFF flavor.

1 Like
7

Richard Fink has some information on the name table requirements for EOT:
http://eotfast.com/documentation.php

I have implemented some of these in my TTX-based webfont pre-processing system and never had any problems with EOT.

I don’t think style-linking is a problem as long as it is restricted to the basic 4 RIBBI, same as for other MS apps.

For the CSS, I’d recommend a syntax like this:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'BerninoSansWeb';
    src:
        url('/webfonts/BerninoSans-Web-Regular.eot?') format('-'),
        url('/webfonts/BerninoSans-Web-Regular.woff2') format('woff2'),
        url('/webfonts/BerninoSans-Web-Regular.woff') format('woff');
    font-weight: 400;
}

This way, IE9+ loads the WOFF, which is usually what we want (then we can strip the EOT of all information not applied by EI6-8).

As far as I have tested, the CSS font-family name can always be freely chosen and a mismatch is not a reason for EOT not working in IE.

1 Like
8

One possible reason why making the CSS font-family the same as the desktop font “fixes” problems is simply that IE then uses your locally installed font. Naturally, this “fix” only works on your own computer. And this is exactly the danger: You do not notice if something is broken. For this reason, I have always explicitly advised my customers to choose a font-family name that is different from the desktop font name.

2 Likes
9

Thanks for all input around this.

The only way for me to be able to produce a functional EOT is if I modify the name table (TTX:ed font) and then make the EOT outside Glyphs.

Suggestion:
When clicking the checkbox for EOT, name table is modified to the specs so it works our of the box?

1 Like
10

I’ll do that.

1 Like
11

I had the same problem. Could not export functional EOTs from Glyphs, but got them work when exported from FontPrep. Did not change anything in the master file, just imported ttf fonts and convert them using the application… (Glyphs 2.3.1 (902))