Export errors on hand drawn font with high detail

1

Hello, I was just hoping someone could help me. I am using Glyphs Mini which I absolutely love. It’s so much sexier than FontLab Studio that it’s like going ten years into the future.

We are working on our third tyepface, a hand drawn typeface called Gorilla with very detailed glyphs made from high resolution scans vectorised in Flash (up to 5000 nodes per character (all of which are more-or-less essential for use in high resolution print artwork and signage). The exported .otf font is 1.5MB.

So, I can export the font successfully if I untick the first of the three optional checkboxes…

    1. (unticked) Use Production glyph names
    1. (ticked) Remove Overlap
    1. (ticked) Autohint all gyphs

But, if I tick Use Production glyph names I get this error…
Typecomp Error: List Overflow
Typecomp Error: List Overflow
Typecomp Error: List Overflow
Typecomp Error: List Overflow

Or this error if I tick Use Production glyph names and Remove Overlap)
MakeOTF error
Typecomp Error: List Overflow

I tried reading this post: ‘Troubleshooting a font that does not export:’ https://www.glyphsapp.com/tutorials/troubleshooting-a-font-that-does-not-export/

…but the code that I found doesn’t provide any clues.
Here is the code from the generateFont.command file…
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Last login: Tue Jul 21 10:08:30 on ttys000
Barnabys-MBP-2:~ barny$ /Users/barny/Library/Application\ Support/Glyphs\ Mini/Temp/Gorilla-Regular/generateFont.command ; exit;
makeotfGlyphs [NOTE] — Source font: font.pfa
makeotfGlyphs [NOTE] Adding glyph .notdef, SID 0.
__

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Barny

2

For fonts like this it is recommended to disable all three checkboxes, as you did. In Glyphs Mini and Glyphs 1 (that was changed in Glyphs 2) the ‘Use Production glyph names’ also triggers the subroutinisation that is causing the error. And autohinting is not useful for glyphs like you have.

1 Like
3

That’s fantastic. Thanks so much for your fast response!