# Font name limitations **URL:** \ **Category:** Glyphs\ **Created:** [September 3, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918 "2015-09-03T11:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ludwig](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/ludwig/32/2095_2.png) [@Ludwig](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/Ludwig)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/1 "2015-09-03T11:01:40Z")
Are there still font name limitations regarding the lengths of the names? I have a new font with a rather long family name and long style names like “Extralight Italic”. I vaguely remember that the postscript name (ID6) shouldn’t exceed 29 characters, full name (ID4) not more then 31 characters. How does Glyphs handle this? I remember one solution when ID4 is longer then 31 characters: Add ID18 (with a max of 31 characters). When I look into the fonts Glyphs generated, I see that it’s doing just this, but in a very inconsistent way. It changes for example “Extralight Italic” in ID18 to “Exlight Italic”, but “Ultralight Italic” to “Ultralight It”. Is it wise to add a custom parameter in this cases, or even for all styles? ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/2 "2015-09-03T12:41:09Z")
Glyphs tries to shorten the names by using abbreviations for certain words (like Extra\>Ex) automatically. Please check the resulting files (with OTMaster or TTX) and see what happens. IF you don’t like what you see there, you need to use custom parameters. ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/3 "2015-09-03T13:14:40Z")
It still is an issue with Windows 8.1. Didn’t test in v.10 yet. Read [this](https://www.glyphsapp.com/tutorials/multiple-masters-part-3-setting-up-instances) and scroll down to ‘Keep Your Style Name Short’. ---
**Author:** ![Ludwig](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/ludwig/32/2095_2.png) [@Ludwig](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/Ludwig)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/4 "2015-09-03T14:58:53Z")
thanks, this seems a reasonable way to do the naming and keep them short. However, I think I run into a bug with the newest version of Glyphs (796). When I do Italics there is always the same name ID 1 for Windows (platformID 3) regardless which name I put into the Style-name field. See images attached. In Glyphs 768 it works correctly. ![](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/uploads/default/original/1X/426d1d680293c98aba11296702e3287bbf1478a6.png) ![](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/uploads/default/original/1X/780f7b707069da43feea1d29f7395cd09cf94c49.png) ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/5 "2015-09-03T23:55:28Z")
can you send me the .glyphs file? ---
**Author:** ![tribby](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tribby](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/tribby)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/6 "2018-11-15T06:25:57Z")
Hi, I tried using custom parameters to prevent the conversion from “Condensed” to “Cond” and “ExtraLight” to “ExLight” > ( > { > “Name Table Entry” = “18 1; Barlow Semi Condensed ExtraLight Italic”; > }, > { > “Name Table Entry” = “1 3; Barlow Semi Condensed ExtraLight”; > } > ) But Glyphs seems to be ignoring this and shortening “1 3” (Windows) to ExLight anyway. Is there another value I should be setting? ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 7:30am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/7 "2018-11-15T07:30:40Z")
I fixed that last week. An update will be out soon. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/8 "2019-01-04T11:54:33Z")
I can add Name Table Entry for 4 3 1 1033 OK but the 18 1 0 0 is not being added? ![55](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7fd856978001ea0679d6d85ca8c784aeaac07c00.png) ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/9 "2019-01-04T12:27:06Z")
I have a nagging feeling that the (order of the) numbers are wrong. I can double check for you if you like, but for Name ID 18, I would simply use the `compatibleFullName` parameter. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/10 "2019-01-04T12:35:56Z")
hmm. Will take a look, but it follows the order as the one above = Syntax = nameID platformID encodingID languageID;TEXT ? ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/11 "2019-01-04T12:40:19Z")
Doesn’t want to add the `compatibleFullName` parameter ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/12 "2019-01-04T13:25:11Z")
It works if I add Name Table Entry 32123 1 0 0;Text and then edit 32123 to 18 in OT Master 🙂 – so I guess table 18 is banned ? ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/13 "2019-01-04T13:37:30Z")
Try only name and platform ID: ``` 18 1; xxxx ``` ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/14 "2019-01-04T13:39:50Z")
No luck ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/15 "2019-01-04T13:42:44Z")
I just tried again and `compatibleNameTable` works as expected in builds 1195 and later. How do you test for Name ID 18? **Update:** and `18 1;Xxxx` works as expected as well. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/16 "2019-01-04T13:52:57Z")
Ahh, everything works as long as the required text has no spaces (not ideal) So I can have FontnameCondLightIt but not Fontname Cond Light It ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/17 "2019-01-04T14:02:11Z")
No, it also works with spaces: ![27](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/uploads/default/original/2X/0/01abde556fc4c25abab16129fdaf8c3e1736ee9f.png) Can you send me your .glyphs file? Let me see if there is something else fishy. ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/18 "2019-01-04T15:00:29Z")
I had a look at your file, and _makeotf_ ignores your Name ID 18 entry, probably because it is the default full name anyway. It only makes sense to set it if it were different from the Mac Name ID 4, which is not the case in your font. To test, you can add ‘blabla’ to it, and then makeotf will not ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/jeremytankard/32/6409_2.png) [@JeremyTankard](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/JeremyTankard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/19 "2019-01-04T15:19:55Z")
OK. Will see how I get on ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/font-name-limitations/2918/20 "2019-01-04T19:33:09Z")
Yes. MakeOTF has some opinions about duplicating names. Thats why Glyphs writes its own name table now. I added the parameter as you described and it worked fine for me.