My font is not a comprehensive one so it doesn’t have numbers etc. So in use when I type a number or something not included in my font, it switches to a default (minion pro) to type that in.
Can I set things so it just doesn’t type anything?
This is how the app/system you use handles it. You can insert empty glyphs if you want. But I suggest you use the Adobe Fonts folder for testing your fonts:
http://glyphsapp.com/blog/testing-your-fonts-in-adobe-apps/
Adobe apps will use your “.notdef” glyph and not switch to another font.
Okay, I have been uploading my font in font book.
So if I distribute this font to others I probably should fill in the unused glyphs with blanks?
Adobe apps will use your “.notdef” glyph and not switch to another font.
That’s what Indesign does. Illustrator switches to Myriad and doesn’t switch back.
So if I distribute this font to others I probably should fill in the unused glyphs with blanks?
That’s over 110,000 blanks to fill. Just leave the slots empty. It’s up to the other people to know how to use their software.
Remove the font from Font Book, restart your Mac and use the Adobe Fonts folder method instead. This way, you can avoid cache problems.
Make sure your font supports the languages you need. The sidebar in the Font tab helps you with that. Are you talking about Latin? Then make sure you support at least Western and Central European. Adding South Eastern European is not that much of a hassle after that.
True. Didn’t know that. Thx for pointing that out.Just a note on this. Not really glyphs app related but - would you say users prefer a non comprehensive font to show a .notdef glyph or for it to switch to another font?
Also @ mekkablue, I’ve just completed my first font (an optical sizing font) but have only the ‘basic’ languages covered. Is there any blog or something you’re aware of that covers how to make it for western and central European?
Blank glyphs are always a bad idea. You never now what the font is used for and you should not hide information.
And where to stop with adding the blanks I recently found a font that had blanks for ALL unicodes, that means the font had ~55.000 empty glyphs.
And to add the glyphs needed for western and central Europe, eiht click the categories in the sidebar of the font view and generate all missing glyphs.
On how to draw the central european accents have a look here: diacritics.typo.cz
The only empty glyph I ever add is space (and maybe thinspace). Other than that I just cover western, central and southeast European plus a few alternates plus a few extras like the Esperanto letters or Germandbls and a few things required by the project the font is made for. No one can seriously expect a font to cover everything. It’s not even possible technically. An OTF can have no more than approx 65,000 glyphs, but you’d need at least twice as many, probably more, to cover everything with all possible (and sometimes necessary) variations.
Thanks.