Font Version/Naming Best Practices

1

I’m ready to export and install version 1.0 of a font, but I’m sure I’ll continue to work on it and release improved versions at some point.

How do I go about naming/versioning the font in order to anticipate and avoid font cache problems on my computer and other users’ in the future? Is it enough to increment the version number in Font Info before exporting? How do people usually do this?

2

Read this please:
http://www.glyphsapp.com/tutorials/eliminating-font-cache-problems

3

Thanks for the reply. I’ve read this through, but it’s not really what I’m getting at.

It’s possible that this actually happens less frequently then I’m imagining, but I often notice that foundries offer updates for improved kerning, more glyphs/features, additional language support, etc. when they become available. To me, it doesn’t seem reasonable to ask a user to follow those steps to clear their cache every time a new version of a font they purchased is released. Or maybe that’s just how it is?

4

There are two conflicting solutions:

  1. Keep the font name: The user can install the new font and all documents will get the update. But those document will reflow. The steps explained in the tutorial are sometimes necessary in this case.
  2. Add a version number: The different version can be used side by side. But the user has to manually change all documents that use those font.
5

You would just need to ask Mac users to restart their Mac with the Shift key held down.

6

@paulzdon I’m curious to know what best practices you’ve learned since posting this question a couple years ago. I just released my first font and am planning updates to it, so I want to make sure I handle versioning correctly.

I plan on keeping the same name, so my assumption is I can just increment the version number in Font Info and export the updated files. If the files have the same name then won’t they install correctly and all documents will reflow?

I’m aware that I might have to support some customers if they fall into caching issues, that’s fine. The version numbers would be super helpful in helping solve disputes between releases with customers.

As a side thought, I’m wondering the best way to handle documenting updates between versions on the development end. Maybe there’s a way to do that in Glyphs directly? I suppose I could keep a running separate spreadsheet with the Version number and notes about what was fixed and/or added? Just thinking out loud here.

7

I don’t have much insight to add aside from something I mentioned previously that turned out to be quite true in my case: “this actually happens less frequently then I’m imagining.”

I found myself thinking very carefully about whether or not an improvement to a font was worth pushing an update. In most cases, it wasn’t. If such an improvement is so significant that it justifies a new version, the benefits ought to outweigh the hassle of reinstallation/cache clearing (and just generally trying to make sure users of the font are on the most up-to-date version).