Import Font feature

[Bendy]

I’m running into problems when using the ‘import font’ parameter.

My master source contains Burmese and Khmer only. I am trying to import a Glyphs file that contains Latin and Thai (including glyphs, kerning and all OT features).

When I select the file to import, the glyphs are added to the main font view, and are locked from editing. That makes sense.

But the kerning and OT features from the imported file don’t appear.

Halppp

[mekkablue (Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer)]

Yes. That’s on our list. But the good news is that it’s cosmetic for the most part. They actually kern.

But the OT features you need to collect in the main file. For now, ignore the errors. They will compile.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

[Bendy]

Thanks.

Actually, I want to import the features from separate .fea files for each script. That works fine if I import features for Khmer, as the master file contains the Khmer glyphs. But I get an error for Latin, because those glyphs are in the secondary source.

And it won’t compile:

(I don’t want to try and copy-paste hundreds of lines of code from the .fea files from the designers into separate features in the main file, that’s a good way to risk human error, and it would take quite an effort to figure out the order of features/lookups if the source .fea files order them in different ways.)

Does my plan make sense?

[Bendy]

Little bump Can the include be fixed please?

[Bendy]

Another hiccup.

Because the Thai marks are in the secondary, linked file and the dotted circle is in the master file, no mark features are being generated automatically for combinations of Thai marks with dotted circle. Same .glyphs file I sent Georg on 9 September.

[Bendy]

I can’t get linked .fea files to work on the imported font, neither by including them in the imported font nor by including in the main file.

[Bendy]

hopeful bump

[Bendy]

Bumpy bump please. Import font has these problems:

• cannot include .fea files for the imported glyphs, either in the secondary/linked source or the main/master source
• no mark attachment code for imported glyphs (marks) attaching to glyphs in the main source (dotted circle)
• auto alignment goes haywire on imported glyphs (auto alignment is disabled on the secondary/imported source but enabled in the main source. It needs to be that way as the sources are in different scripts where different approaches work best.
• glyphOrder of linked source is not respected (imported glyphs are shown in Glyphs’ default categories)

[mekkablue (Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer)]

Thanks for the concise input. We are working on the improvement of font importing.

glyphOrder can only be taken from one source. So the glyphOrder parameter needs to be in the main file (host font).

[Bendy]

Thanks!

Another potential problem.

Normally I’d have something like this:

# Automatic Code End

lookup shiftMarksUpAfterTallConsonantsWithPostBaseCoeng {	
	pos [co-khmer tha-khmer pha-khmer ttha-khmer vo-khmer] [@regular_post_base_conjuncts_khmer @deep_post_base_conjuncts_khmer] @above_base_khmer' <0 38 0 0>;
	} shiftMarksUpAfterTallConsonantsWithPostBaseCoeng;

But this doesn’t seem to work either when I have this lookup in the Khmer .fea file, nor when it’s actually written in the Glyphs source MARK feature.

[Bendy]

Ahh wait wait. I notice in the Temp folder, the .fea file actually uses ABVM for Khmer mark positioning:

When I put the #Automatic Code End adjustments in the ABVM feature that seems to work but only when it’s in the Glyphs source. When it’s in the included Khmer .fea file, that lookup doesn’t make it into the Temp folder .fea file so the fonts don’t get those adjustments.

[GeorgSeifert]

The features from the imported files are not read at all.

[Bendy]

I mean, I’m using a separate .fea file that the primary Glyphs source is including. You’ll see what I mean in the files I’ve been sending you

[Bendy]

Any update on this, please? I can’t use ‘import font’ unless these things are working.

[GeorgSeifert]

It works better in Glyphs 3.2.

[Bendy]

Thanks, did you see my notes in Skype? I’m still getting those errors

[Bendy]

Looks like the kern pairs are appearing for the imported font. But now I need to kern some of the imported glyphs against core glyphs, like for example the Thai พ with the Latin slash or period. If I adjust the kern value of these pairs, the glyphs’ distance doesn’t move, and when I click to another glyph and then come back to that pair, the kern value has disappeared.

[Bendy]

I’m noticing that my manual MARK and MKMK rules are not being applied from the linked .fea file. Did I write the code correctly? I wasn’t quite sure about the position of that #Automatic Code End line.

Or maybe this is not supported since it needs to integrate with the automatically generated features? Do I need to cut the lookups out from the .fea file and paste them into the Glyphs source directly?

[Bendy]

Ideally I’d also like a way to control the glyphOrder when exporting the fonts. Currently the imported Thai part always comes at the end even though my glyphOrder has them first.