No kerning in Office

Glyphs
1

Hey,

I have a weird problem. Microsoft Word does not kern otf’s exported from Glyphs. (I know kerning in Word needs to be manually activated).

The kerning works in all apps including Word when I do the following:
– Open the otf exported from Glyphs in FontLab
– Inside Fontlab I generate a ‘kern feature’ and finally generate a new otf from FontLab

Can I generate a similar ‘kern feature’ inside Glyphs so that I don’t have to generate it from FontLab afterwards? I did read several topics on the same issue but can’t seem to find a solution. I have no points off curve, all components are decomposed and overlaps have been removed.
Exporting a ttf makes no difference.

Glyphs is a really nice program!

2

Which version of MS Word, which OS?

3

Thank you very much for the quick response

I work with Glyphs 2 and FontLab 5 running on OS X El Capitan

I have tested on both:

  1. MS Word 15.13.1 on OS X El Capitan
  2. MS Word '10 on Windows 7 PC

There is no kerning issues with Adobe CS

4

Can you send me:

  1. the .glyphs file
  2. the OTF as exported by Glyphs
  3. the modified OTF as exported by FLS

to: support (at) this website without www

5

The kern table is an outdated way to store kerning information. It cannot store group kerning, and will usually only contain some of the kerning you made in Glyphs. The way it should be done is through the GSUB table. I am still testing, but could not get it to work in Word on Win8.1 yet.

2 Likes
6

Doesn’t Glyphs do this by default? The kern feature seems valid on the fonts that I generate.

7

Glyphs generates a kern feature, not a kern table. That are two completely different things.

1 Like
8

I was wondering how to generate what Rainer was referencing.

9

I am wondering what the answer to Torsten’s question is, that kerning in fonts exported from Glyphs does not work in WORD, or that there is a way to fix it?

10

Possibly related:

1 Like
11

Thank you for the reply, Tim.

I have deleted all kerning data in the glyphs file by doing the following:

  1. Delete all kerning groups + kerning pairs in my light and bold masters.
  2. Run Glyphs script: ‘Set Kerning Groups’
  3. Kerned ‘Y’ and ‘o’ in the light master (as a ‘test’ pair)
  4. Exported ‘Light’ otf from Glyphs 2.2.1

It still doesn’t work in Office Word. (Mac or PC)
In Adobe CS it works.

All glyphs have a unicode value.

12

The thing with that all kerned glyphs need a Unicode value is not true.
When it doesn’t work, it is because the system rejects the font for whatever reason and they can be numerous.

13

Just a quick note to let you know that I have escalated your question to higher level support, meaning a good friend of ours at the Microsoft type department is having a look at it.

14

Thank you very much!

15

Thank you. The latest font I’ve designed (In Glyphs) works fine in WORD 365 (PC), kerning ligatures and all, but the kerning is off in PowerPoint 365 (PC), even though I’ve turned on ‘Kerning’, it’s just weird.

I really look forward to the development on this topic.

1 Like
16

Any news regarding this issue?

17

Thank you for contributing. I suspect that Excel is a different problem altogether.

For everyone who want to contribute his or her findings, please always specify:

  • if you exported TT (.ttf) or CFF (.otf)
  • the amount of kerning (Window > Kerning, number of pairs at the bottom) and whether you have group kerning (kerning groups set)
  • the version of Windows (e.g., 7, 8.1 or 10)
  • the version of the apps (e.g., 365 in this case)

My findings so far (I am testing in Word 2013 on Win8.1):

  • There must not be too much kerning.
  • Other problems in the font must be sorted out (esp. path directions and naming).
  • GPOS kerning is more likely to work with CFF (.otf) fonts.
18

I can’t get my .otf font to display in Word with kerning either.

.otf
651 kerning pairs set in groups
Word for Mac 2011
My paths are very complex due to the nature of the font (a Brush script)

Is there another program to set the kerning feature that will be picked up better by Office to be used in conjunction with Glyphs? (Apart from FLS/Fontographer).

19

Does Word for Mac 2011 support OpenType tables like GPOS at all?

20

Yes it does. There are always some arbitrary issued. Sometimes it doesn’t like one of your glyphs. Or the kerning table. Or you need some other features or not…