So recently had a customer say they can not install my latest typeface on PC. I am on a Mac, but tested and found this was true. You would hope the resellers would at least check that the typefaces install before putting them on sale??
Started investigating and checking old typefaces I have launched. The old fonts install, but any that have been created on the latest version of Glyphs Mini 2.0.2 do not? So as a test, I opened an old Glyphs file for a font that installs, exported a new copy from the latest version of Glyphs. As I predicted, this new file also fails to install.
When I copied the old + new files across from the Mac, I noticed that the old also have a version named as follows ‘._Font-Name.otf’. However, for the fonts exported from v2.0.2 this does not happen and I am assuming that this is potentially the reason why the installs are failing.
Totally out of my depth here with these weird file types and PC’s so any advice will be very welcome : )
The file with a preceding dot is NOT a font. It is invisible on a Mac, but unfortunately visible on a PC. It is where macOS keeps the metadata. Glyphs does not create the file, the operating system does.
As for the installation problem, please share the error message you get.
Thanks so much for the reply. Yeah, knew it was not a font, assumed it was just the datafork or something. I had read it is generated by the OS, but assume this is initially triggered when the software creates the file, which is no longer happening like before. This would suggest it may be to do with the version of OS I am using? In case this is the issue I am currently on Sierra 10.12.2.
With regards to the error message it simply says that ‘XXX.otf is not a valid font file’.
In the interim, I assume I can not download the previous version of Glyphs as the new files are not backwards compatible?
The most likely cause for this error is a filename that is too long. Can you try with a shorter name? Below 25 letters in total (family plus style name) should be safe.
Thanks for the reply. This seems unlikely as in my test mentioned previously, the problem also occurred when I exported an old file that was fine on the previous version of Glyphs, but when exported on 2.0.2 it fails to install.
Just in case, here are all of the file names that were developed using the latest version…
Hi. I downloaded Table View. However, I do not know what I am looking at.
But, if this makes sense to you, the export from the earlier version of glyphs had the following:
GlyphOrder
head
hhea
maxp
OS/2
name
cmap
post
CFF
GPOS
GSUB
hmtx
The version created by the latest release of mini has the same except after CFF it also says…
GDEF
I noticed that there are differences even in the number for the glyph count, that makes no sense. Then when I click on ‘cmap’ the old version has a ‘Uni 2.0 + BMP 0’ – which is empty – and a ‘Win BMP o’ and ‘Mac Roman 0’ list, which I am assuming is all of the recognised windows/ mac compatible glyphs respectively. The new version does not show either Mac or PC list, just the empty ‘Uni 2.0’, yet still seems to install fine on the mac?
When I looked at the new typefaces created in v 2.0.2, they had the same lists missing.
Does any of this make sense at all?
Please see screen grab
You can select all fonts in the left sidebar, and compare the table entries.
What the entries are is explained in the bottom right pane.
I will try and see if I can reproduce the ccmp issue. It also depends on your glyph set. Which glyphs do you have in your font (and are set to export)?
Hi. Thanks for getting back to me and that useful tip. It’s really strange that the glyph count drops by 16 between the old file exporting on previous version of Glyphs Mini and the latest?
With regards to the latest fonts I am having trouble with, according to Glyphs app they have 346 glyphs covering Basic, Western Europe, Central Europe and South Eastern Europe. They are all set to export.
Just wondered if there is a clearer idea of what’s happening ie. is it something I have done/ my files become corrupted or a glitch in the software?
Seems more likely to be something I have done/ not done that is triggering it as otherwise I would have seen loads of people saying they had the same issue?
Let me know if there is anything you want me to try/ test.
I just found more time to look into this. In short, yes, it is a bug in Glyphs Mini.
I exported from the full (non-Mini) Glyphs version, and there, the cmap table contains the Windows subtable. To see if it really was the reason, I used OTMaster to copy the subtables from the Glyphs export into the Glyphs Mini export, and voilà, Windows installs the font without problems.
Workaround: export with the trial version of Glyphs if you do not want to downgrade Mini, or simply redownload Mini and do not update to its latest cutting edge version.
So, as a temporary fix, I have downloaded the trial version of the full software which has allowed me to export all of the typefaces. I have tested and sent them on to the patient customer. I will now get the resellers to update them.
Before I do, this version is obviously very different to Mini, so I was wondering if you could please explain to me the following on the font info section:
– In Masters where it says ‘weight’ is this in regard to web, where you would estimate whether it is 300 for light and perhaps 700 for heavy? Or, should this just be a duplication of the stem width?
– Then on instances, I did not really think this was relevant, but I noticed there was a ‘medium’ option active by default which was creating an additional unwanted export. I deactivated this and it seemed to do the trick.
Please let me know if there are any other settings in here that I should pay closer attention to. Apologies for my lack of technical font knowledge. That’s what happens when a designer starts dabbling with typography : )
Lastly, moving forward, will the bug be fixed on mini and an update released?
