Please upgrade ttfautohint to v1.5

I’m using Version 2.3b (848) and it appears to have ttfautohint to v1.4 bundled, which is now stale :slight_smile:

I can see that simply replacing the binary at /Applications/Glyphs.app/Contents/PlugIns/OTF.glyphsFileFormat/Contents/Resources/ttfautohint will do the trick, but it will surely be downgraded again when the next update hits.

Therefore it would be nice to have a Font customParameter useSystemTtfautohint that when active used the ttfautohint in the user’s PATH.

PS. Is there somewhere better to report stuff like this than the user forum?

(The UI will also need updating)

You can post feature requests here, or in the bug reporter:
http://bugreport.glyphsapp.com/

You can post feature requests here, or in the bug reporter:

The bug reporter is that it seems to get ignored for weeks at a time and most users don’t use it at all. Posting to the forum gets faster responses. And it’s easier for us to see what bugs others are posting about. So we’re less likely to submit duplicates and more likely to comment on bugs and ideas.

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Updated the binary.

I could try to load the external library automatically if it is newer? Or is this a bad idea?

I’m not happy with the bug reporter tool. If anyone has a suggestion of a tool that combines a forum with a (simple) bug reporter would be great.

But for things like a notification that a lib needs updating, an email might be enough.

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Thanks all, that clarifies things for me :slight_smile:

(And no, I don’t know what to suggest that is hybrid like that… I guess it could be done by tagging forum posts perhaps?)

I could try to load the external library automatically if it is newer?

How about a custom parameter to use external TTFA and pass flags to it?

Or is this a bad idea?

I see a big potential drawback. Many designers can’t even install the FDK or Robofab without a video tutorial. Making external builds of TTFA accessible might generate a lot of support requests from people who won’t learn how to use a computer.

Yeah if Glyphs is quick to ship new versions, it is not really needed.

Those would just use the version provided with Glyphs.

I saw the new scripts, anything else?

When you use such ‘hidden’ parameters, they are still rendered in grey text like an arbitrary string, rather than black text like a parameter picked from the menu. I suggest that known parameters are black, even if not in the list, to indicate to the user they did type it correctly.

For this useTtfautohintFromPath parameter, it should have a default path of /usr/local/bin/ttfautohint

In Version 2.3b (848) the TTFAutohint options parameter forces this UI

However, newer versions of ttfautohint can introduce new command line arguments which this UI does not cater for.

I suggest that either (a) there is a new TTFAutohint arguments parameter that is plain text and is used instead of TTFautohint options if both are present, or (b) there is a button in that UI to ‘escape’ it, and get back to the plain text arguments.

There are also many changes to arguments in v1.5.

The --pre-hinting argument has been removed, and these are new:

--adjust-subglyphs     
--detailed-info      
--ignore-restrictions
--ttfa-table  
--control-file=/path/to/file
--fallback-stem-width=50 (default value)
--family-suffix="string to append to family name" (perhaps default "TA")

Possible value for script are now:

  arab (Arabic),
  beng (Bengali),
  cyrl (Cyrillic),
  deva (Devanagari),
  grek (Greek),
  hebr (Hebrew),
  khmr (Khmer),
  khms (Khmer Symbols),
  lao (Lao),
  latn (Latin),
  latb (Latin Subscript Fallback),
  latp (Latin Superscript Fallback),
  mymr (Myanmar),
  telu (Telugu),
  thai (Thai),
  none (no script).

The detailed-info arg is what I want the custom path to binary for, in particular :slight_smile:

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do you have a current screenshot of the ttfautohint GUI?

brew uninstall ttfautohint; brew install --HEAD ttfautohint --with-qt;
ttfautohintGUI;

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Version 850 has the update.

The list of scripts is broken:

Perhaps the list of scripts supported could also be adjusted via a ttfautohintScriptsList and ttfautohintFeaturesList custom parameter, as that is probably the only thing that might vary between the latest ttfa release (which we can assume the glyphs UI supports all the options for) and the git master version.

The full list of scripts now supported in the ttfautohint git master version is today:

  arab (Arabic),
  beng (Bengali),
  cyrl (Cyrillic),
  deva (Devanagari),
  grek (Greek),
  hebr (Hebrew),
  knda (Kannada),
  khmr (Khmer),
  khms (Khmer Symbols),
  lao (Lao),
  latn (Latin),
  latb (Latin Subscript Fallback),
  latp (Latin Superscript Fallback),
  mlym (Malayalam),
  mymr (Myanmar),
  sinh (Sinhala),
  taml (Tamil),
  telu (Telugu),
  thai (Thai),
  none (no script).

and features

  c2cp (petite capitals from capitals),
  c2sc (small capitals from capitals),
  ordn (ordinals),
  pcap (petite capitals),
  ruby (ruby),
  sinf (scientific inferiors),
  smcp (small capitals),
  subs (subscript),
  sups (superscript),
  titl (titling).

Is there a way to hint unencoded glyphs with ttfautohint? It seems that PUA and unencoded glyphs don’t get hinted :frowning:

Setting the fallback script doesn’t help?

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