PostScript Hinting info

Glyphs
1

Hi

I’m looking at doing some PostScript Hinting and have a few questions, I have read the article

The article describes adding Vertical Stems and Horizontal Stems.

My font already has Vertical Stems and Horizontal Stems are these added by glyphs, is it best to use these or create my own.

My font has a variable version and I’m testing it on a web page I have built. While testing hinting I have removed all Vertical Stems and Horizontal Stems values and the font does appear to change, is this normal, does the font have to have hints.

2

I don’t think that Glyphs is adding stems. You (or someone) added them on some point.

But the question is not who added them but what are the right stems to have. The details are in the tutorial.

When you export a variable font, it depends if you export a ttf or CFF2 (only available in Glyphs 4) based variable font. The former doesn’t use the stems at all (unless you manually added TrueType hints). So you have to explain in more detail what you exported and how you tested it.

3

I’m currently using Glyphs 3, I will upgrade. I’m exporting .woff2 files and then importing that into my app to test the font on the site

4

So with Glyphs 3 you are getting a TrueType curve based font. That is not using the stem values.
What differences are you actually seeing?

5

What would be the difference in Glyphs 4, The font actual looks ok on the website, I’m just testing what the hints will do, But you say the woff2 font does not use the hints

6

So reading Hinting: manual TrueType hinting | Glyphs hints are ignored on Mac. I’m testing my woff2 font on a Mac and in the lighter weights it looks ok but I think h,q,b,y,d look very slightly bolder on the side. How might I fix or test this

7

Rule of thumb:

  • PS hints for Adobe apps (and in a pinch Windows)
  • TT hints for Windows (and in a pinch Adobe apps)

Everywhere else, built-in hinting is pretty much ignored. So, I would not test it on a Mac browser.

8

Sorry what do you mean ‘and in a pinch’

9

“in certain edge cases, as a backup”

10

So I have a variable font woff2, I’m testing on Mac browser, I think I could improve hinting in lighter weights, how would I do that, PS hints ?

11

On the mac, hinting is pretty much ignored. So there is not much you can do.

12

But you can make sure stems are the same width etc

13

Not a good idea to test on a Mac browser because hinting typically will not make any difference on the Mac. Better to test directly in the environment you are developing for. If you want to do hinting for Windows, you will need to test in Windows.

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14

On a Mac, you can generate a PDF and look at it in Adobe Acrobat. It still shows the hinting very faithfully.

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