Final update: I learned enough of the API to straighten this out and re-order/re-index the glyphs assign new UNICODE and get the names all fixed up. Nice interface.
vvvv blah blah blah vvvv
Ok, the problem is that, with TypeTool III, one could see and work with the glyph index of the glyphs not just the UNICODE number (e.g. more a pure ‘glyph’ mode), and my mapping file in the app uses the glyph index, not the UNICODE value…
Somehow the exported indicies don’t agree with the imported numbers and the index seems to be held opaque to me in the app. To fix this I’ll have to apparently use a UNICODE mapping file. But it would be nice if you guys could actually expose and give access to the glyph indices as well.
Okay, update: I figured out how to get the UNICODE listed next to the character (but not the font index), and see how I can force/override the assignment in the Font table. I guess when I accidentally deleted the character previously and couldn’t undo, I re-created it and gave it a name and the UNICODE value corresponding to the name I entered was assigned automatically, and it didn’t break the whole font. Not sure though because my app is showing all the wrong glyphs. I have to check to see if my app is using index of the glyph rather than UNICODE and glyphs app reassigned the indicies instead.
I may have done a dumb thing when playing with menu options that caused it to re-assign numbers. I’m not using this for ordinary font, but for glyphs, art, for my app. I originally used Type Tool III by the competitor and decided to upgrade to this. Previously I exported the font as TTF. I imported the TTF, but somehow the unicode numbers are all wrong now after I exported it, and I don’t know how to get a list of all the custom assigned glyph names I had next to the UNICODE number and index, which I used to create a mapping file in my app originally, so it’s going to be extremely tedious to reassign the new numbers. It looks as though the Glyphs app tried to assume the right UNICODE value based on the name I gave to the glyph, but that won’t work because this isn’t mapping to the UNICODE space in that way. I need more control of the numbers or at least a way to quickly figure out what the app did and make my stuff go along with that.
Is there a way built in or plugin where I can list all my glyph names (maybe even graphic) in a table next to their index and UNICODE value?
What do you need the index for?
When you open a font, you can tell glyphs to keep the glyph names and sorting order by setting the option “Keep glyph names from imported files” in Preferences > User Settings. If that option is not set, Glyphs assigned names according to the GlyphData included in the app (that is kind of the standard names file you find in Fontlabs apps) but keeps the sorting order as in the file. but as soon as you add, remove or rename a glyph or running “Glyph > Update Glyph Info” it will apply the default sorting. It you don’t like that, open the file, select all glyphs, right click and choose “Copy glyph name > One per line” and make a “glyphOrder” custom parameter in Font Info > Font form it.
But in most cases you can let Glyphs sort the glyphs. It might need some time to get used to not control everything and let Glyphs help you ;). But if you need, there are options to overwrite most automatisms.
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The re-ordering got some of the custom character names and UNICODE values reassigned to the wrong glyphs. Names were missing as well. I started fixing that by hand, because FontLabs 7 demo does the same thing. The font was created with TypeTool III, and it guess its defaults were different as you mentioned I can avert the default sort/processing.
I’m a coder, but wasn’t sure for a one off task mastering the API was a good time investment for this. To straighten it all out, without coming up with conflicts with misplaced names and UNICODE values, I just assigned manually a unicode value F00XX to every character, and then I fixed up all the names, one at a time. Took a few hours.
But now my characters are not in any kind of visual (index) order that makes any sense for how they should be clustered. Further, some are called “Private Use”, some are called “Other” and some are under the heading “Predefined Sorting”.
I’d like to have some control of them to make my own ordinal subgroups. How would I do that in an efficient way?
What kind of glyphs do you have?
When FLS gives the same result, then there is probably something wrong with your font. Could you send it to me that I can have a look?
I can’t share these. Sorry. They aren’t a font, they’re for a proprietary app. They are not conforming to standard font metrics in anyway. They are designed to be able to rotate around their center. They are simply private glyphs. I miss being able to just place where I want or change the display order as per TypeTool 3. I think I thought it would be more glyph-generic because of the name of the app. Anyway, I posted a new question about how to display and order the font tab. Otherwise, I think I can get it working well enough.