Font Validator from Monotype says “There is a style linking issue between your different font files” but it doesn’t provide any helpful information such as which styles are incorrectly linked. Instead it directed me to Glyphs Naming tutorial which I already read many times. Perhaps I should message their support directly, but first of all I want to understand if my files are fine or not.
Testing
Fontbakery (web version with Universal profile): It reported only about “Ensure VFs have ital STAT axis”. Perhaps it could be a Fontbakery’s temporary issue, and if so, that error is still there for at least last 3 month.
Photoshop (2025): When pressing cmd+shift+i/b, all the styles here are linked correctly, just like I set it up.
Illustrator (2025): When pressing cmd+shift+i for any style, it always change the font to “Italic”, and when pressing cmd+shift+b for any style, it always change the font to “Bold”. I don’t know if it is a feature of Illustrator and why it is so different from Photoshop of the same year.
TextEdit (on Sequoia with a test install): All the styles were linked correctly except of “Light” that for a some reason was linked with “Extra Light Italic” when pressing the “i” button. In the project file these instances are linked correctly, so it could be a TextEdit issue, not sure..
Style linking
I set it up according the Naming tutorial, and it looks like this:
coordinates instance linking
100 75 0 Condensed Thin
100 75 1 Condensed Thin Italic Italic of Condensed Thin
184 75 0 Condensed Extra Light
184 75 1 Condensed Extra Light Italic Italic of Condensed Extra Light
280 75 0 Condensed Light
280 75 1 Condensed Light Italic Italic of Condensed Light
400 75 0 Condensed
400 75 1 Condensed Italic Italic of Condensed
525 75 0 Condensed Medium
525 75 1 Condensed Medium Italic Italic of Condensed Medium
650 75 0 Condensed Bold Bold of Condensed
650 75 1 Condensed Bold Italic Bold and Italic of Condensed
775 75 0 Condensed Extra Bold
775 75 1 Condensed Extra Bold Italic Italic of Condensed Extra Bold
900 75 0 Condensed Black
900 75 1 Condensed Black Italic Italic of Condensed Black
100 100 0 Thin
100 100 1 Thin Italic Italic of Thin
184 100 0 Extra Light
184 100 1 Extra Light Italic Italic of Extra Light
280 100 0 Light
280 100 1 Light Italic Italic of Light
400 100 0 Regular
400 100 1 Italic Italic of Regular
525 100 0 Medium
525 100 1 Medium Italic Italic of Medium
650 100 0 Bold Bold of Regular
650 100 1 Bold Italic Bold and Italic of Regular
775 100 0 Extra Bold
775 100 1 Extra Bold Italic Italic of Extra Bold
900 100 0 Black
900 100 1 Black Italic Italic of Black
Some info about the project file that could help
The family has 3 axes: Weight (100-900), Width (75-100), and Italic (0-1), in this exact order.
Upright and Italic masters are compatible and are in the same project file.
Export is static OTF.
For all Condensed instances, I added the PostScript Font Name property to shorten the Condensed to Cn because without it the length of ID 6 was longer than 29 characters for the two following styles: Condensed Extra Light Italic, and Condensed Extra Bold Italic. I set it like Family-CnExtraLightItalic. Just in case, even after removing these properties, Font Validator still tell me about that style linking issue, so it doesn’t seems to be related.
Some masters were initially generated from instances. I don’t know if it could matter anything for style linking issue.
Hello. Can anyone help me figure out where the issue with style linking could be?
I set up style linking according Naming tutorial from Glyphs, however Monotype support says that style linking is wrong. Here’s the latest answer from their support team, but unfortunately it is limited in details:
During our review, we identified certain issues within the naming tables, which currently do not fully comply with OpenType specifications. Additionally, inconsistent usage of the fsSelection field has been observed, which can affect styling behavior and overall font reliability.
Okay. I just made a completely new empty project (without outlines) with Weight and Italic axes and 4 masters (2 uprights and 2 italics with italic angle set), exported standard 18 styles (9 uprights and 9 italics) linked according the tutorial, and I still get that error in Monotype’s Font Validator. I even get that error if I not link any styles at all, very strange. So, at this point, I’m not sure where issue is at all. Anyway, this error is blocking submission from being published, so it is a situation.
John Hudson on TypeDrawers checked these Test fonts and said that the name table is correct. Here’s what he answered:
Name ID1 and ID2 are correct for the 4-style RIBBI family linking. Name ID16 and ID17 are correct for the OpenType preferred family naming. Name ID6 is a hyphenated concatenation of the ID16 and ID17 entries, which is Adobe practice.
I installed AFDKO and run comparefamily command for the fonts from a previous comment. Here’s the fragments from the report related to the style linking and the name table.
Passed
Single Face Test 1: Length overrun check for name ID 18. Max 63 characters, must be unique within 31 chars.
Single Face Test 2: Length overrun check for name ID's 1,2, 4, 16, 17. Max 63 characters.
Single Face Test 3: Check that name ID 4 (Full Name) starts with same string as Preferred Family Name, and is the same as the CFF font Full Name.
Single Face Test 5: Check that CFF PostScript name is same as name table name ID 6.
Single Face Test 8: Check SubFamily Name (name ID 2) for Regular Style, Bold Style, Italic Style, and BoldItalic Style
Single Face Test 10: Check that no Bold Style face has OS/2.usWeightClass of less than 500
Single Face Test 12: Check that Italic style is set when post table italic angle is non-zero, and that italic angle is reasonable.
Single Face Test 14: Warn if Bold/Italic style bits do not match between the head Table and OS/2 Table
Single Face Test 20: Warn if there are double spaces in the name table font menu names.
Single Face Test 21: Warn if there trailing or leading spaces in the name table font menu names.
Family Test 1: Verify that each group of fonts with the same nameID 1 has maximum of 4 fonts.
Family Test 2: Check that the Compatible Family group has same name ID's in all languages except for the compatible names 16,17,18, 20, 21 and 22.
Family Test 3: Check that the Compatible Family group has same Preferred Family name (name ID 16)in all languagesID 16 in all other languages.
Family Test 5: Check that style settings for each face is unique within Compatible Family group, in all languages.
Family Test 6: Check that the Compatible Family group has a base font and at least two faces, and check if weight class is valid.
Family Test 7: Check that all faces in the Preferred Family group have the same Copyright and Trademark string.
Family Test 8: Check the Compatible Family group style vs OS/2.usWeightClass settings. Max 2 usWeightClass allowed.
Family Test 9: Check that all faces in the Compatible Family group have the same OS/2.usWidthClass value.
Family Test 11: Check that Mac and Windows menu names differ for all but base font, and are the same for the base font.
Family Test 13: Check that no two faces in a preferred group have the same weight/width/Italic-style values when the OS/2 table fsSelection bit 8 (WEIGHT_WIDTH_SLOPE_ONLY) is set.
Family Test 17: Check that fonts have OS/2 table version 4.
Menu Name Report
Preferred Menu Mac Compatible Menu Windows Compatible Menu
Test/Black Test Black Test Black/Regular
Test/Black Italic Test Black Italic Test Black/Italic
Test/Extra Bold Test Extra Bold Test Extra Bold/Regular
Test/Extra Bold Italic Test Extra Bold Italic Test Extra Bold/Italic
Test/Extra Light Test Extra Light Test Extra Light/Regular
Test/Extra Light Italic Test Extra Light Italic Test Extra Light/Italic
Test/Light Test Light Test Light/Regular
Test/Light Italic Test Light Italic Test Light/Italic
Test/Medium Test Medium Test Medium/Regular
Test/Medium Italic Test Medium Italic Test Medium/Italic
Test/Regular Test Regular Test Regular/Regular
Test/Italic Test Italic Test Regular/Italic
Test/Bold Test Bold Test Regular/Bold
Test/Bold Italic Test Bold Italic Test Regular/Bold Italic
Test/Semi Bold Test Semi Bold Test Semi Bold/Regular
Test/Semi Bold Italic Test Semi Bold Italic Test Semi Bold/Italic
Test/Thin Test Thin Test Thin/Regular
Test/Thin Italic Test Thin Italic Test Thin/Italic
Preferred Family: Test
Italic Angle from post.italicAngle:
Test-BlackItalic: -11.310
Test-ExtraBoldItalic: -11.310
Test-ExtraLightItalic: -11.310
Test-LightItalic: -11.310
Test-MediumItalic: -11.310
Test-Italic: -11.310
Test-BoldItalic: -11.310
Test-SemiBoldItalic: -11.310
Test-ThinItalic: -11.310
Test-Black: 0.000
Test-ExtraBold: 0.000
Test-ExtraLight: 0.000
Test-Light: 0.000
Test-Medium: 0.000
Test-Regular: 0.000
Test-Bold: 0.000
Test-SemiBold: 0.000
Test-Thin: 0.000
Preferred Family: Test
isBold from hhea.mscStyle:
Test-Bold: Bold
Test-BoldItalic: Bold
Test-Black: Not Bold
Test-BlackItalic: Not Bold
Test-ExtraBold: Not Bold
Test-ExtraBoldItalic: Not Bold
Test-ExtraLight: Not Bold
Test-ExtraLightItalic: Not Bold
Test-Light: Not Bold
Test-LightItalic: Not Bold
Test-Medium: Not Bold
Test-MediumItalic: Not Bold
Test-Regular: Not Bold
Test-Italic: Not Bold
Test-SemiBold: Not Bold
Test-SemiBoldItalic: Not Bold
Test-Thin: Not Bold
Test-ThinItalic: Not Bold
Preferred Family: Test
isItalic from hhea.mscStyle:
Test-BlackItalic: Italic
Test-ExtraBoldItalic: Italic
Test-ExtraLightItalic: Italic
Test-LightItalic: Italic
Test-MediumItalic: Italic
Test-Italic: Italic
Test-BoldItalic: Italic
Test-SemiBoldItalic: Italic
Test-ThinItalic: Italic
Test-Black: Not Italic
Test-ExtraBold: Not Italic
Test-ExtraLight: Not Italic
Test-Light: Not Italic
Test-Medium: Not Italic
Test-Regular: Not Italic
Test-Bold: Not Italic
Test-SemiBold: Not Italic
Test-Thin: Not Italic
Preferred Family: Test
usWeightClass from OS/2.usWeightClass:
Test-Black: 900 Black (Heavy)
Test-BlackItalic: 900 Black (Heavy)
Test-ExtraBold: 800 Extra-Bold (Ultra-bold)
Test-ExtraBoldItalic: 800 Extra-Bold (Ultra-bold)
Test-Bold: 700 Bold
Test-BoldItalic: 700 Bold
Test-SemiBold: 600 Semi-bold (Demi-bold)
Test-SemiBoldItalic: 600 Semi-bold (Demi-bold)
Test-Medium: 500 Medium
Test-MediumItalic: 500 Medium
Test-Regular: 400 Normal (Regular)
Test-Italic: 400 Normal (Regular)
Test-Light: 300 Light
Test-LightItalic: 300 Light
Test-ExtraLight: 200 Extra-Light (Ultra-light)
Test-ExtraLightItalic: 200 Extra-Light (Ultra-light)
Test-Thin: 100 Thin
Test-ThinItalic: 100 Thin
Preferred Family: Test
usWidthClass from OS/2.usWidthClass:
All fonts have the same value: 5 Medium (normal)
Errors
Single Face Test 11: Check that BASE table exists, and has reasonable values
Error: font Test-Black does not have a BASE table. This is necessary for users who are editing in a different script than the font is designed for.
And the same error for each upright style:
Family Test 11: Check that Mac and Windows menu names differ for all but base font, and are the same for the base font.
Error: The Mac and Windows Compatible Names for the regular face of a style-linked group should be the same. Font Test-Black
Mac Compatible Name:
Windows Compatible Name: Test Black
The comments from John Hudson regarding those two errors:
Presence of a BASE table is an internal Adobe test. There is no spec requirement for a font to include a BASE table.
The last error refers to the ‘Mac Compatible Name’, by which I presume it means name ID 18. This is an optional name ID, that is not included in most fonts. I don’t think I have ever used it, and it certainly isn’t common.
So, this report confirm that the fonts are fine and the problem is not on my side. Here are two options: 1. Just wait a few month until Monotype will get more such a reports. 2. Or maybe I should find a way to contact the Monotype tech team directly, bypassing the support team (that at this stage does not agree that the problem may be on their side).
For test files that I provided a few comments above (Weight + Italic axes), Fontspector reported only one error (red), for all styles:
Checking correctness of monospaced metadata.
Font is missing a required table: [103, 108, 121, 102]
In Fontbakery I didn’t have this error.
For working files from to my original post (Weight, Width, Italic axes), Fontspector also reported two more errors (gray), for all Condensed styles:
Checking OS/2 fsSelection value.
SKIP: No style detected
Checking head.macStyle value.
SKIP: No style detected
And Monotype support also told me that fsSelection is inconsistent.
Both test fonts and working fonts cause No style grouping conflict error in Monotype Font Validator with the message There is a style linking issue between your different font files
I run the spot command in AFDKO, and it shows that Name ID1 (in all 4 RIBBI styles) contains “Regular” after the family name. Thomas Phinney suggested that having “Regular” in Name ID1 could trigger that error.
AFDKO spot command report for Regular style:
nameId = name value
1 = Test Regular
2 = Regular
3 = 1.000;MR;Test-Regular
4 = Test Regular
6 = Test-Regular
16 = Test
17 = Regular
Then I added the parameter “Style Map Family Names” for all 4 RIBBI instances, to override Name ID1, and set the value to “Test” which is just family name. However, even after this, the error in Monotype still persists. So it is not the reason.
Did you try exporting with an older version of Glyphs3, just to check if it’s the latest build problem? Also, I know it this might be silly but can you post some screenshots of your Font Info/Exports, at least for some of your RIBBI styles?
Hi Hugo. It was my very first setup – with directly typing Regular in that field (for Italic, Bold, Bold Italic) instead of leaving it empty. On the next step I left it empty to see the difference. No difference.
What interesting is if I upload only 4 RIBBI members to Monotype – no error.
If I upload any other 4 styles (so there are no more than 2 style groups) – no error.
But if I upload more than 4 styles – the error occurs.
I asked their support team to provide more details about what exactly wrong with the Name table – which ID fields, which styles affected and so on. And how they detect the issue so I can’t reproduce it with AFDKO, Fontbakery, Fontspector.
You need to have a Width Axis if you have Condensed instances. Your original post says you have them, but I don’t see them in your latest screenshots under Axes Coordinates. Or is this a test file?
In original post I worked with larger family (that include Condensed styles) so that family has Width axis as expected. That was my working fonts.
But later, trying to figure out what is wrong with my working fonts, I created this smaller family called Test, without Condensed ones, from scratch, which is pretty standard 9 uprights and 9 italics. Sorry for this confusion.
Both families (never mind with or without Condenseds) cause an error in Monotype.
In my Test fonts from this comment (without Condenseds), Weight axis locations are pretty standard (100, 200, 300, …), strictly multiple of 100. It doesn’t change the result.
I also tried to upload the font today and got the same error.
Any 4 styles can be uploaded without issues, but if I try to upload more than 4, the error appears. My typeface has only one axis — weight — ranging from Thin to Black, with a total of 9 styles.
I still haven’t been able to upload the fonts or resolve the error.
