Variable font export error: outside transparent overlaps

Glyphs
1

Gyphs 3112

Hello, I am running into an issue which appears quite difficult to crack. I am trying to export a project as a variable font and am receiving the error “Incompaible outlines. This can be caused by transparent overlaps.” for the glyph six.blackCircled (and six.circled if I set the former to non-exporting). These glyphs are built from six.dnom and a circle component, which each export fine themselves. The problem is not the overlap of the components, as six.circled experiences the same issue, where there is no overlap of the component paths.

Any ideas? Thank you!

2

The outside corner thing is only one reason why this can happen.
Can you send me the file that I can have a look?

Can you try to set the “Mask” checkbox for the six.dnom component?

3

I sent you the file, thank you. After that, I tried the Mask thingy (and un-ticked “Reverse”). It works, thanks a lot. Why is this?

4

Umm, actually, no, it doesn’t work, now I get “Can’t convert curves to compatible TrueType outlines” for both six.blackCircled and nine.blackCircled.

5

I seem to have found at least one pointer as to where the issue arises. When I decompose the components, the overlap in the component six.dnom is removed. This makes the glyph incompatible, as the open corner is closed (“sharpened” :roll_eyes:).

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Above: Component six.dnom inside six.circled after decomposing
Below: Actual component six.dnom with open corner

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If I move the smooth node from the wide master upwards to be outside of the open corner, it works:

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6

Did anyone ever find a solution to this? I’m having the same issue and nothing that i can think of is wrong, masters are compatible etc…

7

Can you explain what exact problem you have?

1 Like
8

The problem is still the same as described in my last post: if I use a component like six.dnom in six.blackCircled, for export, the component six.blackCircled is decomposed, but with overlap removed (open corners become closed). So it becomes incompatible. Is there some way of decomposing these glyphs on export but not removing overlap?

9

@GeorgSeifert I have a file that started giving “Incompatible outlines. This can be caused by outside transparent overlaps.” error when trying to export a variable .tff
All masters are compatible, so I’m not sure where the error is, happy to share file if it helps?

10

Check for glyphs that contain open corners and in which nodes disappear inside open corners.

11

The overlap is removed because when the outline is used as a negative shape, those overlaps become outside corner overlaps and would be visible.

You can try to set it up manually with outlines to see for yourself.

12

True, I’d forgotten about that. Thanks.

13

Some of the problematic glyphs are not even having points as they’re components, do you have any input on what else could cause this?

14

It still can be that same problem when the components are decomposed. Can you send me the file that I can have a look?

1 Like
15

I’m seeing the transparent overlaps error when exporting a ttf for variable fonts. I,m using a filter to export only compatible glyphs, since one master is incomplete. Among the glyphs that show this error is an l, which has no overlaps. The rest of the error glyphs have overlaps but they are complatible (enforce compatibilty check is on) though they too “can’t convert to comparibel TryeType curves”. I hope the screenshots convey my situation. Thanks for your attention.

Screenshot 2024-12-29 at 4.35.17 PM
Screenshot 2024-12-29 at 4.35.17 PM630×826 26.8 KB

Screenshot 2024-12-29 at 4.35.30 PM
Screenshot 2024-12-29 at 4.35.30 PM1129×808 82.7 KB

16

Can you show both masters of an affected glyph (m, for instance)? And show what the path looks like after decomposing all corners?

17

Shorten the outstroke of the corner so that the blue highlights don’t overlap. For flat serifs, you can remove the horizontal segment in the corner.

18

@GeorgSeifert I figured out the issue from @SCarewe Sebastian’s comment. The corner components were not compatible—extra point. Yet they were found compatible. This is puzzling.

I did notice the overlapping corner lines a little earlier which affects the narrower stem, and fixed it, but this did not resolve the error.

However the transparent error is resolved.

Onward to the next error!

Many thanks to you both.

19

After this fix, all the uppercase glyphs from A to T gave this error

“Unknown glyph “A”
Found in: class ‘Uppercase’, line 1”

on OTF, Postscript export.

Apparently U–Z are ok

20

Update your features.