Re: [OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints
On Monday, June 14, 2010, Schrijver > You could actually come up with collaboration strategies around Fontforge’s > own format too; I think they made a plain-text version of it for this > purpose. (And I think this is in Nicolas’ templates as well). The main reason > why you would want to use UFO is that it is agnostic to the editor being used. Couple of quick points. First, the FontForge format has always been plain text. It works well with CVS, SVN, etc. It isn't really human-editable, but it contain everything--outlines, hints or instructions, OT features, kerning, etc. Second, UFO by contrast is woefully incomplete: it knows nothing about TrueType instructions, for example, or OpenType features. The slowness of its development is baffling to me, considering the importance of the things that are still missing. I flirted with it for a while but had to give it up. Strangely, the binary font formats remain very good for exchange. Both the major editors read them! Peter
Re: [OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints
> > > In other words, would it be considered polite to just distribute > FontForge source and expect someone contribute a script that exports > it to UFO or whatever, in case that someone really-really needs it? > > Alexandre Prokoudine > http://libregraphicsworld.org Well that depends. If you see the font as a finished work already that might make sense. But if you are serious about collaboration on your font imho you need to set up some kind of infrastructure for that; just like if you’re doing a software project. Of course I have no clue what kind of project you are working on and what scope it is—I’m curious to know! What you see most I guess is that people spread a ttf and maybe a fontforge file on their website and the oflb. Nothing inherently wrong with that. But I think both Nicolas and me proposed in our talks that font development can be taken a step further when taking cues from software development (no Nicolas?). This involves technology; but I’m inclined to think it will only get more easy as more people start to use these technologies and new interfaces get invented; sites like GitHub and Launchpad are already making it a whole lot easier to host your projects; and we can help each other out on the mailing list. § Practical: Fontforge exports to UFO without programming, btw. It actually does most things I just mentioned without programming; for example generating the font files can be done from the menu. Writing scripts is just a way of speeding up the workflow and making it more robust. You could actually come up with collaboration strategies around Fontforge’s own format too; I think they made a plain-text version of it for this purpose. (And I think this is in Nicolas’ templates as well). The main reason why you would want to use UFO is that it is agnostic to the editor being used. § Cheers, Eric
Re: [OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints
On 6/15/10, Schrijver wrote: > Generally, you won’t want to work on the UFO files directly, but you > interface through an editor which can read and write UFO, like fontforge or > the proprietary alternative. I sort of suspected that :-P > I guess internally fontforge then creates a fontforge project, but that > doesn’t really matter. The UFO is what you put into versioning, and what > other tools speak to. > > To get stuff in and out of the UFO fontforge scripting should work really > well; Dave posted a 4 line script to generate ttf’s; and you could for > example write a script that imports svg’s. That would mean fighting away some important tasks to get a grasp on programming. Not in this life. But I got the idea :) > We made some documentation on this on the wiki, but that’s offline… > **poke Dave** (sorry man, I know you work hard!) > > Eric > > ps to programmatically manipulate ufo there is also the robofab python > library Yeah, I was intending to have a look at that one day, when I have nothing to do, that is, when I'm dead and buried six feet underground :) In other words, would it be considered polite to just distribute FontForge source and expect someone contribute a script that exports it to UFO or whatever, in case that someone really-really needs it? Alexandre Prokoudine http://libregraphicsworld.org
Re: [OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints
Hi Alexandre, IIRC Nicolas doesn’t recommend a specific workflow, rather, this template seeks to accommodate the various workflows people might have. Generally, you won’t want to work on the UFO files directly, but you interface through an editor which can read and write UFO, like fontforge or the proprietary alternative. I guess internally fontforge then creates a fontforge project, but that doesn’t really matter. The UFO is what you put into versioning, and what other tools speak to. To get stuff in and out of the UFO fontforge scripting should work really well; Dave posted a 4 line script to generate ttf’s; and you could for example write a script that imports svg’s. We made some documentation on this on the wiki, but that’s offline… **poke Dave** (sorry man, I know you work hard!) Eric ps to programmatically manipulate ufo there is also the robofab python library How’s the wiki going Dave? Op 14 jun 2010, om 21:08 heeft Alexandre Prokoudine het volgende geschreven: > Hi, > > I'm finally looking inside > http://oflb.open-fonts.org/foo-open-font-sources-2.0.tar.gz that > Nicolas mentioned during his talk at LGM. Is there some kind of > description of the recommended workflow? Like doing everything in > separate UFO files and then combining them in FF, or working on a > FontForge project and then exporting all glyphs to separate files > using some script. Stuff like that. Anyone? > > Alexandre Prokoudine > http://libregraphicsworld.org
[OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints
Hi, I'm finally looking inside http://oflb.open-fonts.org/foo-open-font-sources-2.0.tar.gz that Nicolas mentioned during his talk at LGM. Is there some kind of description of the recommended workflow? Like doing everything in separate UFO files and then combining them in FF, or working on a FontForge project and then exporting all glyphs to separate files using some script. Stuff like that. Anyone? Alexandre Prokoudine http://libregraphicsworld.org
