I am not sure what you mean -- does the FLS5 Metrics Panel (if in Kerning mode) not show any kerning values, or does the font which you generated not use kerning which you defined? Which font format are you generating, PST1 or TTF or OTF? If kerning is not recognized in an application using the font generated, which application is it?

If it is the generated font only that ignores your kerning, then you might check the FLS5 Preferences(Mac)/Options(Win), last point "kerning" in the section for OpenType export (left column), therein the bottom option (something like: "generate/rebuild kern feature?") -- this should be checked.
Alternatively, you can use the Kerning Assistance and "update kern feature" manually.

Sorry that this is more questions rather than answers ...

Thanks for your interest. My problem is that my generated font, which I have tried exporting in TTF, OTF and PS T1 is not recognising my kerning values when exported and tested in Indesign & Illustrator CS2.

Thanks for your suggestions, I will try them now and get back.

MD

Went through preferences and ticked and unticked 'generate kern feature'. 'Generating All' both times, but no luck either when exported as ttf or otf.

Could I possibly have too many kerning pairs? I have noticed that in my Metrics window/ Kerning mode I have a fourth line called 'K', which has a value of -31. I presume 'K' is Kerning but the number is highlighted in blue? Is this number inncorrect or conflicting with metrics?

MD

Blue means negative kerning, which should occur in pairs like AV, for example.

That value of -31 is for which pair? If the font is correctly generated, you should be able to see that value in InDesign's Character panel, when you place the caret between the letters that constitute the pair.

I see. Hm, have you looked into the OpenType Panel -- is there a feature "kern" listed? If you compile features and type in a pair of which you know it is kerned -- is kerning applied here?

There seems to be alot of negative kerning in my pairs, a FL novice's error! ...I have now ammended. When I exported the typeface in .ttf format, the pairs which now have posititve values were kerned just as I had set in FL. hurray!! -31 was for lwr case 'av' kerning pair.

Does this mean that negatively kerned pairs will not export within the typeface? or Is it a matter of balancing the 'set' width of characters within the 'metrics mode', with kerning data in 'kerning mode' to achieve negative kerning? How would you negative kern?

In my 'Opentype panel' the kerning feature is there and all my pairs are also. Negative and positive, alot of negatives as I have said. I presume this was my problem?

What would be your advise for setting width in metric mode? For example would you just set metrics to character width, left and right and leave all spacing between characters to kerning mode?

A million questions, I know!
Thanks for your help.

MD

It should not matter if kerning values are positive or negative. If they are in the kern feature, they should go into the font and be recognized by Adobe apps.
(If you make PS-flavored OTFs, in "Options/Preferences"--"Generating OpenType & TrueType"--"Kerning", you should only mark "Generate OpenType kern feature &c". In the first section "Generating OpenType & TrueType", bottom part, "Export OpenType Layout tables", "Compare feature definitions" and "Generate GDEF table" should be on.)

Using classes may help you keep the number of kerning pairs smaller. In the middle of this thread, there was a bit more about kerning and classes.

How do you space/kern your font? Normally, letterspacing should be done in metric mode entirely, by adjusting the spaces to the left and right side of each glyph. (This is still the old metal type model.) And only if this resulted in good letterspacing, then you switch to kerning mode and refine individual critical pairs, say, VA AV &c. But this should be the very last step, and not affect too many pairs (at least in theory), if you don't want to get crazy!  ;-)

Karsten

My error was that I understood the Kerning mode to be the main tool from which to set letter spacing whereas I had only set character width in metric mode. I have been able to export a ttf with my kerning intact, however it entailed correcting the negative kerning?

I have made some changes to the glyphs since so this forced me into changing the metrics to a closer finished spacing, so a fresh start with some pairs seemed to be the only remedy.

Careful refining in kerning mode will resume in a while.

Thanks for your help.
(ps I might be back)

MD

I am customizing Garamond Premier Pro for a customer by adding several new glyphs (mostly underdot characters) using FL 502. There have been several issues with the kerning and small caps feature in the custom font.

My export settings are good according to earlier items in this thread.
The program will generate an OTF-ps font with the additional glyphs, but it retains only it's original OpenType tables and features.

My 1st concern is working through the kerning issues.
I have several problems with it working as it should.

I have assigned the new glyphs to FL's kerning classes (e.g. the cap underdot T is in the same kerning class as cap T with cap T being the parent or key glyph of the kerning class).
When I enter the metrics window the kerning pair values are visible in the kerning fields for the original glyphs (cap T and lower case a for instance) but not for the new glyphs until I actually click into or activate the kerning field.
Have others seen this behavior?

FontLab support has been reasonably responsive and advised me to subtable the kerning feature (a very tedious process in a font with 10,000 plus kerning pairs?). My most recent query to them said:
"I am having issues with subtabling the kerning feature"
Their response was:
This is a known problem with no easy fix. It's a problem (flaw in design) of the OpenType font format.
Do others concur with this statement?

If I try to recompile the OT Tables after updating the kerning feature I get an error like: [FATAL] GPOS feature 'kern' causes overflow of offset to a subtable (0x2c226).
Each time I manually add a new subtable to the kern feature (by keying in "subtable;" between 2 lines in the FL's OpenType panel) the subtable number in the error changes.
(And again, the new glyphs are not part of the updated kerning tables unless I have manually activated them in the Metrics window.)

Can someone offer me some guidelines to subtabling? other than Adobe's and Microsoft's suggestions to "divide the class in half with a subtable command" until it compiles succesfully.

> Do others concur with this statement?

Yes. Each GPOS table has to be below 64K, otherwise you get that overflow error.

Every time you use “subtable;” you're creating a new GPOS table. The downside effect of creating a new table is that classes that are only present in one of the tables, can't be kerned with classes in other tables.

What you could try to do is to save table space. This can be achieved by decomposing any class-class entries into single pairs pos, when both classes are constituted by only one character/glyph. Example: Lets say you have the following classes

_x_left: x'
_q_right: q'

and that you kerned 'x' with 'q' by '-10'. When you hit "Update [kern] feature", FontLab will generate the following entry

pos @_x_left @_q_right -10;

Since this is expressed as class-class, it is starting to eat up some of the "precious" 64K without being really necessary, since you can express that pair simply as

pos x q -10;

and place it at the top of the kern feature, before class-class entries.
Unfortunately, FontLab won't do this for you, so you either have to do it by-hand, or write a smart Python macro.

BTW, the original Garamond Premier Pro kern feature only makes use of subtable; twice. This avoids table overflow, and puts classes from different scripts in separated tables.

[Edit: Some developer resources below]
The Glyph Positioning Table, aka GPOS
The 'kern' feature (not to be confused with The Kerning Table)
GPOS rules/syntax