Have you tried clearing your font caches? That's the most likely culprit.

Make sure you have your font properties set to metrics in the Character property part.

I've got caught on that before, it remembers your last font on exit and if it was set to something different with the new font loaded the metrics part is grayed out looking like you cannot change it. You can change it though set it to Metrics.

Wot coincidence. I was looking for information on kerning and got this older thread, which explains the difference between, yes, CS2 and CS3 kerning behavior.

thanks for all the ideas... unfortunately no joy...

Thomas: I am not really sure what font cache is, but I have restarted, and shut down the machine many times, I assume that any cache issue would have been resolved by now..

Pete: I assume you are talking about InDesign, which I do have the metrics selected, not optical and not 'none'

Theunis: thanks for the thread, unfortunately though I did not offer any jump out solutions for me... I am a real beginner and it seemed pretty complex. I am running fontlab 5.0.2, and believe that as the kerning works in CS3 it is not an issue with the actual font creation. I have to get the font to work in CS2 for a client otherwise it is useless...

any more ideas would be greatly appreciated!

many thanks

I am running fontlab 5.0.2, and believe that as the kerning works in CS3 it is not an issue with the actual font creation.

Yes, that's what I understand from the thread. That's exactly the point: The kerning system that Adobe uses changed between CS2 and CS3, and pre-CS3 versions might encounter problems.

Have you tried writing the font from FontLab with a kern table (instead of, or in addition to the OTF kern feature)? In FontLab, go to Tools -> Options, bottom item is Kerning. It has a couple of choices, just because kerning caused problems in different programs. I'd start with just switching on 'Export kern table'.

hi
sorry, i clearly must be dense...
Tools -> Options, I cannot find this, nor a button for Kerning
FontLabStudio 5 right?
thanks

No, rebooting alone does not clear your font caches. They may not be the culprit (Theunis' explanation may be at least as likely), but if they are, you haven't tried killing them.

In this particular case, it would be the Adobe-specific cache files which could create different results across different versions of apps. You can kill them manually, or with a utility (the first one listed is even free):

http://www.jamapi.com/pr/index.html
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22795
http://www.insidersoftware.com/SM_smash.php

Cheers,

T

Menu "Tools", bottom entry sez "Options". Oh .. there are a few more than I remembered ...
Well, the option to output kerning in a 'kern' table (rather than what you are probably using now, the kerning OpenType feature) is in the section "Generating Opentype and Truetype". Expand this item, and there it is at the bottom.
See p. 109 of the FontLab manual -- it even states,

It is highly recommend to enable this option for TrueType / OpenType TT fonts. For OpenType PS fonts, the OpenType specification does not envision the “kern” table to be part of OpenType PS fonts but it is possible to include the table nonetheless. Mac OS X and Adobe applications will read and use this table.

which, coincidentally, might be a pre-CS3 remark, as you can read in the thread I referred to.

many thanks for the ideas so far, but still i have not been able to crack this...

Thomas: thanks for the clarification, FontNuke has done the trick (many times...)

Theunis: I think my missing options is a mac vs pc (preferences vs options) issue, sorry for the confusion
I have read, and reread your advice and the previous post
and read through the manual,
while slowly making sense, i really do not yet have the understanding to really get to the bottom of the problem.

I have tried a variety of OT export options
and the font works in everything except CS2 (suitcase, text edit, everything...)
I have cleared the cache with FontNuke many times
I am perplexed at what I have done or continue to do wrong
in desperation I am attaching screen shots of my options (preferences) below...
they are set how I think they should be, and to be honest, they have been basically like this the whole time

I think I have the correct settings in the 'kerning' options, it has always been enabled actually... :(

one thing that i did think would help (but did not) was flipping from OS/2 table version 3 down to 2... no joy...

anyone that can cast an eye over the prefs and point me to my errors would be greatly appreciated!

I have discovered my oversight...
i was working on two fonts that are related but seperate
one with a lot of ligs
and the one that is problematic, actually had no ligs
(as i have buried myself in ligs for 2 weeks, i thought it did)
and did not check that it was generating the GSUB (sp) table...

i added f i sub fi;

and it works...

my sincere thanks and simultaneous apologies for being so blind...
a good learning experience though...