http://forum.fontlab.com/fontlab-studio-tips-and-tricks/font-family-nami...

Hope this helps, it helped me.

Karsten Lücke's "Font Naming" pdf is great. Maybe you should nuke your font caches too.

Post screenshots of your naming and OT naming options for these fonts, please. Regular and italic versions.

Also, I have found that even after deleting fonts and cleaning the font caches Indesign will sometimes maintain an incorrect family name for a font even after a correctly named version has replaced it.

Nick

I wrote this python code to help me with naming fonts in FL - it works for Light, Regular, Medium, Bold and Italics. You should be able to adapt it for other weights.


from robofab.world import CurrentFont
from robofab.interface.all.dialogs import AskString
f = CurrentFont()
#
fontName = AskString('Font Name')
Weight = AskString('Weight')
#
def naming( short, weight, weight2 ):
f.info.familyName = fontName+" "+short
f.info.widthName = "Normal"
f.info.styleName = weight
f.info.fontName = fontName.replace(' ', '')+"-"+weight2.replace(' ', '')
f.info.fullName = fontName+" "+weight2
f.info.menuName = fontName+" "+short
f.info.fondName = fontName.replace(' ', '')+" "+weight2.replace(' ', '')
f.info.otFamilyName = fontName
f.info.otStyleName = weight2
#
if Weight == "Thin":
naming("Th", "Regular", "Thin")
f.info.weightName = "Thin"
f.info.weightValue = 250
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Light":
naming("Lt", "Regular", "Light")
f.info.weightName = "Light"
f.info.weightValue = 300
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Regular":
naming("Rg", "Regular", "Regular")
f.info.weightName = "Regular"
f.info.weightValue = 400
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Medium":
naming("Lt", "Bold", "Medium")
f.info.weightName = "Medium"
f.info.weightValue = 500
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Bold":
naming("Rg", "Bold" ,"Bold")
f.info.weightName = "Bold"
f.info.weightValue = 700
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Thin Italic":
naming("Th", "Italic", "Thin Italic")
f.info.weightName = "Thin"
f.info.weightValue = 250
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Light Italic":
naming("Lt", "Italic", "Light Italic")
f.info.weightName = "Light"
f.info.weightValue = 300
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Italic":
naming("Rg", "Italic", "Italic")
f.info.weightName = "Regular"
f.info.weightValue = 400
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Medium Italic":
naming("Lt", "Bold Italic", "Medium Italic")
f.info.weightName = "Medium"
f.info.weightValue = 500
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
elif Weight == "Bold Italic":
naming("Rg", "Bold Italic", "Bold Italic")
f.info.weightName = "Bold"
f.info.weightValue = 700
print f.info.fullName+" "+"Named"
else:
print "Ooops that's not a weight"
print fontName+" "+"is not named"
#
f.update()

Rachel, that's a good idea.
Let's hope that this is incorporated into the next FontLab, invisibly!

Why are there so many options in FontLab and no definitive solution to generating an OTF family in a range of weights?

The whole font-naming mess is a conspiracy to create work for programmers and derogate the importance of mere glyph-limners.
On the up side, if you ever get this sorted out, you can charge big bucks/eros/pounds for being such a pro!

The font naming issues are complex and varied… I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had problems. I figured it out through a combination of sources such as the links above and a lot of trial and error, now that I'm set I'm sticking with the process I have as it works well.

As this involves italic, how about this little gem from Miguel Sousa (nothing to do with naming fonts):
http://typophile.com/node/55320

Since my last post I ran into the same problem. There was a space after the last character in one of the font names, and that space was causing the font to be counted as a second family with what looked like the same name. Fixing the fonts did not fix the problem; I found that the only way to fix it was to stop using the fonts via a font manager and instead put them in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts.

Thanks for all the help. It's sorted now - I renamed them all slightly and that sorted it.

Rachel - thanks for that, but I have no idea what to do with it; I have an aversion to all that python stuff - it's on a par with manual hinting which thankfully I have also managed to steer well clear of. Creating features and classes is bad enough, but that makes me shudder.

Nick Cooke

Nick

You do need RoboFab installed it's really simple - I'm not the sharpest knife in the box.

1. Select all the code and save it in a text file (I use TextMate on a mac).
2. Name the file something with .py at the end, I use NamingMacro.py
3. Put this file into your macros folder, on a mac thats - /Users/Username/Library/Application Support/FontLab/Studio 5/Macros
4. In FontLab open the macros toolbar View - Toolbars - Macro.
5. The file you put in the macros folder should be there, select it and press run.
6. A window will open asking you for the family name then one for the weight.
7. Done.

It would be nice to have an expanded version of RoboFab to handle all weight possibilities… does RoboFab mimic FontLab Studio naming even for the PS Font name with no spaces and the OpenType naming?

Does it sync with Adam Twardoch's naming conventions for FontLab Studio?

Just curious this looks interesting.

I don't have any problems currently with naming but it looks like a very efficient system…

Mike

I tried that on an unnamed font and an output window came up with:

File "", line 1
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf430
^
SyntaxError: invalid token

I assume that's not right?

Nick Cooke

Nick

Do you have RoboFab installed and working correctly ?

Do you get the windows asking for the Font name and Font weight ?