Have you tried using TTX?

Thanks Jackson. Is it very nerdy? Is it reliable enough for distribution fonts?

Yes to both questions.

It's very nerdy but pretty easy once you figure out the tables. I made a small osx app that generates afdko commands, it makes the nerdy stuff a little easier, especially if you have a number of files to deal with. If you're interested email me and I'll send it to you (hello at okaytype .com)

Thanks, gentlemen.

DTL OTMaster is another option. Because it has a GUI, it is perhaps considered somewhat less ‘nerdy’. A Light version can be downloaded from here, and on the same site you will find some more background info.

A cheap tool, Frank. Paragraph asked for a cheap tool. Cheap! OTMaster is for sure not cheap.

Not for .otf's (only ufo's), but worth mentioning: Tal Lemings' Area 51.

Although OTMaster isn't ‘cheap’, I consider it excellent value. It is a tool that has replaced three or more different tools in my typical workflow, and greatly simplified table editing.

John

Paragraph wants to have a tool with the help of which you can change embedding settings, copyright notices and license information. OTMaster is even not more comfortable for paragraph’s purposes. OTMaster is an excellent tool. But I think, that it is too expensive, especially, if you don’t need most of its features. Really – 255 Euro (+ 19% in Germany) – that is a moon price. Elitary in my opinion.

Quite, Arno. I checked OTMaster first following the link from typowiki, and found the price too steep for my pocket at this time. That said, I did try out the Lite version of the tools and was very, very impressed, good on you Frank!

I might be wrong here but I also saw it as a complete replacement system for FLS (which I have trouble enough mastering as it is) with its own learning curve rather than an additional tool?

Thanks Jackson for the app, I'll give it a try today.

Arno: Really – 255 Euro (+ 19% in Germany) – that is a moon price. Elitary in my opinion.

Looking at the development costs for OTM and the potential market for such an advanced and specialistic tool, the Euro 255 we ask for it is actually unrealistically low.

 
Jan: I also saw it as a complete replacement system for FLS

That is something that we are seriously investigating. Basically the DTL FontMaster suite is our current (very powerful batch) alternative for FLS, but it lacks a native OS X version (although the Windows version works nicely on a Mac under CrossOver/X11).

@Frank

Looking at the development costs for OTM and the potential market for such an advanced and specialistic tool, the Euro 255 we ask for it is actually unrealistically low.

But you probably would say the same about the DTL fonts, wouldn’t you? No doubt, that a font like DTL Fleischmann is excellent, but in my opinion fonts like Feliciano’s Merlo or Santos’ Capsa or Kobayashi’s Clifford are on a comparable quality level, if not on the same one. However, you are obviously successful with your calculations.

I am primary interested in a decompiler/compiler, that comments the XML tags and that checks the consistency. And it should be possible to personalize both, the consistency check and the comments. The naming system, that Adobe uses, violates the OT specification, but it works. So the consistency check reports errors, as far as I remember. In this context I would like to know, how fast you can update the OTMaster, when Adobe updates the AFDKO and how much updates/upgrades of the OTMaster will cost.

I would be interested in a light version (not the test version) without the glyph editor. I assume, that it would be easy to remove it. Can you imagine to provide such a version for less money?

Arno: But you probably would say the same about the DTL fonts, wouldn’t you? No doubt, that a font like DTL Fleischmann is excellent, but [...]
 
Looking at the man years put into the production of DTL Fleischmann, the pricing of the fonts is realistic. After an intensive study a large range of photographs were taken (ordered) of historical Fleischmann material and enlargements were made. Subsequently new drawings of all characters were made by hand. These were enlarged and served as the basis for the working drawings, which were all marked and manually digitized in the IKARUS format. The generated Bezier data was checked against the IK data for conversion errors and all contours were ‘cleaned’, i.e., unnecessary contour points were removed.
This production method was chosen to preserve the most tiny details in the design and it paid out when one looks at the quality of the final digital results.
 

Frank:
Thanks very much for those great shots of Fleischmann.

As to pricing, as you say, no one's forcing anyone.

@Frank

I did not doubt, that the price of Fleischmann is reasonable with regard to the invested man years. I have read the PDF about the history and the production process of Fleischmann; so I knew, that a long time was invested. It was not just a chance, that I picked out Fleischmann, because for me it is a reference like the loudspeakers of Spendor. But in this context I would like to know, how much you would like to have for Merlo, Rongel, Capsa or Clifford, if these fonts came from DTL. I only would like to know it. But an answer would be too indiscrete; so it is not a question.

The shots are really great. Thank you!

Do you think, that Fleischmann can be displayed adequate on (actual) ebook devices?

Arno: But in this context I would like to know, how much you would like to have for Merlo, Rongel, Capsa or Clifford, if these fonts came from DTL.

The Dutch Type Library is not a retailer of fonts as such, but a font (-software) producing and publishing company. More than twenty years ago I set up a font (production) program for DTL, which expresses my personal ideas about type and typography, and in which both high quality historical and newly to design typefaces got a place. The historical typefaces had and have to cover the different style periods and all typefaces should not overlap but support each other. This means for instance that the different contrast sorts and contrast variants are covered. Normally type designers are invited to make a certain typeface that fits the program, like Erhard Kaiser was in 1992 for DTL Fleischmann.

The complete DTL library will contain not more than roughly 25 typefaces at the end and each typeface will at least support Cyrillic and Greek besides Latin then.

@Frank

Do you have a list of German books, that are set in DTL fonts? If yes, I am interested in it. I think, I have to buy more books, before books are not available anymore. It would be cool, if foundries would publish those lists on their websites.