Trying to remove a strange preview problem in FontBook. Fontlab doesn't seem to be able to change it.

djnippa16 November 2011 · 03:49

I am trying to change the way FontStruct fonts are displayed and uploaded into my Mac FontBook.

This is what I get, when I double click on a Fontstruct Font.
This is just before FontBook fully opens.

Every other font display the full alphabet.

So I uploaded the font into FontLab, and in the section Font Info> Additional Opentype names was this:-

So I deleted it all, like this:-

and clicked Apply. Saved the font, and reinstalled it.

Double clicked on the file again, and I still get this:-

Also when I'm in FontBook, and click Preview > Sample, I still get this:

Every other font displays the full Alphabet, upper, lower & numerals.

What can I do to change this so it displays properly?
It's driving me crazy.

I've cleared the Font cache already.
It's only really happened when I installed Snow Leopard recently.

André G. Isaak16 November 2011 · 05:13

Try clearing your font cache.

André

djnippa16 November 2011 · 06:25

@aglsaak. Great suggestion, but I had already done that. I've just cleared it again, but it still gives the same result.

Frank Grießhammer16 November 2011 · 08:35

Hmm … I just followed your process and it seems to work fine. Are you sure you deleted the old version of the font before re-generating it? (Have a look in ~/Library/Fonts, that’s the directory that FontBook uses to store user-installed fonts.)

djnippa16 November 2011 · 12:57

@Frankrolf Yes, I did do that.
I'm starting to think it's my computer.
I may have a problem with the operating system after I recently installed Snow Leopard.

gargoyle16 November 2011 · 15:40

Troubleshooting ideas: try generating the font with a new name; re-open your re-generated fonts in FontLab or OTMaster to confirm whether the names entries are really still there.

djnippa17 November 2011 · 05:10

@Gargoyle Unfortunately. That didn't work. Thanks for trying.

gargoyle17 November 2011 · 10:18

After messing around with the file sent to me by Nippa, I managed to get rid of the "Five zephyrs" text by changing the "Generating OpenType" preference from "Append OpenType name records" to "Export only OpenType name records." Having this option set requires that all of the name records are present in the "Additonal OpenType names" table, so I deleted the Sample text entries, then re-imported the default names (first button at the top). Generating that finally produced a TTF without the sample text entries. No idea why they persisted in "Append" mode after deleting them, since they're not present anywhere in what the manual refers to as the "friendly" sections of the Font Info dialog.

djnippa17 November 2011 · 10:44

@gargoyle HUGE thanks.
Excellent precise solution. I bow in awe of your skills.

I've just spoken to Rob Meek - the creative genius behind Fontstruct.
He said he'll look into changing some of the coding, so it should be more flexible, and usable in FontLab.

Which should hopefully alleviate any future dilemmas.

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