Typophile

Kerning Classes Stopped Working in All Files

Stickley

I've upgraded Fontlab to 5.1.2 and my Mac to 10.8.1 and (now?) no kerning classes are working.

Existing files have stopped working; existing sets work for only the main glyph, and new/fresh attempts fail as well.

Typical sets look like this for my existing file left-side classes:
_VW_L: V' W Wacute Wcircumflex Wdieresis Wgrave

This had been working perfectly for the last few years of development.

So I've tried this:

• Make a new file with only A, V, and W
• Drew new shapes in each (no copy, all new info and shapes)
• Built a kerning class called _V with _V: V' W as the class
• Went to Kerning Mode and typed AVAWA
• Dragged the second A towards the V

The A is closer to the V as I moved it, but the third A doesn't move closer to the W

Expanding the kerning classes fixes the missing pairs, but with errors so I cannot output successfully (and I shouldn't have to flatten to get this work, right?).

All existing classes do not work for previous files—so I'm a bit out of sorts.

Did I forget something? Miss the obvious code marker? Argh!

Thanks.

Nick Shinn

Try inserting…

subtable;

…into the compiled kerning feature code, occasionally.

If the number of kerns gets too long in this table, they don’t all work, and the A_V is where it breaks down.
At least, that’s what I recall from a similar issue I’ve come across in the past.

Stickley

Thanks, Nick. The problem isn't with any particular set or class, it's all classes, in all cases now. The _V class was just a test example where the class had a set of five, for a total of five pairs in the entire test font, and it still failed.

Flattening out isn't what I'm after as I cannot check any class kerning for accuracy for diacritics or like-style glyphs—which is the point of class kerning. My final projects have been successful with 50,000+ pairs, no errors; now that effort is not working.

André G. Isaak

Perhaps a stupid question, but in your metrics window do you have 'class kerning' rather than 'individual pair kerning' checked?

André

Stickley

agisaak = genius

Whew! I'm so relieved I don't care that I look nuts. After years with this program, you'd think I'd know 'bout that switch.

Many, many thanks. I'd hoped it was just something I did.

Mcs

Captured from web.archive.org on 24 Jul 2014. view this capture