Can you post details of your font naming conventions, what font format you are exporting, the version of Windows and the versions of the relevant apps.

Font format is OT (standard FL settings)
Mac OS 10.6.8
Windows OS Vista

Mac apps
QuarkXPress 8.12
Illustrator CS4
Photoshop CS 4

Windows apps
QuarkXPress 9.1
Illustrator CS5
Photoshop CS 4

I've peeked at some other fonts how they do it, but no cigar :-(

Some screen shots can be found here: http://www.omashuisje.nl/screenshots.pdf
(Typophile site keeps crashing when adding PNGs)

Thanks Jean, are you exporting TrueType OT or Postscript OT?

Can you list the complete range of weights? I can already see some components that could be responsible, such as having no weight number specified and the use of numerals in some naming fields (which should probably be okay but may have caused problems in the past).

Also, have you looked at either of the font naming guidelines below?

Karsten Luecke's guide to font naming.

Adam Twardoch's revised guidelines for font naming, which take into account some of the peculiarities in Word 2011 on the Mac.

Hi Karl,
Both TrueType OT and Postscript OT.

The weights:
UltraLight, Thin, Light, SemiLight, Book, Regular, Medium (in that order).
The numbers in the font names are something I saw in TheSans, not sure if that's the right way. Didn't work anyway.

I'll check out those guides, thanks!

Correction: not Windows Vista, but Windows 7.

Hello Jean Paul,

Behind the weight (SemiLight) is the value of that weight missing. All weights need a value which has to be different in every weight. SemiLight has the smallest and Medium the highest number. Normally fontLab fills in the numbers automatically when you choose the weight.

Best,
Pieter

It would be worth plotting the various components of the naming scheme before outputting. I recently suggested a naming convention based on multiple weights that might be a good basis for comparison.

FF Meta is a good example of an existing commercial font family that uses a similar weight structure to the one you are trying to implement.

As per Pieter's suggestion, you could use a weight/number combination such as this:

UltraLight [150]
Thin [200]
Light [250]
SemiLight [300]
Book [350]
Regular [400]
Medium [500]

Great stuff guys, thank you very much!

It works in Illustrator and Photoshop, but not in XPress (not the right order). I guess XPress is just strange ;-) I'll try InDesign now.

Thanks guys, you've really helped me out!

I guess XPress is just strange ;-) I'll try InDesign now.

I haven't used it since version 4.11 and it was certainly very odd then! The article about Quark's font mapping feature, below:

http://www.planetquark.com/2007/10/17/the-useful-hidden-convoluted-font-...

Makes me think that they have a rather complex approach to font management...

Going by the article, XPress's "Font Mapping" and InDesign's "Find Font" seem to serve the same task, replacing fonts document wide.

The article below shows a screen grab of the font menu with the Cronos Pro family organized by weight then style:

http://www.planetquark.com/2008/08/19/quarkxpress-8-wysiwyg-font-menus/#...

You could use this as the basis for figuring out priorities, at least in version 8.

I like that it distinguishes between OT-TT and OT-PS by coloured (green and red respectively) OpenType icons.

Thanks again Karl!

One last thing: how and where can I add my foundry name (like ITC, Larabie, Bitstream) so it shows up in, say, FontAgent?

The copyright fields are key but also the Names and Copyright/Designer Information, Names and Copyright/License Information (particularly if you can add a copy of your EULA) and you could add it to the Version and Identification/Identification settings "TrueType Unique ID record:" (having filled in the others try auto-filling this one) and "TrueType vendor code" for which you should be able to add a four letter (all lower case) code.

After doing that I would update the Names and Copyright/Additional OpenType names field, updating the autofill and then double checking everything.