Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType

Welcome to the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType (AFDKO).

The goal of the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType package is to share the tools used by Adobe font developers for wrapping up PostScript fonts as OpenType/CFF font files, and adding OpenType layout features. These tools are used for in-house development of new Adobe OpenType fonts. Use them at your own risk, and with no guarantee of support! We know that they work for the fonts Adobe makes, but have tested only part of what it is possible to express with OpenType. Note! Although the FDK directory tree contains a number of Python scripts, none of them can be used by double-clicking on them; they can only be successfully called as commands from a command-line window (the "Terminal" program on Mac, the "cmd" or "DOS" program on Windows).

Note also that the AFDKO is for adding OpenType data to existing fully-designed PostScript and Truetype fonts, and for proofing them. It does not offer tools for designing or editing glyphs. The makeotf proofing tools work with TrueType-based source fonts, but the checkOutlines and autohint tools work only with PostScript source fonts or OpenType fonts with Postscript outlines.

For questions about use of the FDK tools, please try first the FontLab forums at http://forum.fontlab.com/. FontLab and the AFDKO share a common code base for creating GPOS and GSUB layout features, and many issues will be the same. AFDKO issues are specifically covered in the forum http://forum.fontlab. com/adobe/afdko/. An alternative forum for the AFDKO is the Google Groups mailing list UAFDKOML.

There is also a public forum to which general OpenType questions are often posted. Note that this is not for discussion of the AFKO tools; it is intended only for general issues related to the development and use of OpenType fonts. To subscribe to this list, send an e-mail to: opentype-migration- sub@indx.co.uk

The latest version of the FDK, available via the download links, is now FDK 2.5 change number 21898. This contains important bug fixes, and a new FontLab script for generating instances from an MM font.

The previous release FDK 2.5, change number 21340, had many changes from earlier versions; please see the "AFDKO Overview", and for details, the "FDKReleaseNotes". The FDK 2.5 requires Mac OSX 10.4.x or later, or Windows XP or later.