I am pleased to welcome Pooja Saxena and Igor Freiberger to the FontLab team!
Some weeks ago we advertised for several kinds of work we needed part-time contractors to help with here at FontLab: testing/QA, documentation and tech support.
We had a small swarm of applicants. There were many plausible candidates, but Igor and Pooja stood out as being both versatile and well qualified. Both will be doing a wide range of tasks here, so you may encounter them in a range of roles. This week we are having Igor focus on reproducing and logging FontLab VI bugs reported by users in our forum, and Pooja working with some of the rest of us on documentation. (The FontLab Studio 5 manual was over 900 pages, and the app is all new, so there is plenty to write about.)
Igor Freiberger is a designer and type designer who has been using FontLab VI since before we even started the public preview, and has been an eager reporter of bugs and issues from very early on. He is a former IT manager and teacher, graphic designer and web designer, and was the first Adobe Certified Expert in Brazil. He is based in Porto Alegre, in the far south of Brazil.
Pooja Saxena is a 2012 graduate of the Reading MA Typeface Design program. Since then, she has been a consultant for large tech companies, including Google, and done type design for Latin and multiple Indic writing systems. Pooja is a regular contributor to the Alphabettes web site. Her work has been featured in several magazines, and covered by the Times of India. She is based in Noida, India (near New Delhi).
Are you a type tech geek & writer? Get paid to become a FontLab VI guru!
Location: wherever you want to work from, remotely!
Hours: part time, whenever you want. Show up for a weekly virtual meeting.
Apply to: “thomas” at the obvious domain.
The Docs Writer will take a major role, with other staff, in documenting FontLab VI. The interface is largely new, and there are many new features.
There is plenty to be done at FontLab, and an energetic candidate with varied skills and interests will be welcome to do other things too! In fact, given the right candidate, this position could be combined with one or both of our other part-time positions: QA tester and tech support.
Requirements:
Good written English skills
Some familiarity with a font editing app, such as FontLab Studio 5, Glyphs, RoboFont or FontForge
Writing experience (bonus: software documentation or other instructional materials)
Works well independently, “self starter” (a cliché, we know!), copes well with ambiguity, can help define problems as well as attacking them afterwards
Mac or Windows computer (Mac preferred)
If Mac, 2560 x 1600 retina screen (or better) recommended.
If Windows, 1920 x 1080 (or better) screen recommended.
Primary duties:
Write, edit and expand FontLab VI documentation (considerable portions already written)
Help change the draft docs to be process-oriented
Illustrate docs with screen shots as appropriate
Optional Duties / Opportunities for Development
Create tutorial/educational videos for FontLab VI
Make product workflow & feature suggestions
Appreciated Bonus Attributes:
Experience using FontLab VI, currently in Public Preview
Interest in using FontLab VI outside of paid work
Experience with other font editing apps
Familiarity with Markdown (a lightweight formatting language used in both our bug tracker and our docs authoring system)
Sometimes a particular app or utility we offer gets old, and we have no intention of updating it, generally because of lack of customer interest. Discontinued programs we do not promote at all, have no web page for, and do not appear in our regular store. Deprecated ones we have no current intention of updating, label the web page as such, but do still have a page for and store presence (ScanFont, BitFonter).
Mostly, we discontinue: just remove those product pages and discontinue the product entirely. I have done this with a number of things we have offered, such as FOGlamp (it converted Fontographer native files directly to FontLab Studio—newer versions of FontLab Studio just open those old FOG files). In such cases, if you desperately need it for some reason, contact our sales department and they may be able to hook you up.
But sometimes a product has a peculiar combination of attributes:
It wasn’t selling enough units that it makes sense for us to update it or make a new version.
Some people who want it or need it have no reasonable other alternative. Maybe any competing products don’t have the same features, or are not offered on the same operating systems. Or they just do not exist!
So, we keep web pages live for these programs and sell them, because we know a few people really need them. We also label them as deprecated. What does that mean?
We have no current plans to create a new version of this product. (Some or all functionality from this product might be folded into something else.)
Support for this app has some limitations. We still try to support it, but if there is a problem that is a known bug… well, there may never be a fix. Our expertise/ability to support it will likely be in a gradual decline.
Mac-specific issues for deprecated apps:
In some cases (BitFonter, ScanFont), the Mac version of this product no longer runs on any recent MacOS, and our solution for Mac users is to bundle the Windows app in a WINE wrapper. This makes a larger app that is running the Windows version under emulation, on a Mac.
Generally, the Mac version of the app has not been updated to be “retina savvy.” This means that on any recent Mac hardware with a double-res “retina” monitor, the app will still work, but some elements of the app will run at half that resolution and seem blurry. This can be worked around to some degree by running your Mac in a higher but non-retina screen resolution, but that is a compromise between blur and things getting smaller. If you run at full resolution but non-retina, everything will be very crisp but half-size. A utility such as QuickRes or DisplayMenu can help give you more choices for non-standard Mac resolutions. (Note: Even some of our non-deprecated apps are not retina-savvy. I will have a separate post about this soon.)
For the latter part of last year, and all this year, we have been expecting and saying that FontLab VI would ship, well, “this year” (2016). But we are not going to make that, as became clear to us earlier this month. Instead, we currently expect to ship in February.
FontLab VI in action (click for full size)
We could have hurried up with the last couple of things and “just shipped it.” But anybody who has used software a long time knows what that will do—FontLab VI just needs more “bake time.” That is, time for us all continue to give it a real workout, doing extensive and ongoing type design tasks, so we can find and fix a bunch more bugs and usability issues before we ship it.
We continue to make prerelease builds available, and even more frequently! Another one just came out on December 15th. If you already have a Public Preview build on Mac or Windows, just launch it and it will prompt you to download and install the newest built. If not, you can register and get emailed a download link from our Preview page. When you find problems in the Public Preview, please report them in our user forum! We appreciate your help and feedback in making this a better app.
FontLab VI, like previous versions, is a very flexible tool that can be used in many ways. That means it has many possible workflows. This is great, but means the app will really benefit from feedback from real-world users trying real-world tasks. Not just us doing things the way we would do them.
We really want to make FontLab VI a great tool for type designers and font friends everywhere. Thanks for your support.
Windows users, your font editor of tomorrow is nearly ready! For all you Windows users who have been patiently waiting for something new and better than FontLab Studio 5, there is now a Windows version of the free FontLab VI Public Preview. (Plus an updated Mac Public Preview.)
Visit fontlab.com/vi, learn about the features, register and download FontLab VI Public Preview for Windows now! Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you can use its current full functionality. The current build will expire by the end of the month, but you will be notified of a new Public Preview build via the built-in auto-update system. FontLab VI Public Preview will remain free until we ship the final app!
FontLab VI is our next-generation professional font editor, crafted for type designers and font geeks. Five years in the making, we’re still putting finishing touches on it. It’s a massive upgrade over FontLab Studio 5, and remains the only true cross-platform type design and font creation app. With FontLab VI, you get the same high performance, clean user interface, and innovative font making tools on Mac OS X and Windows.
What’s new in FontLab VI?
Seasoned FontLab Studio 5 users will find lots of familiar elements in FontLab VI, but we’ve carefully upgraded and polished each of them. The new Font Window allows for visual sorting, smart searching and filtering, and provides a table view that exposes lots of numerical glyph data. We’ve unified the Glyph Window and Metrics Window so you can access the Metrics and Kerning tools right from the main app toolbar. We’ve renamed the Class panel into the Groups panel, but it remains the home for Kerning and OpenType groups.
In place of the limited Components, FontLab VI introduces Cloned Shapes that keep bidirectional live links between contours that appear in different glyphs. FontLab VI still has the View, Transform, OpenType Features and Python Scripting panels, but we’ve redesigned each of those functions so you can achieve your goals faster.
FontLab VI also brings a lot of brand-new functionality. You can automatically Create Overlaps and even attach TrueType Hinting commands to PostScript outlines. You can scale your contours up and down or slant them back and forth losslessly thanks to FontLab VI’s internal fractional coordinate system. We’ve invented new contour design tools: the superfast Rapid drawing tool, Tunni Lines and Genius points for better curvature control; the Fill tool that lets you forget about path direction and allows you to simply turn contours or intersection areas black or white; the Power Brush for quick prototyping of calligraphic strokes; and the awesome Power Nudge mode that lets you typographically correctly condense, expand or transform your contours in a fraction of the time.
FontLab VI supports all of Unicode 9, including color emoji, and all of OpenType 1.8, including Arabic or Indic shaping as well as color and variable OpenType fonts. Speaking of variable fonts: in this build, you cannot yet generate them, but you can open them, and you can set up an unlimited number of font-wide or per-glyph Masters in a MutatorMath- and OpenType Variations-compatible design space, which is backwards-compatible with FontLab Studio 5’s Multiple Master model but much more flexible.
FontLab VI has unlimited glyphs, unlimited layers, multi-line multi-glyph editing, full color support, tag-based multi-glyph guides and zones, Anchor-based mark attachment, complex metrics linking via expressions, and the list goes on and on. And you can convert between various font formats, including .ttf, .otf, .vfb, .ufo, .glyphs, and all the color OpenType fonts such as OpenType+SVG.
What’s the Public Preview for Windows?
With the FontLab VI Public Preview, you get the full current functionality for free until we ship the final version. You can create, open, edit and generate fully-functioning OpenType fonts, you can turn your images or Illustrator artwork into fonts, you can do spacing, kerning, hinting. And you can use FontLab VI Public Preview alongside of your other tools such as FontLab Studio 5, Fontographer or RoboFont.
Because we develop FontLab VI on a cross-platform framework, the feature set of the Public Preview for Windows is practically identical to the established Mac version, and we expect only a few platform-specific bugs, likely largely interface-related (most other bugs that occur are cross-platform).
The Windows version of FontLab VI is a 32-bit app that runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows XP through to Windows 10. We have specifically tested it on Windows XP, 7 and 10. When we release new builds of the Public Preview, you will be notified via the built-in auto-update mechanism.
Some keyboard shortcuts in the menus are marked with a “Meta” modifier key. They are not accessible. The Mac has three modifier keys: “Ctrl,” “Alt” and “Cmd,” while Windows computers only have two that can be used by app developers: “Ctrl” and “Alt”. We’re working hard on providing sensible keyboard shortcuts for our Windows users, but this will take a while yet!
Do you love font editing apps?
Already trying FontLab VI?
Work from wherever you want, whenever you want. One weekly (virtual) meeting. Part-time, paid at an hourly rate.
Apply to: “thomas” at the obvious domain.
QA or Quality Assurance is software industry jargon for “testing software so it doesn’t suck.” This part-time position will help test, log and reproduce bugs with FontLab VI, currently in Public Preview. The app has been rebuilt from scratch, the interface is new, and there are many new features—hence many possibilities for bugs. This job is ideal for someone who has some experience with FontLab Studio 5 and is learning VI.
There is plenty to be done at FontLab, and an energetic candidate with varied skills and interests will be given other tasks if they want them! Given the right candidate, this position could be combined with one or both of our other part-time positions: doc writer and tech support.
Requirements:
Experience using FontLab VI, currently in Public Preview
Ability to work independently, “self-starter”
Communicate well in written English
Mac preferred, as we do screen shots on Mac
If Mac, 2560×1600 retina screen (or better) recommended.
If Windows, 1920 x 1080 (or better) screen recommended.
Primary duties:
Create plans for rigorous testing of feature areas
Test also new features and newly fixed bugs
Understand and reproduce bugs reported by users
File new bugs in bug tracking system (ZenHub), explaining how to reproduce
Verify whether supposedly fixed bugs are actually fixed
Possibilities for Growth
Help write and edit FontLab VI documentation
Create tutorial/educational videos for FontLab VI
Test and write bugs on TransType and other products
Work from wherever you want, whenever you want. One weekly (virtual) meeting. Part-time, paid at an hourly rate.
Apply to: “thomas” at the obvious domain.
This part-time position will handle incoming requests for help using FontLab apps, primarily for FontLab VI—possibly others depending on your background and interests. The VI interface is largely new, and there are many new features. Currently support is primarily by email. This job is ideal for someone who has some experience with FontLab Studio 5 and is learning VI.
There is plenty to be done at FontLab, and an energetic candidate with varied skills and interests will be welcome to do other things too! In fact, given the right candidate, this position could be combined with one or both of our other part-time positions: QA Tester and Documentation Writer.
Requirements:
Familiarity with a font editing/creation app, preferably some with FontLab VI
Ability to work independently, “self-starter”
Sympathy for end users
Communicate well in written English
Mac or Windows
If Mac, 2560×1600 retina screen (or better) recommended.
If Windows, 1920 x 1080 (or better) screen recommended.
Appreciated Bonus Attributes:
Experience using FontLab VI, currently in Public Preview
Interest in using FontLab VI as an end user
Have both Mac and Windows computers
or have space to install a Windows “virtual machine” on your Mac hard drive
Primary duties:
Respond to user inquiries via our support portal and user forums
Understand user problems with the application; reproduce problems and determine if bugs exist
If there is a user error or misunderstanding, help the user understand how to better use the software, by explaining things, quoting sections of the user guide, whatever is needed
Explain features, bugs, and workarounds to users
File new bugs in bug tracking system, explaining how to reproduce
Verify whether supposedly fixed bugs are actually fixed
Point out when existing documentation (or video) is unclear or incomplete
Possibilities for Growth
Help write and edit FontLab VI documentation
Create tutorial/educational videos for FontLab VI
Make product workflow & feature suggestions
Test and write bugs on TransType and other products
Depending on timing of hire, might help us migrate to new support system
Sometimes people make fonts that don’t have letters and such in them, but instead have some kind of symbols.
In many cases such symbols have legitimate encoding slots in the Unicode standard, which is used to dictate encoding for most fonts made today. But working with unusual characters from Unicode can be a bit of a pain. So sometimes people assign unusual symbols to the same slots as A, B, C, etcetera. This is technically wrong, but often convenient.
Here is a quick guide to the options and tradeoffs when creating a symbol or “pi” font. This advice is applicable across all font creation tools, not only ours.
Options:
Use “proper” Unicode codepoints for all glyphs in your font. This means looking up correct Unicode codepoints for the symbols.
Disadvantage: People won’t be able to type the symbols directly, unless you create custom keyboard drivers for your font. Likely they will need to use a character picker built into their OS or app.
Advantages: If they switch fonts to another one that has the right symbols properly encoded, their content will remain correct. Unicode/text purists won’t complain.
Use “normal” codepoints for your symbols, so that your symbols are assigned to a, b, c, 1, 2, 3, etc.
Disadvantage: If people switch fonts, the symbols will turn into alphabetic gibberish, and it may not even be apparent what was intended. Also, that alphabetic gibberish really is the underlying text, so this approach will confuse screen readers, search, and other things that rely on understanding the text. As a result, it is considered technically “wrong.”
Advantage: Can by typed off the keyboard!
Use Private Use Area Unicode codepoints. These are codepoints reserved for special purposes, that have no pre-set meaning.
Disadvantages: Has all the disadvantages of using proper Unicode, plusmost of the disadvantages of of assigning the symbols to alphabetic codepoints
Advantage: usually none, unless others have used these PUA codepoints in some consistent way.
How to Choose
Personally, if the font is going to be used to create public documents and text, I will tend towards option #1. If nobody is going to need to manually enter text using the font, or not often, I will tend towards option #1, If neither of those things is true, and the content will have more limited use or be in a closed system, I will tend towards option #2.
What if your symbols don’t even have proper Unicode codepoints? In that case, the first option is unavailable to you. You might consider whether there is a semi-standard solution being used for those symbols (for example, there is a block in the Private Use Area that has often been used for Klingon).
Thanks to the user who wrote me the question that prompted this blog post!
Effective immediately, TransType 4 for Mac and Windows is on sale for half price for Cyber Monday 2016. Buy now!
Full: was $97, now $48.50
Academic Full: was $48, now $24
Upgrade from version 2 or 3: was $39.95, now $19.97
Convert Mac and Windows fonts, reorganize font families, batch conversion, web fonts, special effects filters, and more! All in an easy-to-use app with a simple interface, so you don’t have to be a font geek to use it. All about TransType 4.
Just a quick note to say that we have done spot testing of our current Mac apps with macOS 10.12 Sierra, and we have seen no new issues so far. We have also had no bug reports from users so far that turned out to be Sierra specific, either. So as far as we can tell, there are no such issues!
