three problems

[telarson]

Hi list.  I'm looking at my latest work-in-progress and am not too happy with what I'm seeing.  A few questions for you...

1.  My font looks pretty good in FF on my Linux development system.  When I generate the font and use it on Mac or Windows, it looks bad at typical (10-24 pt) sizes.  Very bad.  The characters look like there's no antialiasing, and as I've not done any bitmaps for those sizes the default rasterization looks awful.  Is this simply the difference between Freetype and those proprietary systems?  How can I overcome this?

2.  In Windows WPs (I've tried Word and Wordpad), it apparently is taken as a Hebrew font.  So when I select some text and try to change it, nothing happens.  I don't get it.  Did I do something to make Windows think this?  The font menus in those apps shows a couple Hebrew characters alongside my font name.  When I open the Wordpad font dialog the only script available when I select my font is Hebrew, not Western or anything else.

3.  I based my line metrics on Courier, because I wanted something of similar height to be used along with it.  In Linotype's FontExplorer on my Mac, the preview text looks pretty good.  But whenever I use it in a "real" app, the leading is huuuuuge compared to Courier.  How did that happen?  I'm not doing anything within the app, so it's got to be something in the font itself.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.  Maybe these are simple questions, but this is the first design I've taken far enough toward completion that I've started to encounter these things.


Thanks,
Tim

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[Qianqian Fang-3]

Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> Hi list.  I'm looking at my latest work-in-progress and am not too happy with what I'm seeing.  A few questions for you...
>
> 1.  My font looks pretty good in FF on my Linux development system.  When I generate the font and use it on Mac or Windows, it looks bad at typical (10-24 pt) sizes.  Very bad.  The characters look like there's no antialiasing, and as I've not done any bitmaps for those sizes the default rasterization looks awful.  Is this simply the difference between Freetype and those proprietary systems?  How can I overcome this?
>  
sounds like a GASP table problem. Set it from fontforge menu
Element\Font Info\Grid fitting
you can find related documents from
http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/TrueOpenTables.html

> 2.  In Windows WPs (I've tried Word and Wordpad), it apparently is taken as a Hebrew font.  So when I select some text and try to change it, nothing happens.  I don't get it.  Did I do something to make Windows think this?  The font menus in those apps shows a couple Hebrew characters alongside my font name.  When I open the Wordpad font dialog the only script available when I select my font is Hebrew, not Western or anything else.
>  

it is very likely your Hebrew glyphs does not cover the entire code
page. You can manually set your Charset from Element\Font Info\OS/2\Charsets

> 3.  I based my line metrics on Courier, because I wanted something of similar height to be used along with it.  In Linotype's FontExplorer on my Mac, the preview text looks pretty good.  But whenever I use it in a "real" app, the leading is huuuuuge compared to Courier.  How did that happen?  I'm not doing anything within the app, so it's got to be something in the font itself.
>  

I have never used FontExplorer, but try the metrics preview window from
Fontforge, it is very neat. It is located at Window\New Metric window

> Any and all suggestions appreciated.  Maybe these are simple questions, but this is the first design I've taken far enough toward completion that I've started to encounter these things.
>  

hope that help.

Qianqian

>
> Thanks,
> Tim
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
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>
>  

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[Barry Schwartz-2]

"Larson, Timothy E." <TELarson@...> skribis:
> 1.  My font looks pretty good in FF on my Linux development system.
> When I generate the font and use it on Mac or Windows, it looks bad
> at typical (10-24 pt) sizes.  Very bad.  The characters look like
> there's no antialiasing, and as I've not done any bitmaps for those
> sizes the default rasterization looks awful.  Is this simply the
> difference between Freetype and those proprietary systems?  How can
> I overcome this?

Is your FreeType using autohinting or TrueType instructions?

(Looking good in Windows can be difficult.)





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[Peter Baker-2]

It might help to have a look, if you're willing to share.

Sent from my iPod

On Nov 3, 2009, at 5:54 PM, "Larson, Timothy E." <TELarson@...>  
wrote:

> Hi list.  I'm looking at my latest work-in-progress and am not too  
> happy with what I'm seeing.  A few questions for you...
>
> 1.  My font looks pretty good in FF on my Linux development system.  
> When I generate the font and use it on Mac or Windows, it looks bad  
> at typical (10-24 pt) sizes.  Very bad.  The characters look like  
> there's no antialiasing, and as I've not done any bitmaps for those  
> sizes the default rasterization looks awful.  Is this simply the  
> difference between Freetype and those proprietary systems?  How can  
> I overcome this?
>
> 2.  In Windows WPs (I've tried Word and Wordpad), it apparently is  
> taken as a Hebrew font.  So when I select some text and try to  
> change it, nothing happens.  I don't get it.  Did I do something to  
> make Windows think this?  The font menus in those apps shows a  
> couple Hebrew characters alongside my font name.  When I open the  
> Wordpad font dialog the only script available when I select my font  
> is Hebrew, not Western or anything else.
>
> 3.  I based my line metrics on Courier, because I wanted something  
> of similar height to be used along with it.  In Linotype's  
> FontExplorer on my Mac, the preview text looks pretty good.  But  
> whenever I use it in a "real" app, the leading is huuuuuge compared  
> to Courier.  How did that happen?  I'm not doing anything within the  
> app, so it's got to be something in the font itself.
>
> Any and all suggestions appreciated.  Maybe these are simple  
> questions, but this is the first design I've taken far enough toward  
> completion that I've started to encounter these things.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Tim
>
> ---
> ---
> ---
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart  
> your
> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and  
> stay
> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
> _______________________________________________
> Fontforge-users mailing list
> Fontforge-users@...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-users

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[telarson]

Qianqian Fang:

> Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> > 1.  My font looks pretty good in FF on my Linux development system.
> When I generate the font and use it on Mac or Windows, it looks bad at
> typical (10-24 pt) sizes.  Very bad.  The characters look like there's
> no antialiasing, and as I've not done any bitmaps for those sizes the
> default rasterization looks awful.  Is this simply the difference
> between Freetype and those proprietary systems?  How can I overcome
> this?
> >
> sounds like a GASP table problem. Set it from fontforge menu
> Element\Font Info\Grid fitting
> you can find related documents from
> http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/TrueOpenTables.html

So you suggest it is better not to use the autohinter, to force anti-aliasing?  I will try that!

And FWIW, it's better on Mac than Windows, just not as good as other fonts.

> it is very likely your Hebrew glyphs does not cover the entire code
> page. You can manually set your Charset from Element\Font
> Info\OS/2\Charsets

You were correct.  The only Hebrew character I have is aleph, and the default MS Code Page was Hebrew.  I changed it to 1252 Latin-1.


Thank you very much,
Tim


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[telarson]

Barry Schwartz:
> Is your FreeType using autohinting or TrueType instructions?
>
> (Looking good in Windows can be difficult.)

Autohinting.  I don't know anything about TT instructions, so I've left that alone.


Tim

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[Barry Schwartz-2]

Barry Schwartz:
> Is your FreeType using autohinting or TrueType instructions?
>
> (Looking good in Windows can be difficult.)

"Larson, Timothy E." <TELarson@...>:
> Autohinting.  I don't know anything about TT instructions, so I've left that alone.

FF's autohinter seems to work pretty well these days, if the
PostScript hinting is set well enough. I don't know much about
TrueType hinting, either. Leaving out hints works well in some
applications; I never use hints in GIMP, for instance.

Windows (at least pre-Vista) tries to do what I would call turning
outline fonts into pixel fonts. When this works, the writing is more
legible, at the expense of the shape of the glyph. There is a free
package for using freetype instead of ClearType to render fonts in
Windows, but it is in Japanese so I can't understand half of it:
http://www.aqua-soft.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=50374


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