Font Book is showing errors after subsetting

ollie-w

I used pyftsubset to subset a Source Sans Pro. I then tried to install it using Font Book. It showed showed a bunch of 'serious errors'. Is the font safe to use? If not, how do i fix it?

notdef

pyftsubset strips a bunch of crucial tables (crucial for installing fonts, that is) with the default settings. Likely optimized for web use (?).

Khaled Hosny

The defaults are optimized for web use, but they can be changed. Check the help output and play with the options like --name-IDs and --drop-tables.

Roel Nieskens

I've run into this problem plenty, and like Frode and Khaled say it's because the name table gets pruned down to two entries (nameID 1 and 2). Adding --name-IDs='*' will preserve the entire name table, which not only fixes the install problem but leaves the credits and licensing info in the font, which even for hyperoptimised webfonts sounds like the ethical thing to do.