System Validation Error

Vitória Neves
Vitória Neves Posts: 19
in Type Design Software
Hello everyone,

I'm working on my first font and whenever I try to install the OTF I get a "System Validation" error in Font Book. The TTF works fine though. I checked online and asked some people for help, but could not solve this problem. Auto hinting is deselected, so it's not that. 

I asked someone else to generate the font and that person got the same problem. It seems to be a Fontlab-related thing on export of OTF.

Does anyone know what this might be and how to fix it?
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Comments

  • Georg Seifert
    Georg Seifert Posts: 674
    There where some reports like this in the glyphs forum. It seems to be a problem with Font Book. Apple is investigating it. You can try to put the file on the desktop before opening them. 
  • Vitória Neves
    Vitória Neves Posts: 19
    Thanks. I saw that discussion in the glyphs forum already and I actually have the file on my desktop :S Nothing seems to work. 
  • Erwin Denissen
    Erwin Denissen Posts: 302
    It looks like the generated OpenType layout features are corrupt. Do send me the OTF and I'll run it through FontCreator. I'll let you know if it detects any issues.
  • Vitória Neves
    Vitória Neves Posts: 19
    Thanks a lot. I will send you the file.
  • Vitória Neves
    Vitória Neves Posts: 19
    Update:
    @Erwin Denissen exported the OTF file using FontCreator and that solved the error. 
    Unfortunately, I can't use FontCreator, because it's Windows only.
    Then, I used the free Glyphs trial to export the font. At first, I got an error - I had glyphs with the same name. This was because some lowercase letters were above the x-height. 
    Anyway I fixed that and exported the font using the Glyphs app trial and it works perfectly fine now.
    As a newbie exploring a new program I probably messed up some settings in Fontlab. I'm not sure though. 
  • Erwin Denissen
    Erwin Denissen Posts: 302
    I'm glad I could help.

    You can use WineBottler to run FontCreator directly on OS X. Alternatively you can use VirtualBox or Parallels to run Windows on your Mac.

  • Vitória Neves
    Vitória Neves Posts: 19
    Thanks :)
  • Georg Seifert
    Georg Seifert Posts: 674
    @Vitória Neves can you send me the .glyphs file and both .otfs, the one form Glyphs and the one from FontCreator. 
  • Vitória Neves
    Vitória Neves Posts: 19
    @Georg Seifert Going to send it to you via dm.
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    edited April 2018
    Sorry to follow up on an old thread, but I’ve run into this error as well. Any idea what causes it? Is there an other fix other than opening it in Font Creator and resaving it? If I opened my font using ttx, what would I expect to find?

    Just to be clear, the font passed every other validation test, just not the system validation test.
  • LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
    LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland Posts: 723
    edited April 2018
    Hi Abraham,

    A while ago we had an old customer who wanted to restore PS Type1 fonts that she purchased a decade or more ago and who got a validation error in Font Book. We expected a permission problem with the back-up disk and when she copied the fonts to the active desktop prior to installing, everything went fine.

    Opening and saving the font in another application to circumvent this problem is not the most elegant solution IMHO. I cannot imagine that whatever present-day font tool is used, too strange things happens with the fonts’ guts. If you promise me to delete the tool from your system after checking the font, I can send you a download link for OTM 6.3. You could for instance use the consistency checker for tracing the problem –if there is a problem.

    If you are interested, please send an e-mail to: <ihopethatotmcansolvetheproblem[at]dtl.nl>.

    F.
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    Thanks, Frank! I’ll do that.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    If it *is* a simple file permissions problem, that should be resolvable by just running a simple shell command, and not require remaking the font. Remaking the font will have the side effect of creating a different set of file permissions, but that is way overkill for such a problem!
  • Micha Mirck
    Micha Mirck Posts: 23
    If TrueType works when you generate a font from FontLab and OTF is not working, then make sure you uncheck the option "use subroutines to compress outlines in the CFF table"
  • LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
    LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland Posts: 723
    edited April 2018
    As promised, I supplied Abraham with the Windows version of OTM 6.3. I had a look at the font too and obviously there were some values messed up in the font’s table directory. This is something that OTM currently cannot fix directly and hence this requires that the font has to be generated again. That is what I did using FM2.

    Additionally I also changed some of the metrics stuff and a couple of entries in the naming tables that were inconsistent. However, the original entries did not negatively influence the validation in Font Book.
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    Thanks for looking at that, Frank. Would any of the things you changed cause the error I saw?
  • LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
    LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland Posts: 723
    Hi Abraham,

    If the revised font that I sent you on the 10th of April validates well (as it did here), then the error in the font’s table directory definitely caused the problem.

    F.
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    I will double-check that. Thanks again.

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