Font Release Help/Tips

Scott Biersack

Hey friends,

I sadly don't utilize this wonderful website enough – it's been a while since my last post. I'm now a year out of the Extended Type @ Cooper program and am nearing the finish line on my first family release.

Since it's my first release I have no clue how to prep for a release. What are some general things I should be doing? (things such as setting up my blue zones in Robofont, etc...even something like prepping the font to be utilized on the web)

Anything and everything will help as I have never done this before! Thanks so much for your time.

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James Puckett

You should start by testing everything with an expansive set of proofs. If you don’t have proofs you can download mine: https://github.com/DunwichType/DTF_Proofs/tree/master/Latin

Make sure you review the diacriticals thoroughly. If you find no errors you weren’t paying attention and need to look again. If you need to compare against another font use GlyphProofer from Ben Kiel and House Industries: https://github.com/houseind/robothon
Don’t compare against a massive font like Noto or Brill. Typotheque, Typofonderie, H&FJ, Darden Studio, Commercial Type, and Underware are just a few of the great foundries to compare to. (There's nothing wrong with the Brill fonts, but using them with Glyphproofer with generate hundreds of unnecessary pages.)

Build your own proofs to test OpenType features.

Open your compiled fonts and review every single glyph in every single font for things like incorrect sidebearings or interpolation errors. If you find no errors you weren’t paying attention and need to look again. 

Test with the other popular Adobe apps: Photoshop and Illustrator. Look for problems with font names and how they appear in menus. Then play around a little to make sure that stuff like OpenType features work.

Install the fonts on Windows. Copy/paste the test strings from for Indesign files into Textedit and save as rich text. Make sure they at least work in Wordpad. If you have Office for Windows test in Word and Powerpoint.

Now go back to your Mac and check the fonts with Font Book. If you get no errors then install them. Test the fonts in Textedit, and if you have Office for Mac, test there too.

You should ask the Robofont forum if there are any common problems or mistakes people make. I don’t use Robofont so I don’t know about that (but I’ve never heard Robofont users complain. I rarely have issues with Latin fonts generated with the stable release of Glyphs. I only compile final fonts with the betas if Georg tells me to.

Scott Biersack

@JamesMontalbano – we briefly touched on blue zones / testing / etc for a couple classes but sadly not extensively enough.

Scott Biersack

@James Puckett Thanks for the guidance and suggestions! If there are errors in font names or if the font doesn't show up in the dropdown menu...how do you go about solving that issue? I've noticed in Microsoft Word my family doesn't appear in the menu...but then again I am using Word from 2010.

Are there other technical things I should be doing other than the testing of course? Perhaps things to reduce file size, etc?

Thanks again for the help!

James Puckett

Regarding fonts in Windows/Word menus, you need to read the naming and font linking tutorials relevant to the software you use. Then review how you named your fonts. You can always post a screenshot of your configuration panel here or on the Robofont forum. DTL Openmaster is a great tool for naming issues. Don’t try to link all the fonts in a typeface—just regular, italic, bold, and bold italic. 

As for reducing file size, only do that if you want to sell and support fonts tuned for web use. Which is not a good idea for your first release.

Scott Biersack

@James Puckett

All great things to know and be aware of – thanks a bunch! I'll get back to testing and will read over the Robofont forum.