OTM, FM2, CoMa, LeMo, and… GPMa

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

In anticipation of new DTL/URW software releases this autumn, an updated version of our font-tools website was launched a couple of days ago. However, developments are going fast and in the meantime we have decided to add –on top of what is mentioned in the news section of the site– some additional functionality to version 8 of OTM:

– An auto-hinting option that invokes ttfautohint or the Adobe hinter,
– the option to convert OTF <–> TFF.

Not mentioned on the site yet, but planned to be released around the end of this year is GPOSMaster, which is the successor of KernMaster. Besides the option to auto-kern OpenType CFF and TTF fonts, it includes an advanced environment for editing the kern.fea files that it produces or that have been produced with another tool. At TYPO Labs 2018 Jürgen Willrodt and I already introduced and briefly demonstrated GPOSMaster.

F.

Sami Artur Mandelbaum

Hi Frank,
Can OTM 8 edit names in Character Variants features?
Regards
Sami

John Hudson

An auto-hinting option that invokes ttfautohint or the Adobe hinter

Will this functionality include an interface for options for ttfautohint and ability to edit blue zones or standard stems for CFF?

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi Sami and John,

Can OTM 8 edit names in Character Variants features?

TBH, I will have to check this and will let you know the answer a.s.a.p.

Will this functionality include an interface for options for ttfautohint and ability to edit blue zones or standard stems for CFF?

One will be able to store auto-hint scripts (with the options) for OTF and TTF in the preferences. These will be invoked for hinting fonts in OTM and in FM2 when generating fonts. There will be an interface for the blue values and the stem arrays as well.

F.

AzizMostafa AzizAli

Hi Frank

Does any of your tools support Arabic?

All the Best

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi Sami,

Can OTM 8 edit names in Character Variants features?

If the question is whether the menu names for character variants can be changed, the answer is yes. These are normal entries in the name table and have a table index >255.

Hi AzizMostafa,

Does any of your tools support Arabic?

With OTM one can check and alter Arabic fonts, as is also illustrated on the fontmaster.nl website. And, of course, FoundryMaster can be used to develop Arabic. Whether the workflow that I have in mind is something that you would consider convenient, is another thing. Currently I am setting up the production of Arabic fonts at DTL by first defining slots for the glyphs in our ‘central’ Character Layout file (.cha) that will be used for storing and generating the fonts. Secondly, I am developing an OT Layout features file that will be imported in the generated OpenType font using OTM (and subsetted if required). Thirdly, we will use OTM then for fine-tuning the mark positioning (as also shown on aforementioned webpage). However, as mentioned, I don’t know whether this would work for you.

Best, Frank

Sami Artur Mandelbaum

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland said:

Hi Sami,

Can OTM 8 edit names in Character Variants features?

If the question is whether the menu names for character variants can be changed, the answer is yes. These are normal entries in the name table and have a table index >255.
Best, Frank

Thank You Frank, these are great news!
I hope OTM 8 be released at the first day of autumn!
Sami

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi Sami,

I hope OTM 8 be released at the first day of autumn!

I am afraid that we will not going to manage that. One of the issues to be solved still, is who is going to write the appendix to the manual <https://www.fontmaster.nl/pdf/OTM_manual.zip>. I have no idea whether the manual is intensively read though, because sometimes it looks like a lot of the nifty functionality OTM offers, seems to be unknown still. I wonder for instance how many make use of the OT Layout features subsetting in combination with their favorite font editor. However, I think that most –if not all– OTM users are quite satisfied with the tool.

F.

André G. Isaak

I think that most –if not all– OTM users are quite satisfied with the tool. 

I find OTM 6.3 to be an indispensable tool despite the fact that I suspect I am only familiar with a fraction of its functionality, so I look forward to OTM 8.

But while we’re on the topic, one minor annoyance that I’d like to see fixed in OTM 8 is that in OTM 6 (Mac version, not sure if this also applies to the PC version), when viewing name tables, the size of the fields doesn’t expand to accommodate the entire text. For actual names this isn’t generally a problem, but for copyright notices and other longer fields it can be.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi André,

[…] when viewing name tables, the size of the fields doesn’t expand to accommodate the entire text.

This issue has been solved in the Table Comparator, in which these fields are adjustable. This tool makes it also possible to change name tables in batch, as is demonstrated here.

André G. Isaak

Thanks for the tip!