Packaging Font Files for Purchase

Rodrigo Saiani
Rodrigo Saiani Posts: 78
in Type Design Software
Hi,
How do you go about creating the zip files for purchase in your type store – desktop and webfont – (if you do it at all).
Do you do it by hand or know a great tool that saves you lots of time? I'm interested in the latter :)
Thank you!
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Comments

  • Ralf
    Ralf Posts: 170
    … a great tool that saves you lots of time?
    Sure: Automator, which comes free with every Mac.
    If I update anything in our font packages (font files, PDF specimens, EULA PDF) I just need one click to re-create all packages at once. Folders, ZIP-files, whatever you like.
    You can also let Automator put the date into the names, so you can always keep track of all the versions you have created and shipped in the past.
  • Ramiro Espinoza
    Ramiro Espinoza Posts: 839
    edited May 2013
    Note that ZIP files created in a Mac will display some extra files when opened in a PC. And this it not the case the other way around.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,749
    edited May 2013
    I use AppleScript to build packages. I could use Automator (which is basically just a visual interface to AppleScript), but I’m just more familiar with working directly in Script Editor.

    There used to be an app called ZipIt that would create .zip files without the extra Mac stuff, but it was PowerPC-only. More recently I’ve been using StuffIt Deluxe which gives you all sorts of options for creating .zip files, such as leaving out the extra Mac stuff. It also lets you create a sort of shortcut with the settings you like with a thing called DropStuff. Using this, I can just select all the folders and drag them onto DropStuff, creating all the .zip files in one step.
  • Ralf
    Ralf Posts: 170
    Note that ZIP files created in a Mac will display some extra files when opened in a PC.
    You can just drag & drop the files onto ZipCleaner if necessary:
    https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25497/zipcleaner
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,749
    edited May 2013
    One thing I like about DropStuff is that you can configure it so that it creates a separate .zip for each item if you drag multiple items onto it, rather than a single .zip containing all the items. Although, there's probably a way to get the same effect with Automator.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,013
    I also use drop stuff. Sure I could write automated actions or try to remember the right switches for the command line version of zip. But I don't do that many font releases so it's easier to just drag-and-drop
  • Matthew Butterick
    Matthew Butterick Posts: 143
    Beware: zip files created in the Mac Finder are not compatible with the built-in unzipper in versions of Windows 7 that support Encrypting File System. (For more, see this & this.)
  • Jan Schmoeger
    Jan Schmoeger Posts: 280
    When I had trouble long time ago, John Collins told me to get YemuZip. It does batch or single file zips without the Mac stuff, and it's free:
    http://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip/
  • Alex Kaczun
    Alex Kaczun Posts: 164
    Right you are, Jan. YemuZip It all!

    I've been using this simple app for years... never any issues.
  • Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh
    Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh Posts: 539
    YemuZip here too.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,749
    That looks like a nice option if you only have a few to do. When I do a distribution set for Proxima Nova, I need to make 79 separate .zip files for some vendors. DropStuff can do it in one step.
  • Deleted Account
    Deleted Account Posts: 739
    edited May 2013
    Abuse flag = "79 separate .zip files for some vendors."

    I would go straight to their clients, or another vendor if they couldn't handle one .zip file per family. ;) Oh wait — do we do that?
  • Jan Schmoeger
    Jan Schmoeger Posts: 280
    David, Mark is not doing the abusing. I know the vendor too, and I do not mind. Please remove the mark. We had enough of that stuff recently.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,749
    It’s MyFonts. It gets kind of crazy when it’s a big family. Most other vendors just need the fonts and a spreadsheet to specify the various packages and prices. But, hey, no big deal when you have a computer to do it.
  • Deleted Account
    Deleted Account Posts: 739
    Just kidding.
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,453
    I usually use WinRAR but every once in a while, when I'm dealing with my full set (4 kilofonts). I'll use 7-Zip from the command line using an old-fashioned DOS batch file.

    I remember a while ago, MyFonts asked, "why are you bothering with family zips?". At the time, they were the only distributor that had required them, so I deleted them all en-masse. Then a few months later, they asked me why I wasn't including family zips. Aww, man.

    Now, when I release new fonts, I update a batch file that can regenerate the whole shebang from the command line with 7-Zip.
  • Ramiro Espinoza
    Ramiro Espinoza Posts: 839
    By chance does anybody has a YemuZip version that work with 10.6? I checked in OldApps but there is nothing...
  • Matthew Butterick
    Matthew Butterick Posts: 143
    http://mac.filehorse.com/download-yemuzip/2747/

    YemuZip 2.4.5 works with Snow Leopard.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,460
    It is good being King ;-)
  • Ramiro Espinoza
    Ramiro Espinoza Posts: 839
    Thanks!
  • Matthew Butterick
    Matthew Butterick Posts: 143
    I learned that Python has a zipfile module that's convenient for generating multiple zips with different permutations of fonts, e.g. — 
    import os, zipfile    
my_zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile("fonts.zip", 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path_to_fonts):
    for f in files:
        zip_file.write(os.path.join(root, f))
my_zip_file.close()

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