MyFonts pangrams gone?

Dave Crossland
Dave Crossland Posts: 1,431
in Font Technology
I remember going to MyFonts and loving all the sample text generation options, OpenType feature exploration tools, etc etc. 

But I just went there and its all been radically simplified, just raw text input, a point size slider, a color picker, and a reset. 

When did this happen? Why did this happen? :(


Comments

  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,988
    edited March 2019
    Looks normal over here...
    Still no contextual alternates, though, which is crucial for some of my fonts. :frowning:
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    Afraid I'm in agreement with Christian. Looks the same to me.
  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,988
    Thanks, that explains it!
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,897
    So, the simplified version without the pangrams is the new one, correct?
  • Rob Barba
    Rob Barba Posts: 86
    Correct.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    If you're in need of pangrams, my generator is running, available for copying and pasting!
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited March 2019
    Craig Eliason said:
    Craig's website
    Wow, I never knew you had a website, man! :) Looks pretty good! Thanks for sharing! :)
  • Jens Kutilek
    Jens Kutilek Posts: 364
    Those experts even disabled the default OT features on the new pages: https://www.myfonts.com/font/fontfont/ff-schulschrift/?lastItem=8

    m(
  • Florian Hardwig
    Florian Hardwig Posts: 273
    When did this happen?
    I first noticed it in January. Looks like they are still working on it: Since then, MyFonts brought back designer credits to the initial view (was hidden under “About This Font” tab) and made the Glyphs map useful again (was a single static image w/o option to interact). What’s still missing is the option to link to an individual glyph.
    And yes, the sample string suggestions, OT options, and the share link will be sorely missed by anyone who professionally works with fonts.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    FWIW, if you include your <calt> lookups in <liga>, it will work on MyFonts, even the new version. I’ve done this for all my scripts since last year. It shouldn’t be necessary, but it works and doesn’t seem to cause any problems.
  • Paulo Goode
    Paulo Goode Posts: 16
    There's a good chance the features will be restored, in time. This is from their email of 5th March announcing the new design:

    “What about the type tester? Will you add more features?

    We’ve added basic functionality to start, like the ability for customer to type out their own words and phrases and change the type color and background. This is just the initial version, and we are adding in the most helpful functionality over time. Our goal is to balance functionality with simplicity so customers have the best experience possible.”

  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,897
    It really shouldn't be necessary. 'calt' should be on by default, and MyFonts needs to just fix that.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    I agree, but they've needed to fix it for at least ten years, so I'm not holding my breath. It also helps in a few other cases where apps have calt off by default.

    FWIW, I didn't think of this myself, but heard about it from another type designer. Yes, I realize doing workarounds for specific apps like this is a no-no, but there are no ill effects that I'm aware of.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,897
    Well, the "ill effect" is just that a user can't activate the 'liga' without also activating 'calt'. Whether that is a serious a problem depends on the typeface and the particular use case the user has.

    Then again, I have not complained when some apps have put multiple features on a single UI toggle. I have even supported it. This seems different to me, and I should sit and figure out why that is. Heck, maybe I am just Mr Cranky and need to loosen up.  :P
  • Johannes Neumeier
    Johannes Neumeier Posts: 380
    FYI that is a new design being A/B tested and that exact font page in the original post has a preview of the new design that is yet to be rolled out on scale.

  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    edited March 2019
    Thomas: I wouldn't use this for all calt cases. With these scripts designs, it could be argued that the particular calt code I'm doing would make more sense in liga anyway, since it mainly fixes problems with pairs or triplets of glyphs, just not necessarily the usual ones (fi, fl, etc.).

    (Sorry, getting way off topic.)
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    It's Dave's job to ask quizzically, "did MF axe pangrams, & why?"

    Brilliant!
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,135
    Vasil Stanev said:
    Wow, I never knew you had a website, man! :) Looks pretty good! Thanks for sharing! :)
    I have a website too, but it isn't nearly as helpful to people here as his. But I've recently added a page - to which the link points - about fonts. Naturally, the experts here will find much to lament about in my poor effort to basically whiz through what is found in the beginning of many books on printing or typography, but I hope it will pique the interest of some.
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,431
    Chris Lozos said:
    It's Dave's job to ask quizzically, "did MF axe pangrams, & why?"

    Brilliant!
    That is probably the funniest thing I will read on the internet this year!

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