Glyphs script to export UFO and designspace files

jeremy tribby

hi all

I recently finished a script that exports UFO and designspace files directly from Glyphs 3. I'm curious if anyone has feedback or feature requests. I haven't tested it too much, and there's a manual "is_vf" variable that you'll have to unset from True if you want a designspace that doesnt look at Glyphs' "Variable Style Name" parameter, but other than it should be good to go:

https://github.com/jpt/font-scripts/blob/master/Glyphs/Export UFO and designspace files.py

it supports  multi-axis brace layers and OT conditions/subs, which it converts into designspace conditionsets, but it doesn't support bracket layers. this script is of course no replacement for libraries like glyphsLib that allow builds without Glyphs present, but I guess my thesis here is if you're a type designer using Glyphs and just need to hand off a UFO to someone else and don't want to think about it too much, or maybe you're one of the rare people who like to hop around Glyphs and Robofont, maybe things are a little easier this way. and maybe this little script is actually easier to keep current than existing Glyphs->UFO tools because it uses the native Glyphs API, which will probably be more stable than parsers of the file format? who knows! it was fun to make in any case

PRs are welcome! my motivation here is not to compete with other methods of doing this and more just to make font source interoperability a little easier however you choose to do it. I spend most time in Glyphs, but love using FontLab and RoboFont too, all for different things at different parts of the process! have my eyes on Runebender and MFEK too

cheers