FontForge March 2022 Release

Linus Romer
Linus Romer Posts: 186
in Type Design Software
For those who are working with FontForge it might be of interest that the FontForge team published a new release:
Major updates:
  • Python plugin support
  • Overhauled resource/appearance management
  • Merge/Simplify improvements
  • Updated Unicode support to Unicode 14.0.0, with nameslist functionality now directly integrated.
  • Add Points Of Inflection / Balance / Harmonize
  • Mac bundle/startup fixes
  • Language system tag list/script range/feature list updates
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Comments

  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,883
    edited March 2022
    I had no idea this much work was still happening on FontForge! Seems like a lot of real progress.

    Is there any plan for getting variable font support in FontForge? That seems like a major hole in the FF story. (https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/2882)

    I am also curious: I see tell that FontForge has native Apple Silicon support. Which version should one download for that, or is it a fat binary?


  • Linus Romer
    Linus Romer Posts: 186
    @Thomas Phinney Altough I have made some pull requests that were accepted I am not part of the FontForge team. As far as I know, https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/2882 explains the state of variable font support in FontForge quite well: There are some ideas in connection with MultipleMaster but nobody has yet invested the huge amount of work that will be necessary.
    Citing Skef from https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/4552 this may explain the development situation of FontForge in general:
    At this point FontForge mostly respects or fails to respect any given font developer by continuing to exist, and that's it. The "systematic" changes tend to be lower-hanging bug fixes; otherwise larger PRs are driven by individual contributors based on their own interests and/or needs. There's no team of developers dedicated to respecting the needs of some groups and thus disrespecting those of others.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,883
    I understand: there is nobody putting massive bandwidth into FontForge and no central plan or major resources backing FF development. Probably none of this is likely to change, and especially not the major resources.
  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 639
    Judging from this video, FF not only supports variable fonts, but even HOI: https://youtu.be/m5z4sDECCGA
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,883
    That's not just FontForge, but using additional external command-line tools.
    Still pretty cool, though.

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