ChatGPT Integration with Extensions: Potential for Font Editor Plugin

Ray Larabie
Ray Larabie Posts: 1,431
edited March 2023 in Font Technology
A recent announcement revealed that ChatGPT will soon incorporate various extensions, enhancing its capabilities in multiple areas. For example, it will be able to use Wolfram Alpha for mathematical equations or employ a web browser plugin for other tasks. One particularly intriguing extension mentioned was video editing, allowing users to upload videos and request edits.

Given GPT-4's demonstrated proficiency with different tools, it seems feasible to consider integrating a font editor plugin. This would open up new possibilities for collaborative font editing sessions. Here's an example of how that could work.



(You upload a UFO which has basic Latin but no combining accents. The vertical metrics are questionable.)

This font has accents but it's missing combining accents. Add combing accents, anchors, and a mark feature.

-- Sure, here's a UFO of your font with combining accents, anchors, and a mark feature.

(After downloading the font, you realize that the composites should be regenerated, and more language support is required.)

Add support for (list of languages) and regenerate composites.

-- Here's a font that supports (list of languages). I added some low combining accents for the dot and circumflex.

(After downloading font, you can see that the lower circumflex needed some squeezing. Time to deal with metrics so you upload the font.)

Fix the vertical metrics.

-- Here's the font with vertical the best vertical metrics I could produce. But there's only so much I can do without scaling the entire font.

Scale the font and fix the vertical metrics.


I'm not talking about the creative aspects of type design that AI doesn't yet seem to be adept at. This is the sort of thing people are already doing from a command line. Examples of tasks that it could do:

  • converting formats
  • autohinting
  • adjusting metrics
  • feature coding (ChatGPT set to GPT4 can already code AFDKO)
  • generating composites
  • placing anchors
  • Robofont contour edits (flipping, scaling etc.)
  • transformations
  • editing font info
  • PANOSE
  • subsetting
  • classes
I'm not a software developer but it would be cool if someone invented this.
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Comments

  • jeremy tribby
    jeremy tribby Posts: 246
    it will be interesting to see how many apps adopt a chat-based user experience. a number of those kinds of tasks can be solved by in-editor scripts, which ChatGPT could conceivably write on the fly, though plenty already exist. people who don’t write python could benefit most I think. for those who do write python, the biggest difference you’d get with a direct ChatGPT integration versus writing scripts (either manually or assisted by ChatGPT/CoPilot/etc) wouldn’t necessarily be the end result IMO, but that the tasks would take place via chat
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,431
    I should have mentioned: this was a continuation of a response to @Jeremy Dooley on the FontLab forum.
  • Jeremy Dooley
    Jeremy Dooley Posts: 67
    Regarding scripts, recently I carried out an experiment leveraging GPT-4 to develop Python scripts and a help chatbot tailored for FontLab 7. It's important to note that GPT-4 doesn't recognize FontLab 8, but it is knowledgeable about FontLab 7. The experiment produced impressive results. Though there were instances of minor hallucinations, the overall outcome demonstrates a highly feasible and practical application.

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