Hi,
I've finished creating my first variable font, very simple just 1 weight axis with several instances.
But I'm having some issues:
– When I export the font I get "WARNING:fontTools.varLib:Masters have incompatible prep tables, hinting is discarded"
– Don't understand how naming works.
Any other reading material or help would be appreciated!
Thank you.
F.
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2. Choose the same master in the lower-left of Font Info to switch to it. Go to the Names page.
3. There, you define the Family name, the Weight, Width and Slope class (which will be used by apps that don’t understand that your font is variable, i.e. they’ll treat it as if it’s a one-master font with the main master only — that’s how TTF variable fonts work, they’re backwards-compatible). Normally, pick Regular as Weight there. Click the Auto button next to Style (should result in "Regular"), and click Build Names.
4. Now go to the Instances page. There, for a variable font, you only need to define the Style name for each predefined instance.
That’s it — in old apps, the variable font will use the main master’s Family name, and the Style name of the main master. Variable-aware apps will in addition present the predefined instances as styles. It’s best to include one instance at the same variation location as the main master, with the same style name as the main master.
There are no fool-proof autohinting tools for variable fonts, so right now, when you get this warning, it means that your varfont will be unhinted. It’ll still work fine.
There is a variable-aware version of ttfautohint in development. If you use macOS:
1. Download https://github.com/twardoch/fontsurgery-tools/raw/master/macOS-devel/packaged/vfautohint.zip
2. Unzip, then inside the folder, double-click vfautohint.command
3. When Terminal opens, you can drag-drop your unhinted variable TTF into the Finder window and press Enter. You’ll get an autohinted variable TTF in the same folder.
We are migrating from old FL5 to FLVI, it still has some issues, but overall I really like working with the progam (and I can't believe how easy is to make VF with it).
Congrats!
This would be on a VF with 18 masters, 3 axes, and (currently) 550 glyphs.
I got the same result on vfautohint as a Thomas. The process is going about 5 hours and I terminate it. Perhaps the application need to tell the customer about some intermediate steps, or show an errors if appropriate.
Just checked vfautohint on single-axis variable font and it works fine. One second process.
But variable fonts with 3 axes hang the script and nothing happens.