Fontlab 7 vs Monotype's Font Validator

Dusan Jelesijevic
Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
edited January 12 in Type Design Software
Hello,

Monotype's font validator reports me 2 red errors each time I want to upload new file versions of font files (older families previously done in FL5).

PostScript names are unique in the family
It looks like your two or more font files have same PostScript Name. Please delete and re-upload the font files with unique PostScript Names.

Version names are unique
It looks like your two or more font files have same Version Name (NID 3). Please delete and re-upload the font files with unique Version Names.

As I don't know if it's bug (with their website) or if it's related to font files, I have checked, checked and checked many times all my names and versions and everything seems alright (I compared with font files that hadn't those issues, how I did it with them), I'd like to know if there's maybe some other place in FL7 beside Font Info where I should check for these issues?

Thanks,
Dusan
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Comments

  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,108
    Nobody would be able to tell for sure if it was something wrong with the new font files in this regard, without you sharing the “version name”* and PostScript name entries for the new fonts. (Name IDs 3 and 6.)

    * Note that the name ID 3 Monotype is calling “version name” is what the spec calls the “unique font identifier” — NOT the same as the name ID 5 version string.

    That said… I wonder if maybe the problem is the reverse of the obvious one. Maybe Monotype’s system is not recognizing that the new versions are supposed to be the same family members as the existing files? Because of course, they are supposed to duplicate existing files. Have you done updates (replacing old version with newer) before?
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
    edited January 11
    Yes, I did updates previously and everything went well.

    What's strange here is that I get same red warnings even when I try to update font family containing single weight only  :)   

    I'm making massive update – all families we did in FL5. I have made some minor changes in FL7 and generated all font files. All the information in Font Info are filled out correctly, as I'm doing with every newly done family made in FL7.

    All worked fine for a couple of days – I updated 1/3 of our catalogue without any red warnings, but one day they just started appearing no matter what font family I wanted to update.

    Logically, I assumed it's something at my side at first, that's why I reached here for help. But, I emailed them also to tell me specifically how to correct these warnings and why are they keep appearing all of sudden.

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,580
    It sounds like it might be an issue on their side. Possibly their website back end is not replacing the old files, but trying to add the new ones as duplicates, triggering these kind of warnings. I have seen this kind of problem with file management systems, sometimes even linked to using specific browsers (e.g. works when using Safari, but not when using Chrome). Have you tried doing the uploads using a different browser?
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,474
    I've had a similar problem. It ended up being a glitch from the MyFonts/Fonts.com database merger a few years ago. They're apparently not easy to fix.
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
    edited January 12
    John Hudson said:
    Have you tried doing the uploads using a different browser?
    I have tried with Chrome and Opera, they both gave me red warnings.

    It's probably an issue on their end (like we all suspect), but still I wanted to be sure that I haven't missed maybe something, but again there is nothing much to miss.

    I'm waiting now a answer from their tech support. I will post their answer here.
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
    OK, so I received email from Monotype telling me to slightly change PostScript name (I added V2 for each weight under PostScript), so that eliminated red warning about it.

    But still no solution about Version issue.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,580
    edited January 14
    Telling you to change your font data because of a failure in their website back end seems wrong.
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
    edited January 15
    I agree. They act like every Government: let's change people, and not the system.

    After they answered telling me to change version number (like I haven't tried that before), I told them that instead of doing these "hacks" they should work on the Validator and fix it.

    And it's not just about me and my case. These things will come on sight again whenever someone wants to update older families.
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 75
    This is getting silly.

    They managed to upload one of the families I had issues with (after they asked me to send them font files, so they could check), but not letting me know what's the solution for Version problem. 

    So I kindly asked would it be fine if I send them ~900 font files, so they do the same thing for each font file. And to be prepared that other designers might do it as well.

    Let's see what will happened (I know nothing will, but I'm interested to see if they'll admit it's problem on their side, and not on mine).


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