git-glyph-timelapse

This tool converts the git history of Glyphs .glyph files (Glyphspackage format) into an animation using DrawBot.

To install, make sure DrawBot has openstep_plist, requests and base64 python packages installed. To use, modify these variables in index.py and run:

REPO_OWNER_NAME = "org-or-username"
REPO_NAME = "repo-name"
GLYPHSPACKAGE_PATH = "MyFont.glyphspackage"
TOKEN = "a_github_token_with_repo_permission"
OUTLINE_MODE = True
GLYPH_NAME = "S"
MASTER_IDX = 1  # 0 for single master
SAVE_DIR = "~/Desktop"
SAVE_FORMAT = "mp4"

Current limitations (things to fix, decide not to fix, or create issues for):

• Probably doesn't work on public repos
• Doesn't support .glyphs, only .glyphspackage
• Does not work if there are components in the glyph you specify
• Does not work if glyph nodes have special metadata, e.g. if you use the LTTR/INK plugin
• Does not support UFO (could generalize this to support .glif as well)
• Code is a mess!

Things to refactor:

• Instead of using the GitHub API, generalize this to work with local git; for GitHub support, optionally clone a remote repo that you have permission to. This will transfer more data, but once there is support for components, the benefit will be worth it because it will create far fewer network requests by loading glyphs directly from a local git repo rather than requesting each one from GitHub

Free, without warranty software. Not responsible for etc.!