[fontforge-announce] FontForge 2020 March Release

[Frank T. <fra...@gm...>]

[image: org.fontforge.FontForge.png]
Hi, all.

I am happy to announce the March 2020 release of FontForge. Changes include
the following.

   - FontForge now has much improved stroke expansion functionality. The
   main change is that it actually works most of the time. New features
   include support for arbitrary convex nibs and the miter-clip and arc join
   styles from SVG 2. All functionality is accessible from the Python and
   native APIs. (By Skef Iterum.)
   - Remove overlap handles certain important edge cases better. (By Skef
   Iterum and Frank Trampe.)
   - The Python API now has a function called `genericGlyphChange` that
   matches the "Change Glyph" command in the GUI. See #4133 for more details.
   (By Skef Iterum.)
   - The Python API now has functions for getting Unicode script and for
   interrogating glyph boundaries. (By Fred Brennan.)
   - One can now use text flags (rather than just numerical flags) when
   opening a font file via the Python API. (By Skef Iterum.)
   - UFO import now outputs the note field properly. (By Skef Iterum.)
   - SVG import is much more robust. (By Skef Iterum.)
   - We have dropped most gnulib and autotools logic in favor of CMake,
   which dramatically simplifies the build system and just as dramatically
   improves build time. (By Jeremy Tan.)
   - As part of the switch to CMake, per the deprecation of Python 2, and
   per the lack of objections to the proposal on the mailing list, we have
   dropped support for building FontForge with Python 2 support. The
   non-build-system Python 2 code remains, but it is neither tested nor
   maintained nor supported and is likely to follow a trajectory of decay and
   then removal.
   - Documentation is now rendered in Sphinx, which makes maintenance and
   improvement easier. (By Jeremy Tan.)
   - Translations now happen on crowdin, which makes contributions easier.
   (By Jeremy Tan.)
   - We got such a contribution for Croatian. (By Milo Ivir.)
   - Character view point coloring is more consistent, and preview fills
   support transparency. (By Skef Iterum.)
   - The user can now move and close tabs in the character view. (By Fred
   Brennan.)
   - The metrics view now allows for entry of negative kerning values and
   runs a bit more smoothly. (By Fred Brennan.)
   - There is now a warning when a user is about to discard an unsaved
   script. (By Fred Brennan.)
   - We fixed bugs all over, as always, with particular attention given to
   the metrics view, Python, Spiro, and high-resolution displays.


Go to the FontForge website <https://fontforge.org/> to get the right
package for your system.

Best wishes,

Frank