Re: [Fontforge-devel] Some recommendation for FF

[George W. <gw...@si...>]

On Sun, 2006-12-24 at 14:11, Farhad A. Dolatabadi wrote:

> Accommodation of an option with this subject “double click opens a new
> glyph window” so that every time it is checked, double click brings up
> a new glyph window and when it is not checked double click brings up
> the glyph in the previously opened glyph window. At present, every
> double click on a character in font window brings up a new glyph
> window and this may be not so suitable in all cases.
Why not? I would find it very confusing if I double clicked on "A" and
got a window showing "B" -- when would you want that to happen?
> 
> 2.   Font window
> 
> An index view of the characters and a “sort by” command in the font
> window would be very useful. Sometimes the user wants to rearrange the
> characters in the font according to his or her desire or sort them by
> Unicode, name, etc. with this index view and sort command you are not
> confined in a solid font window which its characters are not
> replaceable.
That's what Encodings and groups let you do.
> 
> 3.   Glyph window
> 
> An eraser tool in the toolbox may be very helpful for quickly removing
> or deleting the nodes or control points on the glyph outline.
Can you point me to an outline editor with an eraser? I've never seen
one. Select and Clear seem pretty simple to me.
> 
> 4.   Metrics view
> 
> A kern view in the metrics window may help the user in better doing
> the kerning job. When you choose some characters to be shown in
> metrics window they are arranged just according to their metrics. But
> if you have adjusted some kerning values and would like to see the
> characters with these values, then what you should do?
Um... they are shown with kerning in the metrics view.
They are also shown with vertical kerning if you want that.
Or you can look at the View->Combinations->Kerning Pairs
> 
> 5.   Open Type features
> 
> a.   Reordering of the lookups
> 
> As I had previously mentioned (in another message), rearrangement of
> various lookups under one single feature is of paramount importance.
I know. I'm working on this.
> 
> b.  Proofing tool
> 
> Open type features are needed to be checked every time they created.
> Most of the time the user wants to see the behavior of a font every
> time s/he creates a feature. This feature by feature testing of a font
> behavior is best done by a proofing tool in the font making software.
> Otherwise, after any feature creature, you would have to install the
> font in the fonts folder of the operating system and see the behavior
> of it in a word processing program. A procedure that is not anything
> else but wasting the time.
Except it's the only way to see if the font will really work. I've been
wrong about opentype many times. I don't have confidence that I'd get it
right.
> 
> c.   Saving the features
> 
> It is a very good idea to have the ability of saving open type
> features in a text-based format.
I know, I'm working on this.