Re: [ft-devel] Bug? Font that fontforge shows but freetype does not

[Werner LEMBERG]

[Hin-Tak, your citation style is extremely strange.  Can you improve
 that?  This is, please mark *every* cited line with a citation
 prefix, not only the first line.]

> > FreeType 2.8 doesn't work either.  The last version that displayed
> > this font correctly with `FT_LOAD_DEFAULT' was 2.4.12, and this
> > only happened due to a bug in FreeType.
>
> I didn't mean that. I found FreeType 2.8 can load it without
> hinting, but current head would load it with or without.

I think you mean `wouldn't load', right?  Using current git, `ftview'
can display this font just fine after pressing the `h' button to
disable hinting.

> > The problem is actually a bug in (older?) versions of the `glyphs'
> > font editor, AFAIK: It doesn't properly remove the `prep' and
> > `fpgm' tables if you want to create a font without hinting. 
>
> You mean https://www.glyphsapp.com/  ?

Yep.

> It is reputable, but libre fonts being manipulated/maintained by
> proprietary app feels strange....

Given that fontforge is not really maintained and other free font
editors are not mature enough, it is fully understandable that
developers use glyph editors that are state of the art.  BTW, I've
accidentally already discussed this very issue with Georg Seifert, the
main developer of glyphs.

> > Leaving crap in those tables probably works with Windows – it
> > seems that executing `prep' and `fpgm' gets only triggered by the
> > first glyph that contains bytecode – but not with FreeType, which
> > executes those two tables unconditionally if hinting is
> > requested.
>
> That might be a long-term change to make?

If someone is going to change FreeType, I would welcome that.  For me,
it's not worth the time.  A broken font is a broken font.  Note that
both FreeType and Windows do the right thing, since the exact time of
executing those tables is not defined in the OpenType specification.


    Werner