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FontLab version 6.0.6.6722»

30 May 2018

FontLab 6.0.6 is even a bigger improvement than 6.0.5, with some 180 improvements (80 new features or enhancements, and 100 bug fixes)! Among others, 6.0.6 allows you to automatically synchronize editing operations such as adding or removing nodes across matching masters, brings major improvements in the Metrics and Kerning workflows, and some important enhancements in variable fonts handling. Plus, FontLab now supports the UFO3 format!

New and improved features»

Drawing»

  • New Convert to smooth curve segment operation: you can instantly convert any line segment to a curve segment, and make the surrounding nodes smooth with ShiftAlt-click the segment (so you’ll get an actually curved curve segment). (If you just want a curve but not smooth connections, use Alt-click.)

  • The Rectangle tool has a new “eraser” mode. If you enable the eraser mode in the Property bar and draw a rectangle over an existing shape in the current element, the filled portions of the existing shape covered by the rectangle will be instantly removed (trimmed).

  • In Contour mode, ShiftPgDn or FnShift↓ will select additional nodes and handles along the contour (in the direction of the contour) and ShiftPgUp or FnShift↑ will select additional nodes and handles in the direction opposite to the contour direction.

  • When you create overlaps by connecting two nodes using the Scissors tool, the results were often incorrect especially if the nodes were adjunct to curve segments or line segments at different angles. The results are much better now.

Grid and Guides»

  • When you have two nodes selected, choose Tools > Add Guide to add a glyph guide that goes through those nodes.

  • If you have a non-zero italic angle specified in Font Info > Font Dimensions, you can slant any guide to that angle with the guide’s context menu entry Slant to italic angle

  • If you have non-zero grid slant angle specified in Preferences > Grid (with the Follow the font’s Italic Angle setting disabled), you can slant any guide to that angle with the guide’s context menu entry Slant to grid

  • You can show or hide the Measurement Line with the CtrlAltL keyboard shortcut

  • The setting Preferences > Grid > On-curve nodes always snap to the grid is now called Round nodes, guides and anchors to grid points. With this setting on, snapping to the grid becomes “strong” i.e. nodes, guides and anchors (but not handles) snap to it immediately.

FontAudit»

  • FontAudit has a new test Open Contour for any open contour. This test is disabled by default but you can turn it on in the FontAudit panel. If you choose to fix an Open Contour, FontAudit will close the contour with a line segment.

  • New Glyph > Fix FontAudit Problems command will fix the FontAudit problems in the current layer for the current glyph, or (in Font Window) for selected glyphs. You can control which problems will be fixed by enabling/disabling tests in the FontAudit panel.

Variations, masters and layers»

  • View > Masters relations now shows the Master relation lines more clearly for selected nodes.

  • The color-coding for master matching used in the Layers and Masters panel is now also used in the Master switcher in the Property bar of the Glyph window. The inactive masters are shown:

  • on a pale red background if they don’t match (aren’t point-compatible) with the current master and cannot be interpolated

  • on a pale yellow background if they partially match with the current master (they have the same number of elements, nodes and contours but the ordering, contour direction or point types mismatch

  • on a pale green background if they fully match with the current master

  • Copy Outline to Mask is renamed to Copy to Mask and now works for image elements as well as outlines

  • When you add a new layer in the Layers panel and enable Fill new layer with content of this font, you can choose the master of that font.

Synchronize editing operations in matching masters»

If you enable Edit Across Layers and Edit Across Elements and make several layers or masters visible in the Layers panel, and then you can use various editing tools to edit contours in the current layer or master and in all other visible layers or masters at once — as if these layers were one layer. This setting works regardless of whether the masters match or not, and does not guarantee that you will get matching masters as a result. For example, you still need to add or remove a node in all the contours from all the masters — you can just do it faster.

Now, we’re introducing a new series of settings: Preferences > Variations > Synchronize in matching masters. With these settings enabled, you can perform a certain operation in the current master, and the same operation will be “repeated” in all other masters that match the current master. Non-matching masters, masters that are set to non-interpolable in Font Info > Masters, and other layers are not affected.

You can enable the following Synchronize in matching masters settings:

  • Delete node: when you delete one or more nodes, one or more segments or even contours in the current master, the corresponding objects will be deleted from all other matching masters
  • Insert node: when you add a node (using CtrlAlt-click with the Contour tool, a click with the Knife tool or a click with the Pen tool) or multiple nodes (drag with the Knife tool) in the current master, nodes will be added in analogous locations on all other matching masters
  • Rename node: renaming a node in the current master will rename the corresponding node in all other matching masters
  • Add and rename guide: creating a guide in the current master will create corresponding guides in all other matching masters, and renaming will work similarly

(Note: There are several additional settings in the preferences which are disabled, because they are not yet implemented).

Keep in mind that Synchronize in matching masters and Edit Across Layers work separately. For example, if Edit Across Layers is on, you can drag the Knife tool to add nodes across contours belonging to different masters. But if you also have Synchronize in matching masters > Insert node on, then FontLab:

  • will insert some nodes in the contours of the current master
  • will then repeat inserting of the nodes in the contours of all other matching masters in analogous locations
  • will then insert nodes in some contours of the other masters that you’ve dragged the Knife through

In the end, the other masters may get more nodes inserted, and as a result, the masters will become incompatible. Therefore, we recommend using either Edit Across Layers or Synchronize in matching masters but not both.

Font Window»

To help you distinguish between a font that has multiple masters and a font that has a single master, the title bar of the Font Window:

  • for a single-master font shows an icon with four rectangles followed by the font’s Full Name
  • for a font with multiple masters shows an icon with vertical stripes followed by the font’s Family Name, and, after a colon, the name of the currently active Master

Font Info»

  • When you create a font with multiple masters (e.g. via Font > Merge Fonts to Masters or by adding a master in Font Info), FontLab automatically adds an axis. It will make an educated guess whether to create a Weight or a Width axis. You can always change the type of the axis in Font Info > Axes. Previously, the Weight and Width axes would sometimes be implicit, i.e. they were not added in Font Info.

  • When you add an axis with File > Font Info > Axes > +, you can choose from a set of predefined axes or create a custom axis.

  • When you rename a master using Font Info > Names > Master name, the changes are instantly visible in the Font Info master switcher.

Variations Panel»

The Map view of the Variations Panel has been redesigned:

  • if the font has no axes, the map view is blank
  • if the font has one axis, the master locations are arranged horizontally (and not diagonally), and the location is shown only once
  • if the font has two axes, the Map view shows the 2D view of the location; you can choose which axis should be shown horizontally and which vertically
  • if the font has three or more axes, you can choose which axis should be shown horizontally and which vertically; additional axes are then shown as sliders below the map

Instances»

When you choose a dynamic instance in the Variations Panel (by positioning the blue dot in the Map view, by choosing a combination of sliders in the List view or by picking a predefined instance in the Instances mode of the List view), you can click the Generate instance as master or font button (top-right of the panel) and choose:

  • Add as Master to add the currently selected instance as a new font master in the same font
  • Create as Font to create a new single-master font that has the contents of the currently selected instance (similar to Generate Instance in FontLab Studio 5)

This functionality is also available as Font > Generate Instance, and both places now use the same terminology. .

Non-linear axis mapping»

You can now define non-linear axis mapping for each variation axis. You do this by specifying the external number, an equal sign, and then your internal number: e.g. 700=230 to make an external number of 700 equal your internal number of 230.

If you use your own design locations (for example your Width axis uses the stem thickness) but wish to export a variable font with standardized user locations (going from 1 to 1000, with Regular at 400 and Bold at 700), go to Font Info > Axes and in the “axis instances” area (large text field at the bottom of each axis definition), use the following syntax: "Extra Light" 100=16, (Regular) 400=80, Semibold 600=150, Bold 700=230.

With this syntax, you specify “axis instances”, i.e. special locations on the axis, that have a name and two sets of locations.

The axis instance names such as “Extra Light”, “Semibold”, “Bold” are elements from which FontLab builds style names when you use Font Info > Instances > From Axes. "Extra Light" is in quotes because it consists of two words. (Regular) is in parentheses because it’s an elidable name element, i.e. it will not be used when the complete style name is built, if there are elements beyond “Regular.” These names may in future also be used to build axis value names in the OpenType STAT table (but this is not yet implemented).

The number after the = is the design location, i.e. the location on the axis as you see and use it within FontLab.

The number before the = is the user location, which is used as follows:

  • When you create predefined instances in Font Info > Instances > From Axes, the user locations for the Weight axis are used to automatically build the Weight class style attribute (OS/2.usWeightClass) when you export the predefined instances as traditional static fonts.
  • For all axes, when you export your font as OpenType Variations, FontLab will create mapping points between each design location and a user location along the axis. This way, you can control the speed of the end-user’s slider on each segment between these mapping points. If there are more than 3 axis instances, FontLab will automatically create an avar OpenType table as required by the spec.
  • For all axes, when you export your font as DesignSpace + UFO, the mapping between design locations and user locations will written into the .designspace file as the axis map.

Generate Glyphs»

  • Font > Generate Glyphs no longer removes an inactive layer/master when the Active Master Only setting is on.

  • Generating a glyph generates not just font masters, but also glyph masters, if any source glyph had them

Classes, Metrics (Spacing) and Kerning»

Metrics editing»

  • When in Font tab/window with one or more glyphs selected, you can open them in a Metrics tab/window (i.e. Glyph tab/window in Metrics mode): click the Metrics tool on the toolbar or Cmd-double-click (Mac) / Cmd-double-click (Windows) on the selection.

  • When in a Glyph tab/window, press ShiftAltCmdM (Mac) / ShiftAltCtrlM (Windows) or choose Window > New Metrics Tab or …Window to open a new Metrics tab/window with the same text contents. This also works with the Font window selection.

  • The Metrics mode of the Glyph window/tab now has a custom pointer (cursor)

  • You can customize the background color for the Metrics mode separately from Kerning mode in Preferences > Spacing

  • In the Metrics mode of the Glyph window:

  • When the Pairs and Phrases panel is invisible, you can:
    • use ↑ or Ctrl[ to go to the previous line in the current text
    • use ↓ or Ctrl] to go to the next line in the current text
    • use FnCmd↑+ (Mac) or CtrlPgUp (Windows) to go to the previous text phrase
    • use FnCmd↓+ (Mac) or CtrlPgDn (Windows) to go to the next text phrase
  • When the Pairs and Phrases panel is visible, the behavior changes slightly:
    • use ↑ or Ctrl[ to go to the previous line in the current text, and if you’re in the first line, to the previous text phrase
    • use ↓ or Ctrl] to go to the next line in the current text, and if you’re in the last line, to the next text phrase

(Note: if the Pairs and Phrases panel is set to Pairs, pair phrases will be used instead of text phrases.)

Kerning editing»

  • When in Font tab/window with one or more glyphs selected, you can open them as a Kerning tab/window (i.e. Glyph tab/window in Kerning mode): click the Kerning tool on the toolbar, AltCmd-double-click (Mac) / AltCmd-double-click (Windows) on the selection.

  • When in a Glyph tab/window, press ShiftAltCmdK (Mac) / ShiftAltCtrlK (Windows) or choose Window > New Kerning Tab or …Window to open a new Kerning tab/window with the same text contents. This also works with the Font window selection.

  • The Kerning mode of the Glyph window/tab now has a custom pointer (cursor)

  • You can customize the background color for the Kerning mode separately from Metrics mode in Preferences > Spacing

  • The Semicolon key applies autokerning to the current pair in the Kerning mode of the Glyph window.

  • The settings for autokerning are now in Preferences > Spacing.

  • In the Kerning mode of the Glyph window:

  • When the Kerning panel is invisible, you can:
    • use ↑ or Ctrl[ to go to the previous line in the current text, and if you’re in the first line, to the previous pair phrase
    • use ↓ or Ctrl] to go to the next line in the current text, and if you’re in the last line, to the next pair phrase
    • use FnCmd↑+ (Mac) or CtrlPgUp (Windows) to go to the previous pair phrase
    • use FnCmd↓+ (Mac) or CtrlPgDn (Windows) to go to the next pair phrase
  • When the Kerning panel is visible and the Pairs and Phrases panel is invisible, the behavior changes slightly:
    • use ↑ to go to the previous line in the current text, and if you’re in the first line, to the previous existing kerning pair
    • use ↓ to go to the next line in the current text, and if you’re in the last line, to the next existing kerning pair
    • use FnCmd↑+ (Mac) or CtrlPgUp (Windows) to go to the previous pair phrase
    • use FnCmd↓+ (Mac) or CtrlPgDn (Windows) to go to the next pair phrase

(Note: if the Pairs and Phrases panel is set to Texts, text phrases will be used instead of pair phrases.)

Classes panel»

  • In the Classes panel, you can select two classes and then edit the contents of both classes side-by-side. When you’re kerning, the Classes panel automatically shows the appropriate 1st and 2nd class.

  • You can copy-paste multiple classes between font masters or different fonts.

  • When you delete a kerning class in the Classes panel, FontLab will flatten the kerning pairs that use that class.

  • When kerning class is cleaned using the Clean Up Class operation after glyphs deletion, kerns that use those deleted glyphs are also removed

  • The Reset command in the Classes panel local menus is now called Remove All Classes.

Kerning panel»

  • Browsing through the kerning pairs in the Kerning panel by clicking or using ↑/↓ now puts the current pair into the Glyph Window. When you select multiple pairs in the Kerning panel, they will be placed in the Glyph Window in multiple lines.

  • When you click the small gray rectangle left of a class-based pair in the First column of the Kerning panel, or you Ctrl-click the pair in the panel, the Glyph window will show all glyphs from the 1st class kerned against the 2nd glyph (or a representative glyph of the 2nd class).

  • When you click the small gray rectangle left of a class-based pair in the Second column of the Kerning panel, or you Alt-click the pair in the panel, the Glyph window will show the 1st glyph (or a representative glyph of the 1st class) kerned against class kerned against all glyphs from the 2nd class.

  • When you Alt-click either of the small gray rectangles, the Glyph window will show all glyphs from the 1st class kerned against class kerned against all glyphs from the 2nd class.

  • You can use ←/→ to increase or decrease the value for all kerning pairs selected in the Kerning panel.

  • When the “HOH” toggle is enabled in the Kerning panel and you choose a kerning pair, the Glyph Window will show that pair in context, i.e. surrounded by some glyphs that are selected automatically.

  • In the Kerning panel, you can now copy and paste kerning pairs (between masters or fonts).

  • The “eye” button at the bottom of the Kerning panel shows and hides the kerning pair preview in the panel.

  • The Remove Pairs… command (available from the Kerning panel’s local menu, previously named Filter) is improved:

  • The option to remove kerning pairs below a given value now uses the less or equal to operator, allows the value 0, and can preserve small numbers when they are exceptions.

  • There is a new clean-up option to remove pairs for non-existent glyphs or empty classes.

  • The searches using the Filter box and the dropdown selectors (All glyphs, Selected Glyphs, Glyphs in Encoding) work faster. Remember that the Filter box accepts syntax such as A V, * V, A * where * means “any glyph’.

  • You can now apply color flags to kerning pairs in the Kerning panel. If you’ve also applied color flags to classes in the Classes panel, the resulting color flag will be a mixture of the class color flag and the pair color flag. Note: you may need to enlarge the panel to see the UI elements for applying Color flags.

  • The Reset command in the Kerning panel local menus is now called Remove All Pairs.

Other improvements for Kerning»

  • When you generate or export instances from a multiple-master font, kerning pairs with the value of 0 are removed.

  • FontLab now suggests you to remove the kern feature from the Features panel if you modify the font’s visual kerning. You can rebuild the kern feature using the Features panel local menu command. When you export the font, FontLab will generate the kern feature (according to the setting in the export profile).

  • When you remove all kerning with Remove All Pairs in the Kerning panel’s local menu, FontLab will asks you if you want to remove the kern feature if it exists. If you choose Yes and then undo, the first Undo will restore the kern feature, the second Undo will restore the kerning.

Glyphs and Elements»

  • Copy-pasting a glyph in the Font Window pastes an independent glyph, rather than an Element Reference

  • You can now duplicate one or more glyphs in the Font Window using Edit > Duplicate, and assign a glyph name suffix in the dialog that opens.

  • You can now add or remove tags from multiple selected glyphs in the Font Window, while preserving all other existing tags for these glyphs. To do this, select the glyphs and, in the Tags field of the Glyph panel:

  • prefix the tag with + to add it to all selected glyphs (e.g. type +tofix to add the tofix tag to the glyphs)

  • prefix the tag with - to remove it from all selected glyphs (e.g. type -tofix to remove the tofix tag from the glyphs)

  • if you omit the + you are replacing all tags in the selected glyphs with the new tags

  • In the Gallery panel, you can Alt-drag-drop one Element onto a second Element: FontLab will then ask you if you want to replace all references to the second Element by references to the first Element in all glyphs of the current master.

Files and Formats»

Saving»

  • When you’re closing a font that you’ve modified, FontLab asks you if you want to save the changes. You can now choose Don’t Save by pressing CmdD or CmdDel (Mac-only).

  • You can now choose the human-readable text-based “FontLab JSON (VFJ)” format in the File > Save As… dialog. However, all subsequent saves (using File > Save) will be done in the FontLab (VFC) binary format. If you want to keep saving the VFJ format, you can now enable it in Preferences > Save Fonts as an additional save format — then, on every save, both VFC and VFJ will be created.

Autosave»

The autosave is improved. With Preferences > Save Fonts > Autosave opened fonts enabled, when you create a new font or open a font in any format and modify it, FontLab will start automatically saving a copy in ~/Library/Application Support/FontLab/FontLab/Autosave (Mac) or C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Fontlab\FontLab\Autosave (Windows) using a unique filename, in the frequency specified in the Preferences. Previously, some files were not autosaved.

Note: FontLab will remove the autosaved files if you close the font or quit the app. If FontLab crashes and you restart it, it will ask if you want to recover the autosaved files.

UFO version 3»

FontLab now has preliminary (“beta”) support for the UFO version 3 interchange format.

Since UFO3 support is still in beta, the default export profiles (UFO Package and DesignSpace + UFO) still use UFO2. To export UFO3, go to File > Profiles, select the DesignSpace + UFO or UFO Package profile, click the + button and in the profile properties:

  • Change the Profile name (for example to UFO3 Package or UFO3 + DesignSpace).
  • Disable the Use legacy format version setting. This enables UFO version 3.
  • Optionally, change the Profile subfolder to something else. This string will be used to form the subfolder name if you export the font with the Subfolders by: Profile setting enabled.

Note: FontLab treats UFO as an import/export format, so it’s not fully round-trippable. FontLab supports practically all of “standard” UFO3 constructs, but it does not read custom font or glyph lib properties, and does not export color glyphs into UFO3. Glyphs that use filters such as Power Brush, Smart Corners or Glue, or compound elements, are exported as plain outlines.

VFB import»

When opening a VFB, FontLab will convert Metrics classes into metrics expressions where appropriate. If you used “Metrics Assistance” in FontLab Studio 5 to copy some metrics from a source glyph to some target glyphs, FontLab will form expressions in those target glyphs only if their metrics are still identical to the source metrics. If the target metrics differ from the source metrics, FontLab will use the numerical values.

User interface»

  • Better tab/window navigation. The Glyph/Font tabs headers are now wide — they take all available space. When you open new tab/window from a tab/window and then close that new tab/window, you are returned to the tab/window that you were previously working on.

  • Better UI contrast. When Preferences > Glyph Window > High contrast rendering is enabled, more UI elements are now darker, now including Genius and Servant nodes as well as Spacing controls for inactive glyphs.

  • Scoreboard. The new View > Scoreboard toggle shows a large “numeric readout” that shows coordinates for points, anchors, guidelines etc. as you’re moving them with your pointer. You can move or resize the Scoreboard. Useful if you’re working on a large monitor where the normal UI elements are tiny.

  • Workspaces. When you save a workspace, additional properties of currently open panels (such as opened panel sections) will be saved.

  • Icons (with tooltips) have replaced text labels in the Property bar (above the Font or Glyph window), and in the Glyph panel.

Auto Preview in Text mode»

When you activate the Text tool in a Glyph window and then don’t perform any actions, after a few seconds of inactivity the Text mode turns into Auto Preview, and the text cursor disappears.

In Auto Preview, instead of keys producing text, they have the same effect as in other editing modes of the Glyph window: you can zoom in/out using the Z and X keys, pan using the Space key and use other any single-key shortcuts. To activate the Text mode again, click where you want the text cursor to appear.

Preview panel»

  • You can now customize the foreground and background color of the Preview panel (useful for previewing fonts in low-contrast situations)

  • Cmd-double-click a glyph in the Preview panel to open the glyph for editing in the Glyph window

  • In the Preview panel, the Context mode now allows you to change the default string. To do that, open the context dialog with the gear button next to the mode selection. (You can still also change the text temporarily, either by direct typing, or by editing the glyph names bar, but these changes do not affect the default.). Note: in the context string, the @ character stands for the current glyph

  • The Preview panel now remembers its settings between sessions

Other enhancements»

  • Font Info > Unicode Ranges now has complete support for the OS/2.ulUnicodeRange* fields (the ranges 70–84 and 91–122 were added).

  • In the Stems dialog of the TrueType Hinting mode, the tooltip for the auto button (diamond shape) now reads Auto-detect stems (was “Calculate Stems”)

Bugfixes»

Drawing and editing contours»

  • Tools > Clear Global Mask is now disabled if the global mask is blank

  • Improved moving anchors with keyboard arrows.

  • Editing of TrueType curves that include servant nodes is improved.

  • With Contour > Coordinates > Preview Rounding enabled, both paths and nodes are rounded correctly on screen in Smart Corners.

  • When you drag an element with the Element tool, or a contour selection with the Contour tool, the Property bar continuously updates the display of the x/y coordinates.

  • With Preview Rounding enabled, handles no longer change unexpectedly when you move a selection

  • The Nodes panel immediately shows the results of Preview Rounding.

  • FontAudit marks on Sketchboard with Preview Rounding enabled are no longer misplaced.

  • Right-click menu correctly appears for selected curve segment, even when Preferences > Editing > Clicking outline selects segment is on (Win-only bug)

  • Alt-dragging a Tangent node now moves the node but keeps the handle in place even when Round while Editing is turned on.

  • The contextual pop-up menu for SVG elements no longer shows commands related to bitmap images (as they have no effect), and the menu entries in Elements > Image are appropriately disabled

  • Copy Outline to Global Mask no longer causes a crash when you do it after selecting an element with bitmaps

  • If you delete the Mask layer, Tools > Edit Mask is no longer checked afterwards

  • Fixed a three-way interaction between smart fill, smart corners and copy/paste creating unpredictable results

  • Contextual drop-down menu still available after doing Contour > Simplify

  • Font Guideline sliders in the Font Info panel work as expected

  • Context menu for guideline/metrics position works correctly

  • Nodes can be moved with the right arrow key, even after applying smart fill

  • Clicking too fast on FontAudit marks no longer causes a crash

  • After converting a horizontal or vertical guideline to a vector guideline, the defaults in Guidelines panel remain correct/unchanged

  • Nodes that are linked with magnet to Font Guidelines now move appropriately when the Font Guideline position is changed via Font Info > Parameters, Guidelines panel, or via Property bar

  • Undoing Transform panel actions in the Font window, on fonts with multiple Masters, no longer creates odd effects in glyph cells

  • Grid snap behavior of directly editing a segment no longer varies depending on whether you just edited a handle (BCP)

Variations, masters and layers»

  • Switching masters now centers on the active glyph even if your Glyph window contains a longer text.

  • FontLab no longer crashes when you edit a glyph that has multiple masters and some of the masters use open contours.

  • Alt. and Alt, switch layers correctly now even if there are locked layers

  • FontLab correctly switches to the main layer after deleting the mask layer

  • Undoing an operation doesn’t change which layer/masters is active

  • Glyph > Match Masters correctly reorders elements if “Check Masters Geometry” is turned on in the Variations panel

  • Map view is no longer empty in the Variations panel after Undo

  • When Layers panel is collapsed/compressed, the button to show layers still works.

  • When exporting the Glyph window contents in Text mode, interpolation is applied as appropriate

  • You can now remove one axis after another in Font Info

  • Removing an axis while in Font Info no longer sometimes crashes

  • File > Font Info > Instances: The “From Masters” button correctly imports variation locations

  • The Weight dropdown selector in File > Font Info > Instances correctly shows the current selection

  • When the preference “Convert TrueType curves to PostScript curves” is turned on, can still open “Bahnschrift” TrueType variable font instead of crashing

  • When a width axis is added to an existing font in File > Font Info > Axes, default location for pre-existing masters on the new axis is wd=100 (was incorrectly wd=112.5)

  • Locations (coordinates) of other masters do not change when you delete a master

  • Predefined instances are respected by the “Generate instance as master or font” operation

  • The “Attributes” drop-downs in the Font Info panel (not the full Font Info dialog) now work correctly for selecting weight, width and slope

  • Font dimensions such as x-height can be set differently per master, without glitches

Classes, Metrics (Spacing) and Kerning»

  • When the Measurement line is visible, the Glyph panel always shows the sidebearings calculated at the Measurement line

  • The Autokerning button now works correctly in the Pairs and Phrases panel, even for multiple selection

  • Tooltip for the “preview strings” button in the Metrics bar is corrected

  • When two or more classes are selected in the Classes panel, drag-dropping of glyphs to the list area respects the column so glyphs are added to the correct class

  • Opening a font with massive kerning such as Calibri Light (>400K pairs) no longer causes a crash

  • Editing kerning for inactive pair, when the “Inactive kerning pairs are editable” option is on, makes it active

  • In the Classes panel, glyphs with same name but different extension (like .case or .smcp) are no longer considered out of sync. For example: if the user select two matching classes, one with uppercase and other with small caps, FontLab will correctly consider them matching.

  • Using arrow keys to modify multiple kerning pairs selected in the Kerning panel is much faster now.

  • Activating a pair in the Kerning mode of the Glyph window no longer activates the pair in the Pairs and Phrases panel.

  • Undoing kerning changes is much faster now.

  • Measurement line no longer loses its special status and can’t be renamed.

  • Delete key works when editing kerning values

Glyphs and Elements»

  • When FontLab opens a VFC or VFJ that has multiple Elements that have the same name, it will rename these elements (if they’re different) or remove the duplicate elements (if they’re identical) and merge all references.

  • FontLab no longer allows or creates multiple Elements with the same name. It automatically makes Element names unique.

  • Generate Glyphs no longer wrongly applies color to generated glyphs when one of the source glyphs was a composite glyph

  • Using the color flag selector in the Glyph panel does not hang the application

  • The Property bar more consistently shows correct controls when you browse elements with the Element tool

  • Changing the opacity of an image element on Sketchboard with the slider does not cause a crash

  • Extensive operations with copying and pasting elements and references do not cause all guides to be removed

  • Rotation applied to glyphs selected in the Font Window works as expected

  • When an blank glyph is renamed in place, the change is immediately reflected in the Glyph Info panel

  • Renaming a glyph in place in the Font Window using the caption works properly, even when the window is in focus and the Glyph Info panel is docked

  • Typing special characters in Text mode using Alt works correctly (Mac-only bug)

Files and Formats»

  • When you export color fonts, FontLab will correctly keep transformations (scale, shift etc.) applied to SVG elements.

  • When opening Noto Sans Thai or Noto Sans Lao, all GPOS features are correctly decompiled into the FEA syntax, not just GSUB features

  • When multiple save formats are enabled in Preferences > Save Fonts and you Save As the font or Save a new font, the Save As dialog no longer appears multiple times.

  • The “Save changes to … before closing” dialog no longer shows the current master name

  • Removed the ineffective setting Preferences > Save Fonts > Save Windows. FontLab now always saves the windows and their contents in the VFC/VFJ formats.

  • FontLab correctly detects smooth nodes when opening VFB files

  • By default, FontLab JSON (VFJ) is now exported with indentation. You can turn the indentation off in Preferences > Save Fonts.

  • When you Cmd-click a Font tab/window title, FontLab now shows a file icon that reflects the file format in which the current font is saved.

  • On UFO Package export, the data/com.fontlab.v2.otl.ttx.xml is not written if it is empty.

  • When you export PostScript Type 1 fonts, the exported AFM now includes all appropriate fields in its head section

  • When you export a font in the All Masters mode, and the Profile has the Remove Overlaps setting enabled, the overlaps are actually removed.

  • When you open a UFO on Windows by opening the metainfo.plist file and then export the font, the filename for the exported font will be equal to the Full Font Name and not the word metainfo.

  • When exporting DesignSpace+UFO, masters are fully included.

  • File > Import > Artwork shows the open dialog instead of failing

  • Both font export, and remove overlap on all glyphs in a font, work more reliably even when glyphs have many hundreds of nodes

  • Custom font export profiles for color fonts work more consistently

  • Keyboard shortcut for Import Artwork (Ctrl+D) still works when used repeatedly

  • Embedding setting is correctly saved to VFC

  • OT features can be exported to .fea file (File > Export > Features), without opening the Features panel first

Other bugfixes»

  • The toolbar is now intelligently sensitive to screen resolution. With a vertical toolbar, if there are not enough pixels to show the whole toolbar (for example, in 1280 x 800 or 1440 x 900 resolutions), the set of view buttons is hidden. If resolution is increased, the buttons will automatically be shown again.

  • Search field in Preferences pane no longer loses focus when typing certain phrases

  • The Preview panel with Preferences > Editing > Live preview enabled works much faster (no longer lags) when you move points with arrow keys.

  • In Text mode (when you use the Text tool in the Glyph window), the glyph before the text cursor automatically becomes the “current glyph”, so panels and other UI elements show its appropriate info.

  • App does not use excessive CPU cycles when inactive

  • Editing Commands immediately after editing Workspaces no longer crashes

  • No erratic crash from selecting Tools > Actions

  • No crash when closing fonts from an Adobe Type Reunion-compatible PostScript Type 1 font for Mac

  • When automatically calculating values for Font Info > BBox, fractional/decimal values now always round up to larger absolute value. For example, -350.4 rounds to -351.

  • Tags applied to stems in the TrueType Hinting dialog are preserved when the dialog is closed