Color Fonts
Color output depends on both the artwork and the color technology selected in the profile. Plan a useful fallback and test the delivered font in the intended applications; a color preview inside FontLab is only the source-side check.
The Color Font Technologies
| Technology | Representation |
|---|---|
| OT+SVG (Adobe/Mozilla) | SVG artwork in the font's SVG table, potentially including vectors, gradients, and images. |
| OT+COLR (Microsoft; COLR/CPAL) | Color drawing structure with palettes; COLR v0 uses solid-color layers, while v1 supports a richer paint model including gradients and variation. |
| OT+sbix (Apple) | Embedded bitmap images at designated pixel sizes; not the 127-PPM CBDT route described below. |
| OT+CBDT (Google; CBDT/CBLC) | Bitmap glyph data and size/location information; this FontLab export route is limited to 127 PPM. |
OpenType SVG is different from the obsolete standalone SVG-font format. A font containing SVG artwork remains an OpenType font with supporting tables and outline/fallback data.
A multi-flavor color font can contain more than one color representation. FontLab source layers such as the ordinary master, SVG, bw, and ppm.NNN can organize color, fallback, and size-specific bitmap material. The layer names identify roles in the supported workflow; arbitrary visible layers do not automatically become every available color table.
When opening color fonts, inspect the reconstructed elements. SVG can be interpreted into editable material where supported; COLR paint structures can be mapped into supported color elements; bitmap technologies retain pixel-based content. Compressed sbix imagery, including emjc/LZFSE content, and unusual paint/effect combinations can depend on additional decoding support. Verify reconstructed COLR v1 gradients and variable paints before relying on editable round trips.
BDF import offers another route to pixel-based designs, including vector squares representing pixels. Those squares are different from retaining a photographic bitmap, even if both look pixelated at one size.
Color Fonts and Fallback Mechanisms
In File > Export Profiles…, duplicate a suitable production profile and choose the required technology under Export color font files. Activate the profile, export a representative set, and inspect what was generated.
SVG output can retain supported vector/image appearance. Check clipping, gradients, and effects in a consumer that supports the chosen data. Unsupported visual effects may require resolution or rasterization.
COLR output uses palette information through CPAL. Solid layered artwork can use the simpler representation; gradients and richer paint behavior require the appropriate version. Review automatic version selection and any palette options instead of assuming every COLR consumer supports the same paints.
A generated dark palette can support an alternate appearance where the application or CSS palette controls select it. Compare both palettes: dark-mode suitability is a design decision, not merely an inversion of every color.
sbix output uses the supplied ppm.NN layers or the profile's rasterization size when it needs to render images. Choose sizes appropriate to the intended use and inspect file size as well as appearance.
For CBDT output, set Rasterization PPM to 127 or less. If a bitmap strike exceeds that size, the export dialog lets you choose a smaller rasterization size. Review the reduced strike for legibility; this FontLab export limit does not describe the capacity of every bitmap format.
Variable COLR v1 output uses a compatible variable/color configuration, including the appropriate color option in the variable profile. Check the paints and glyphs between masters; a static color export does not establish variable behavior.
Supply and inspect monochrome fallback
A consumer may use the ordinary monochrome outlines instead of color. FontLab can derive fallback outlines by rasterizing and tracing color artwork, or you can supply a deliberate bw drawing in the supported source workflow.
For a deliberate OT+SVG fallback:
- In the native source, add a layer named
bwto a representative color glyph. - Draw a simplified monochrome version there, preserving its intended advance and recognizable details.
- Return to the color layer and export with an OT+SVG profile using Current layer.
- Inspect both the color result and the ordinary fallback outlines in the output. Extend the approach to the other color glyphs once the trial is correct.
If you start from an automatically traced fallback, reopen a test export separately to inspect its bw layer. Retain the original native color source and bring the refined fallback drawing back into it before the next export.
Automatic fallback can be a starting point, but check small details, holes, spacing, and recognizability. A color distinction may disappear entirely when reduced to one silhouette. Refine the fallback source and export again rather than correcting only a disposable binary.
Recall color construction in Coloring Contour Elements and Working with Color Images, and profile choices in Export Profiles. Web packaging must preserve the intended color tables. Use WOFF2 for supported OT+COLR and OT+sbix color delivery; inspect whether other enabled wrapper outputs contain color or only fallback in the chosen profile.
Vector color can remain scalable; bitmap material retains finite resolution, and a vector design can still be rasterized by the selected output path. Test the actual color and fallback files in the required applications and at relevant sizes before release.
For consumers supporting CSS palette selection, font-palette: dark requests a dark-background palette. Variable-color output and web packaging are discussed in OpenType, Variable, and Web Fonts; test actual target applications as described in Proofing Environments. The platform names above identify the technologies’ origins, not an exhaustive compatibility matrix.