Font Audit

FontAudit checks outlines for technical irregularities and questionable curve construction. It can locate many problems and repair some automatically. Use it alongside visual inspection: a reported condition may be intentional, and a clean report does not establish that the letter looks or functions as intended.

The FontAudit Checker

Open Window > Panels > FontAudit for the problem list. Enable View > Contours > FontAudit (Shift+Cmd+F on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows) to show markers on the Glyph window canvas. The Toolbar also provides the display toggle.

FontAudit lists findings with coordinates so you can locate and inspect each reported problem.

Opening the panel or enabling the overlay activates live checking in the editing context. You can keep the panel open without showing every marker on the canvas. Turn off unnecessary live displays when they interrupt drawing, then perform an explicit check when needed.

Inspect and fix one problem

1. Make the glyph and intended drawing layer current.
2. Select a problem in the FontAudit list and inspect its location on the canvas.
3. Read its description, using Quick Help if needed.
4. Use the entry's Fix control only if the suggested kind of change is appropriate.
5. Inspect the outline and check again.

The list identifies the problem and its coordinates. Canvas markers offer another route: click a marker to open its problem popup. A fix can remove or add points, realign geometry, or reshape a curve. Undo it if the result damages the design.

This Extremum popup explains the proposed repair: insert a node at the extremum. Inspect the affected curve before choosing Fix; the popup’s broader action still has a particular test context.

Fix Similar in the panel applies the selected test's fixes to other matching findings in the current layer. The panel's Fix All attempts the enabled fixes more broadly. A popup's similarly named command can be restricted to the displayed problem type; read the context rather than assuming every Fix All has the same scope.

Ignore this test disables that test category; it is not a note attached only to the one marker. Re-enable it through the test selector when you want to check that condition again.

Choose the tests

Use the panel's gear control to open Select Tests, or configure tests in Preferences > FontAudit. Enable the conditions relevant to the present task. Search the list by name when you need to change one test without altering the others.

The test selector controls which checks participate in the audit. Enable the tests relevant to the work you are reviewing.

Stem-related tests use a configurable tolerance, initially 2 font units, and the reference stems taught in Alignment Zones and Standard Stems. Set those references deliberately. A width that differs from a common stem may be an intentional optical adjustment, particularly in rounded or diagonal parts.

Some checks are inappropriate for particular transformed content. Missing-extremum and near-axis tests are skipped for rotated or slanted element geometry, so the absence of those reports does not mean that the untransformed source has been exhaustively checked.

Check several glyphs

Select glyph cells in the Font window and choose Tools > FontAudit > Check Glyphs, or use the panel's Check control when it is available in that context. Glyphs with findings receive a problem indicator. Open those glyphs to inspect the individual reports.

Tools > FontAudit > Fix Problems applies enabled repairs across the selection. Before a large run, save the native source and test the repair settings on representative glyphs. Consider disabling shape-altering tests such as inflection, near-flat curve, balance, and curvature repairs when you only want a conservative structural pass.

Run the check again afterward. Fixes can expose or introduce other findings, and some findings have no automatic repair. Coordinate rounding can also influence the result; use the precision appropriate to the intended output rather than assuming a fix will preserve every fractional detail.

Like Live Measurement, FontAudit reads the drawing without changing it until you request a correction. Live Measurement reports geometry; FontAudit reports conditions to inspect. Its checks build on the structural and curve-quality concepts already introduced.

The Test Catalogue

The tests cover several kinds of evidence. The groups below explain what to inspect; they are not a ranking in which every report has the same severity.

Group	Current test names	Inspect
Curve irregularities	Inflection, Two inflections, Weak inflection, Cusp, Loop	Intended bending changes versus unwanted reversals or folded curves; Curve Continuity and the Curvature Comb
Redundant or degenerate structure	Collinear lines, Flat curve, Nearly flat curve, Nearly smooth, Short segment, Empty line, Empty curve, Empty contour, Closepath, Remove node	Whether the points and segments contribute to the intended outline; Structural Soundness
Node issues	Orphan node, Zero-length handles	Points that do not form a useful path or meaningful curve control; Contours, Nodes, and Handles
Contour issues	Open contour, Nearly closed contour, Duplicated contour	Closure state and accidental repeated paths; Contours, Nodes, and Handles and Structural Soundness
Curve quality	Unbalanced, Curvature	Handle proportions and the behavior of a join; Curve Continuity and the Curvature Comb and Harmonizing Curves and Smart Nodes
Stems and alignment	Not vertical, Not horizontal, Extremum, Weak extremum, Irregular stem, Uncommon stem	Near-axis geometry, missing extreme nodes, and width consistency; Structural Soundness and Live Measurement
Reuse	Invalid component	Whether referenced drawing content exists and is usable; Reuse and Composition and Building Composites by Hand
Variation	Kink in variation	Joins that can lose smoothness between masters; Previewing, Diagnosing, and Fixing Interpolation

A nearly closed contour may look filled while its endpoints remain separate. A flat curve may be replaceable with a line. An inflection, by contrast, can be an intended part of an S-shaped curve. Read the condition in the context of the drawing.

Weak inflection repair can adjust curve controls rather than inserting another node. Extremum repair can add a point where one is missing. These operations address different structural questions and can affect point compatibility with other masters.

Kink in variation has no automatic fix. It requires inspection of the corresponding handles in the source masters. Stem findings involving composite content can also lack an applicable automatic fix; a report's presence does not guarantee that Fix can resolve it.

Use FontAudit to locate work, then choose the repair. Recheck the geometry and the exported result where the condition could affect rendering or layout.

Curve checks relate to G-continuity and the curvature comb; redundant-node checks concern node economy and Simplify; Unbalanced and Curvature relate to Balance and Harmonize. Stem colors connect these tests to AutoMeter. These are reasons to inspect the corresponding geometry, not automatic judgments of design quality.