Font Editing to include diacritics creates havok.

[_D__Sinclair_]

Adobe font editing in FontLab, Adobe Creative Suite font problems, Font book

OS X 10.4.5
CS2 InDesign 4.0.2
Photoshop 9.0
FontLab 5.0
MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo

We have used FontLab to edit Adobe Caslon Pro to add diacritics for Hindi which are not available in the font. These are however, composite edits using existing components only. There are only 12 characters in this version needed.

Fonts are now displaying incorrectly, or missing all around. FontBook is 'finding' files for fonts of entirely different font families. Also they are displaying incorrectly there as well. In Safari some fonts are displaying in some kind of symbol which is not readable.

Upon launching InDesign now "Bad Font Detected" error is regularly coming up with a specific font listed. None of which are the fonts that we have modified.

I have contacted Adobe which we have a tech support contract with, however they do not wish to troubleshoot this due to the modified font which I can appreciate. However, we publish books and have a need to represent these languages and have not been able to locate good quality fonts with diacritics.

It is difficult to explain all the problems here. Possibly someone could recommend a troubleshooting path, as we've been bounced back and forth between Apple and Adobe and FontLab-- all seeming to point to the other. The problems are increasing exponentially. when I just copied this text to spell check it in TexEdit it pasted in looking like this:
bf3k3DCAGAH
VfE3/CWxalzÇ3GACAE

You get the idea . . .

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

D. Sinclair
Creative Director

[_Read_Roberts_]

I am assuming that you are generating OpenType fonts from FontLab. The Windows and Mac Postscript Type 1 font formats can't represent what's in Caslon Pro.

Unfortunately, you often can't get away with inporting an OTF font into FontLab and regenerating it. FontLab imposes its own defaults, and offers a simpler interface than the set of tools which Adobe uses to generate its Pro OpenType fonts. A technically proficient designer could fix the problems in FontLab, but it is non-trivial - a day's work at least, possibly two or three for the first face. If you want to look further yourself, the problems are most likely in:
- name table: font menu names are messed up
- Unicode camp subtable: sounds liike Unicode values are no longer correct
- OS/2 code page ranges: check style linking, code page ranges.

I suggest you ask on the FontLab list for someone who can do contract work for this.

- Read Roberts

[_D__Sinclair_]

Yes, we are generating OpenType fonts for Mac. We are in way over our heads technically. We tried finding someone on the FontLab list but no bites. I've also tried to find an Adobe type designer who could help either as an Adobe project with no luck -- too small a project I'm sure, but also as a freelance project. Can you give any referals, or is that appropriate?

Thank you so much for the help.

D

[Thomas Phinney]

You might try the OpenType mailing list, as well. I can think of a number of people who might be able and interested, and they're all on that list.

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Regards,

T