New font troubles

[Jellby]

Hi all,

I wanted to try the Calendas (www.atipo.es) font in my reader. It can be downloaded from this link: http://www.atipo.es/downloads/Calendas.zip

The problem is the three variants (regular, italic, bold) don't share the same font family name. Well, I fix it with FontForge. But now when I copy the fonts to the reader, the "default" font in the family is the italic, even the menu item to select the font uses the italic variant.

Does anyone know what could be the cause for this and how to fix it?

[DSpider]

I have no experience with ePub, but from looking at the wiki, the CSS looks to be:

@font-face {
	font-family : "Embedded_font_name";
	font-style : normal;
	font-weight : normal;
	src : url("path/Embedded_font_name.ttf");
}

Calendas Regular is what you're looking for, so that would probably translate as "font-style : regular;".

But yeah, it's kinda messed up, having 3 separate entries for the same font. Just change the Family Name (and nothing else, don't bother) from "Calendas Bold" and "Calendas Regular" to just "Calendas". That should take care of it.

[Jellby]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I don't mean embedding the fonts, I know how to do it.

My problem is with installing/using the fonts in the reader (not on an ebook file). My reader allows to just copy the font files in the device, and then I can choose whichever font I like as my "default" text font. With other fonts, I copy the regular, bold, italic and bold-italic files, and it works as expected (a single entry in the font selection menu, displayed with the regular variant). With this font, however, once I edit the family names in the font files, I get the italic font in the selection menu, and it's the italic that becomes the default text font. It seems that the italic variant is claiming to be the "normal" one in the family.

[DSpider]

I feel like I wasn't very clear either. I meant it like this:

Using FontForge just change the Family Name (and nothing else, don't bother) from "Calendas Bold" and "Calendas Regular" to just "Calendas". That should take care of it.

[Jellby]

Yes, that's what I tried, and the effect is what I described. I also asked the creators and they sent me a version with the family name corrected, the behaviour is the same.

[DSpider]

They didn't change anything. I downloaded the ZIP archive again and the files show up in 7-Zip as modified in 2011. Everything looks the same too.

Anyway, are you sure you changed the Family Name? Open the bold version in FontForge and check again. It should say "Calendas", not "Calendas Bold". Same for the "Calendas Regular".

[DSpider]

Maybe this will help.

If I delete all the name fields (PS Font Name, Full Name, Menu Name, FOND Name) and click "Build Names", this comes up:







Maybe your e-reader uses the "Menu Name" field? I'm not sure... since computer software (Windows or Linux) seem to pair them up by Family Name. Try to match them with whatever FontForge calls them and see what happens. Also, you should probably reboot the device or something after you add the fonts. Just sayin'. It could be something obvious like that.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DSpider

They didn't change anything. I downloaded the ZIP archive again and the files show up in 7-Zip as modified in 2011.

Yes, sorry, they sent me the modified files by e-mail.

Anyway, are you sure you changed the Family Name? Open the bold version in FontForge and check again. It should say "Calendas", not "Calendas Bold". Same for the "Calendas Regular".

I'm pretty sure, all three family names said "Calendas", either in the modified files they sent me or in the ones I renamed myself. But the fields shown by FontForge are named differently than those in your screenshots, there's a "PS Names" tab, and a "TTF Names" tab. I tried filling up everything correctly, anyway.

Also, you should probably reboot the device or something after you add the fonts. Just sayin'. It could be something obvious like that.

You are right. Although the device seems to reboot as soon as it is disconnected from the computer, I'll try removing the fonts, rebooting, copying the fonts again, etc.

[Jellby]

I tried deleting, rebooting, copying, rebooting... Still the same.

In case it help, here are what I think are the relevant properties in FontForge:

[Jellby]

Ah... I think I've found it. The italic font was correctly defined as italic, but it had the slant as 0. I clicked the "Guess" button (it changed to -12 or so) and saved as a new OTF file. Now the default font is the regular one.

But the font doesn't look so nice, the characters' height looks uneven, probably due to the limited screen resolution, or bad hinting/antialiasing.

(Or it could be the fact that I changed "Normal" to "Regular" in the weights.)

[DSpider]

Don't change the slant... They're already drawn slanted, you don't need to specify any additional values.


How do they show up on the e-reader? "Calendas-Bold" or "Calendas Bold"?

Because if it shows up as "Calendas Bold", then the e-reader probably uses the "Name For Humans" field (which I think corresponds to "Menu Name" from TypeTool) to group them, instead of by Family Name like in basically any other computer software. Does this make any sense? Try changing the "Name For Humans" field to just "Calendas" for all 3 files.

[Jellby]

They show as "Calendas", which is the family name.

Changing the slant only means changing a number, the glyph shapes are not altered (but a slanted guiding line can be seen if I edit a glyph). I've checked other working fonts and they have a non-zero slant defined for italics.