[Script] Koboify Fonts

[forster01]

i have a slight problem with this little software. it appears that it doesn't apply darkening what so ever...

for example, i downloaded noto sans font, from google, and first i runned koboify fonts with applied darkening of 9, i left the name as it were. then i took the same font and applied darkening of 25. changed a name and transferred it to my KA1. It seems to me that there are no change when i switch back and forth font....

[sherman]

Originally Posted by forster01

i have a slight problem with this little software. it appears that it doesn't apply darkening what so ever...

for example, i downloaded noto sans font, from google, and first i runned koboify fonts with applied darkening of 9, i left the name as it were. then i took the same font and applied darkening of 25. changed a name and transferred it to my KA1. It seems to me that there are no change when i switch back and forth font....

Sorry, I haven't worked on this script for years. So it is quite likely something has broken along the way, especially since it uses font forge to do the work, which could have changed things over the years.

[forster01]

Thanks.
pity, it's a nice little tool, quite useful one. hope you will find some time to continue working on it...

[radius]

I had to hack up KoboifyFonts a little to make it run for me using modern Fontforge; I guess because of switching to Python 3.

On version 20190801 of fontforge from Homebrew on Mac I had to do the following hacks for KoboifyFonts:

- change iteritems() to items(); I think this optimization is no longer needed
- change all instances of unicode(some_string, 'utf-8') to just bare some_string; I don't fully understand, but it seems there has been some change has been made to the string type?

This works for me, but I have no idea if they are good in general (hence no patch).

[JSWolf]

Is the current Forntforge for Windows finally stable?

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by radius

I had to hack up KoboifyFonts a little to make it run for me using modern Fontforge; I guess because of switching to Python 3.

On version 20190801 of fontforge from Homebrew on Mac I had to do the following hacks for KoboifyFonts:

- change iteritems() to items(); I think this optimization is no longer needed
- change all instances of unicode(some_string, 'utf-8') to just bare some_string; I don't fully understand, but it seems there has been some change has been made to the string type?

This works for me, but I have no idea if they are good in general (hence no patch).

Yeah, that would have needed to be done since the latest version of Fontforge switched to including Python 3 by default.

The unicode() function call in Python 3 uses utf-8 strings by default, which is why the bare string or variable name is all that is needed now.

I actually tried to port the script myself, but Fontforge was crashing on me even using the original script on an older version of Fontforge that still used Python 2 on my Windows 10 machine (and I can't tell if it's a Windows thing or just my machine; I went crazy in locking it down for security purposes, which in hindsight has caused all sorts of compatibility problems for me that are hard to track down/reverse), so I couldn't verify anything.

If the script works for you, feel free to post it so that others can benefit (or check/edit your work in case anything else was missed in the migration).

[sherman]

Hi all

This script is basically depreciated. I should probably make a note of that somewhere

I created a replacement called ReadifyFont, but I don't know if I ever really advertised it here on MobileRead

Now, ReadifyFont hasn't been worked on in quite a while either, but I did try and account for Python 2/3 differences, so that might not be such an issue. It was about that time when it was a toss-up whether the build of FontForge one was using was using Python 2 or 3, and was a right PITA.

I don't know how much the FontForge Python API has changed since I last worked on this, so who knows how well it still works...

Note, ReadifyFonts has a GUI based on PyQT, as well as a CLI script. From memory. the GUI can be started with calibre-debug if you don't have PyQT installed.

If anyone wants to make improvements, I accept pull requests.

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by sherman

Hi all

This script is basically depreciated. I should probably make a note of that somewhere

I created a replacement called ReadifyFont, but I don't know if I ever really advertised it here on MobileRead

Hey, this is pretty cool and I was wondering if it was ever completed.

But can someone else verify that it still works since I don't trust my machine configuration? Using the GUI, I just tried it and while it looks like it attached a kern table to a font that I know only has GPOS (it's the version of Gill Sans from the Nook firmware, but Gill Sans on Windows 10 is the same), when I open up the modified font in Fontforge again, it still has all the PANOSE data even though I selected it to be cleared. Running the latest version of Fontforge available for 32-bit Windows 10 (along with a local instance of Python 3.7 and PyQT5, although I don't know if it uses it outside of for the GUI).

[JeanPierre]

I have been using the latest version of Literata from https://github.com/googlefonts/literata/releases as is. Would I realise any benefits from running the ttfs from that site through the ReadifyFont script before using them with my Kobo device?

EDIT – I went ahead and ran the script with the following options enabled: Legacy Kerning, Clear PANOSE, Alt. Name, Keep Existing Hinting. Seems the same to me so far on my Kobo, but I'll keep using it anyway

Thanks for the new script. It's very slick

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I have been using the latest version of Literata from https://github.com/googlefonts/literata/releases as is. Would I realise any benefits from running the ttfs from that site through the ReadifyFont script before using them with my Kobo device?

EDIT – I went ahead and ran the script with the following options enabled: Legacy Kerning, Clear PANOSE, Alt. Name, Keep Existing Hinting. Seems the same to me so far on my Kobo, but I'll keep using it anyway

Thanks for the new script. It's very slick

The latest version of Literata already has a legacy kern table attached and the PANOSE data consistent with the other font weight data, so no surprise that it looks virtually the same. You might notice a difference in playing around with the different hinting options; if you do, let us know.

[JeanPierre]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

The latest version of Literata already has a legacy kern table attached and the PANOSE data consistent with the other font weight data, so no surprise that it looks virtually the same. You might notice a difference in playing around with the different hinting options; if you do, let us know.

I tried setting AutoHint and unchecking the previous options I set, but still can't see a difference. So I guess this means Literata is fine as it. Thanks for the input

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I tried setting AutoHint and unchecking the previous options I set, but still can't see a difference. So I guess this means Literata is fine as it. Thanks for the input

Or the script no longer works with the latest version of Fontforge which is why nothing looks different, lol.

That said, I do believe that version 2 of Literata is fine as is so no need to change anything. The stock Kindle fonts are messed up in nickel without modification though, and I guess using those to test if the new script still works properly would probably be best.

[forster01]

is there a win version of redify fonts?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by forster01

is there a win version of redify fonts?

In theory, this should run under Windows. You will need to have FontForge installed, set the path information correctly, etc. However that said, when I run "fontforge -script ReadifyFontCLI.py -h" at a command prompt, I get an error importing from helper at line 13. This may be due to already having Python 3.7 installed.

One note is that the fontforge-console.bat file when run as administrator tried to set the path and system variables but has errors such as setting the PYTHONPATH to point to a 2.7 install while the installed version of FontForge has a Python 3.7 install.

[sherman]

Originally Posted by DNSB

In theory, this should run under Windows. You will need to have FontForge installed, set the path information correctly, etc. However that said, when I run "fontforge -script ReadifyFontCLI.py -h" at a command prompt, I get an error importing from helper at line 13. This may be due to already having Python 3.7 installed.

Can you let me know what the error is? I just tried with a freshly installed FontForge, and I have Python 3.7 installed, and it showed the help fine.