Is it useful for Arabic fonts also?
Thanks with Flowers

AzizMostafa: ‘Is it useful for Arabic fonts also?’

Please try the OTM Light version and let me know your findings.

(sulking) Oh crap. It's really a very good and thorough piece of work ...

(Background: I was just getting into manually decoding CFFs to prise out those last slivers of valuable information for my own implementation. Oh well ... at least now I have something to cross check my data against ...)

Blokland, I will try my best.
Please allow 2 weeks to explore it.
Thanks one again with Flowers.

Theunis de Jong: 'It’s really a very good and thorough piece of work ...'

Thanks for the compliment. This is another one (especially Dr. Juergen Willrodt deserves the credits here) by Dr. Ken Lunde, Sr. Computer Scientist at Adobe, on Thomas Phinney's blog (http://www.thomasphinney.com/2009/01/dtl-otmaster/):
'As someone who works with OpenType fonts on an every-day basis, and with the tools that are used to build and check them, I would like to state here that DTL OTMaster is a fabulous tool. The best way for me to characterize it is that it gives me the power of AFDKO’s “spot” tool, and that of TTX, but wrapped up in nice GUI. It handles CJK fonts well, including those with a large number of glyphs. I especially appreciate that there is a Mac OS X version, because that is the OS that I use.'

AzizMostafa: ‘Please allow 2 weeks to explore it.’

OTM supports mark positioning lookups and can display them. These mark to base, mark to mark and mark to ligature positions are editable in OTM. They are also supported when a features file is imported. Since OTM is based on the latest version of the Adobe SDK it supports the GPOS mark features and one can create a GPOS table from the features file.

I wrote: 'The downloads also contain the OTM manual in PDF format.' and I would like to add here that version 1.5 of the OpenType specs is attached and linked to the manual, thanks to the permission granted by Microsoft.

Frank,

I have downloaded
http://www.fonttools.org/downloads/OTMA/OTM_Light_1.0.0_MAC.zip

The archive contains two files:
OTM_Light_1.0
OTM_Light_1.0_Intel_Leopard

There is no PDF file included.

Also, when I open OTM_Light_1.0 (since I'm not running Leopard), an application called Automator opens, and that's it. No indication what should happen afterwards. Can you advise?

Best,
Adam

@Adam: Running OTM_Light_1.0 should start the installer; the PDF is installed along with the application. It sounds like your system is trying to open the installer VISE files with the Mac OS Automator app. I’m not sure why that would happen, but try repairing permissions and rebooting.

I wrote: 'OTM is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Free Light versions are available for [...]'

To complete this information about OTM:

The full version of DTL OTMaster costs Euro 255 and can be purchased from:
http://www.fontmaster.nl/Shops/FM_Shop/

Running OTM_Light_1.0_Intel_Leopard does indeed launch the installer (but OTM does not install since the OS is Tiger) but OTM_Light_1.0 launches Automator — I fail to understand why.

I tried earlier, and the first thing it asked for was the admin password. This is what it looks like on my system:

The file type associations should be the same on your system. It installed OK. It really looks quite powerful ...

Adam Twardoch:
'[...] OTM_Light_1.0 launches Automator — I fail to understand why [...]'

Thanks for notifying me. Although I could not reproduce the error, I have built new VISE X installers which you can download from:

http://www.fonttools.org/downloads/OTMA/OTM_Light_1.0_MAC.zip

Hopefully the installer for OS 10.4 (and previous versions) functions well on your machine. Please let me know the outcome.

The for some time more or less slumbering Community forum at the FM site has been re-installed and is open now for whoever wants for instance to exchange info on DTL OTMaster.

The programmers at URW++ will be monitoring too, and provide information directly, if requested.

New DTL OTMaster Light versions for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux are available from the downloads page at the DTL FontTools web site.

New in DTL OTmaster (Light) version 1.0.1:
- Support for the very latest edition of the AFDKO 2.5.
- Changed export of the GDEF table.
- Bug fix for crash during export of OpenType Layout features files and Character Layout files under Mac OS 10.4.x and 10.3.x.

Very occasionally a problem was reported concerning the VISE installers for the Mac. New VISE X installers have been generated to solve this.

 
A new version (2.0.0) of DTL OTMaster is available now.
 
The functionality of DTL OTMaster has been enhanced considerably in the new 2.0.0 version. For instance the Glyph Editor now supports the option to import and export EPS and SVG data. It is also possible to cut, copy and paste glyph data between CFF and TTF fonts. Imported glyphs can be autohinted.
 
The OpenType Layout features processing is based on latest build of the AFDKO 2.5 version and the OpenType specification 1.6 is supported. The Concistency Checker has been enhanced with new ‘Version’ and ‘Statistics’ options.
 
Especially because of the new glyph editing functionality and the option to add EPS and SVG data to OpenType (CFF and TTF) fonts, DTL OTMaster 2.0.0 is not only suitable for professional font producers, but also for graphic designers who want to add special characters and logo’s to existing fonts (if the end user license that came with the font in question permits this, of course).
 
• Download DTL OTMaster Light 2.0.0
 
New in version 2.0.0:
 
— Support of the latest ‘build’ of the AFDKO version 2.5.
— Support for OT Specification V1.6.
— Support for Mark Filtering Sets
— Support for cv00–cv99, ss01–ss20
— Support for feature name tags
 
— Two new options in the Consistency checker:
1. Version checker,
2. Glyf and Header entries checker.
 
— Glyph Copy Tool supports copying OTF(CFF) <–> TTF now.
— Cut/Copy/Paste between Bezier outlines (CFF) and quadratic splines (Glyf).
— EPS import & export
— SVG import & export
— Metrics editing and update (hmtx, vmtx) in the glyph editor.
— Autohinting (for single glyphs).
— Display of hints for CFF Fonts.
 
 

Home

I just tried installing the new Light version but it still says it is OTM Light 1.000.

Is there any way how I can find out which version I am actually using? The program does not seem to have an "About" function.

Try to find a Read Me file inside the folder of the software.

I dont have OTM, but DTL LetterModeller has its own Read Me file inside the software folder. I guess the programmer would do the same with OTM.

Hi Tim, the status bar at the bottom of th window should show the version/date. If this notice is gone already, it should still be in the File - Messages dialog, at the very top.

Tim: '[...] the new Light version but it still says it is OTM Light 1.000 [...]'

Yes, that is correct... or actually it is not. We fixed this in the full edition some time ago (and now we will do this in the Light version too). Yoshua is right about the Read Me file, this should confirm that what you have downloaded is actually version 2.0. Sorry for this.

Just downloaded and installed it. Tried opening an OT font, the program told me that it is not able to save. If this version doesn't have save capabilities, isn't "Light" a misnomer? Shouldn't it be called "Demo"?

Sv.

Sveinbjörn: [...] Shouldn't it be called "Demo"?

Basically this depends on how much one appreciates the checking functions OTM Light offers (see also: http://typophile.com/node/67288) and options like for instance the export of features files. It is the only tool of its kind, which offers a GUI anyway, and I reckon that there are quite some OTM Light versions in use in combination with other font tools.

And labelled either ‘Demo’ or ‘Light’, it is for free, isn’t it?

Svenni, look at it this way: the light version of OTM is a diagnostic tool, the full version lets you do surgery. I value having the full version because I sometimes need to perform post-production operations on font data, because in my workflow a TTF or OTF becomes the source format for OTL and hinting work. But if one has a workflow in which a program like FontLab remains the source format throughout, up to the point of final font generation, then OTM is useful as a means of examining generated fonts, quality assurance, etc. and you only need the light version.

Indeed, I consider OTMaster Light a very powerful "in-depth font viewer". For example, its Tools/'GPOS'/'GSUB' Table Viewer is a quite powerful and useful tool to examine the functionality of the compiled OpenType Layout tables.

TypeSupply FeatureProof [1] offers a similar functionality, but OTMaster is much more robust with more complicated fonts (e.g. complex-script fonts for Indic languages, which FeatureProof simply does not open at all). Also, OTMaster works on both Mac OS X and Windows, while FeatureProof is Mac-only. On the other hand, FeatureProof offers a more practical interface for testing contextual OpenType Layout features in a "real text string".

And yes, indeed, the full version of OTMaster allows you to edit pretty much any aspect of the low-level structures of a TrueType or OpenType font. TTX/FontTools [2] allows pretty much the same, but in a rather different manner: OTMaster offers a graphical user interface while TTX/FontTools allows the user to convert an entire TTF or OTF font (or one selected table) into XML, edit the XML in a text editor, and convert it back into a font. Also, installing and setting up TTX/FontTools can be challenging for some users, while OTMaster works "out of the box".

Both working manners have their advantages. If you need to make more changes, the XML workflow (through TTX/FontTools) can be more efficient, but for a simple fix or two in a font, OTMaster is the better solution.

I definitely think DTL OTMaster is an excellent product.

Regards,
Adam

[1] http://code.typesupply.com/wiki/FeatureProof
[2] http://fonttools.sourceforge.net/

@ Adam

Also, installing and setting up TTX/FontTools can be challenging for some users, while OTMaster works "out of the box".

Mainly because the installation instructions are out of date and incomplete and mainly because some developers seem to develop for themselves only: http://typophile.com/node/67406

I mean, it is wasted time, if each of some users has to solve the same problems instead of having no problems because of updated instructions.

Arno,

please consider that opensource efforts such as TTX/FontTools are made by volunteers in their spare time. The concept of opensource is that any developer can, and is encouraged, to contribute. The software comes free of charge, as is. There is nobody who collects license fees, and there is nobody who gets paid for their work on the software.

When I produced the build instructions for TTX/FontTools for Windows five or so years ago, I worked on Windows. More than two years ago, I completely switched to Mac OS X, and can no longer maintain build instructions for Windows.

Anyone willing to contribute updated build instructions for TTX/FontTools for Windows is welcome to do so (or is welcome to find a Python for Windows developer who is willing to do it, and pay him). This is the key concept of opensource.

Milton Friedman used to say "There is no such thing as a free lunch". If the lunch is said to be free, it may mean that you need to participate in cooking it.

Best,
Adam