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FontLab Studio 5.1 Mac Public Preview 4 available!
FontLab Studio 5.1 for Mac Public Preview 4 (build 4311) is now available as a free update for all registered users of FontLab Studio 5.
This build fixes many problems with FLS 5.1 crashing on Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.6, improves OpenType .otf and .ttf font generation, improves the decompilation of OpenType Layout features into FEA 2.5 syntax (e.g. automatically includes the "languagesystem" statements required by the AFDKO 2.5 library), and includes many stability fixes and small UI improvements.
FontLab Studio 5.1 is a 32-bit Mac Intel application that runs on Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7.
Regards,
Adam
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22 Oct 2011 — 3:14am
is an update for windows nearby?
22 Oct 2011 — 1:12pm
is an update for windows nearby?
Windows already has an intel-native version of Fontlab.
22 Oct 2011 — 3:00pm
But the current Windows version does not implement the AFDKO 2.5 code yet, which means that the Win and Mac versions will now be incompatible.
23 Oct 2011 — 2:52am
John,
as I'm sure you remember, that's always been the case. We never released FontLab 3 or 4 or FontLab Studio 5 for both platforms at the same time. We just don't have the resources to do that under the current codebase (fortunately, this will likely change with the new codebase that we're developing).
Best,
Adam
23 Oct 2011 — 7:08pm
Adam, I was responding to James' comment, which seemed to suggest that an update to the Windows version wasn't necessary, since it is already Intel-native. I was pointing out that the updates in the Mac version involve more than just making it Intel-native. Yes, the Windows and Mac versions have always been incompatible in various, mostly small ways, but I think changing the ADKFO code base is a different order of incompatibility, because it makes .vfb sources with .fea code in them non-cross-platform compatible.
Not an issue for me, of course, since I still use VOLT for all OTL work. :)
24 Oct 2011 — 3:51am
I think the main advantage of the Mac version (to compare with the Win one) is that it doesn't have 6 400 glyphs limit anymore. This discriminates users of the Win version even more.
Johnych
25 Oct 2011 — 6:42am
It all depends on your needs. I almost never need more than 6,400 glyphs. But I always have a need to kern triplets, or come up with work-arounds. We now run a text-processing routine on incoming manuscripts to kern triplets, using a hard kern in InDesign. Couple examples: f + space + J/(plus any letter with an ascender on the left) period/comma + space + a/c/d/e/etc.
Etc. Could well use some of the other ADKFO 2.5 tools as well. As far as supporting ADKFO 2.5 goes, AFAIK & IIRC, FL promised it for Windows by December 2010.
26 Oct 2011 — 3:41am
Charles,
how do you implement the triplet kerning in the final font files? Contextual positioning in the "kern" feature?
A.
26 Oct 2011 — 11:26am
Adam, I was assuming that when FL supported AFDKO 2.5, it would allow what Thomas was speaking of in
http://typophile.com/node/43708
Right now, it is a script run in the text file, so it isn't in the font. We really just have two: one for fonts with a swoopy "f", one for fonts without. Just generalized kern vaules, will be much better when we can get it in the fonts. We also take care of some roman/italic "interchanges" with the script, and forbid line breaks for numerous constructions (8:00 P.M., F. M. Murphy, etc. etc.).