Script build for Google Fonts API (NAME table updates)
The NAME table has a few things that I would like to request changing before the next build.
- [ ] First is what I consider to be improvements that may be good to do for all possible contexts, by removing
Regularfrom all 'family' and 'fullname' name records (bothnameID="1"and4)
eg in fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Regular.ttf it is Bungee Regular and should be Bungee
(I noticed that in Bungee-Regular.ttf the family name being Bungee Regular meant the windows full name became Bungee Regular Regular, which is a bit odd - all should just be Bungee :)
- [ ] Second, is adjusting the "Bungee Singles" fonts to make them fit snugly into the Google Fonts API. There are 5 files:
-
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Regular.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Hairline.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Inline.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Outline.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Shade.ttf
The Google Web Fonts API will present these as each a Regular (400 roman) instance for 5 different families, so the filenames should instead be,
-
fonts/Bungee_TTF/Bungee-Regular.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/BungeeHairline-Regular.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/BungeeInline-Regular.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/BungeeOutline-Regular.ttf -
fonts/Bungee_TTF/BungeeShade-Regular.ttf - [ ] Modulo the above point about
Bungee-Regular.ttf, thenameID="1"values are all correct, but the PS name records (nameID="6") should be the same as the filenames above, and Typographic Family Name records (nameID="16"and 17) should be removed.
I just tested the above (by hotfixing TTFs with TTX) and Illustrator is smart enough to silently match BungeeShade-Regular.ttf to Bungee-Shade.ttf so no existing documents should break.
From a UX perspective it means that the styles appear not as styles within a "Bungee" family, but as separate styles in the family list; while this isn't as tidy, I think this might be a better UX because the styles dropdown doesn't have a rendered preview while the family dropdown does. Here's InDesign:
Here's Illustrator:
Dave and I just spoke about this, and it looks like we are going to leave the names as-is in the sources, and let these fields be changed for the web fonts in production.
I will need to rebuild the desktop fonts, and incorporate the google web fonts along with the other web fonts. I made a separate to-do for this here: https://github.com/djrrb/Bungee/issues/44
If there are no objections, I'll close this issue.
Maybe leave it open until there's a script to automate
Sounds good!