Kerning help / advice

[Bobby Tannam]

Hi,

I’m looking for some help/advice with kerning.

I have recently kerned a thin weight of a font that I have been working on. Now I am moving onto kerning the light, unfortunately I am doing this post multiple master process.

The originals were quite tight and uneven. Now that I have straightened out the kinks, is there a way of importing the kerning only, no metrics from the thin and apply to the light? Is this common practice or is it recommended to re-kern the light?

Or is there a better method of doing this?

Thanks,
—Bobby

[Dezcom]

Is it class kerning?  You should be able to export an afm file and just import the kerning from it from the dialogue. You can also have both files open and copy from classes and features from your thin weight in the dialogue.

[Bobby Tannam]

Yes it is class kerning.

Does an afm import classes? I have tried importing afm files before, but whenever I do I got a lot of red kerning text.

I will try it today and report back.

Thanks,
—Bobby

[Dezcom]

Classes can be imported from your "Thin" file by "saving classes" in the Classes panel.  [upper-left corner tiny disk icon].
You can either choose to append existing classes or overwrite classes completely.

[Bobby Tannam]

Thanks again Dezcom, this worked great.

Is this sort of thing common practice, or would people normally kern every weight individually?

When I generated a font to test it font lab gave me the following warning?

Could this be because of the imported Kerning because it never happened previous.

[Dezcom]

Importing classes from a standard file is common and recommended for a family of fonts.  There have been bugs in software which have caused loss of classes so I find it prudent to save out a classes document always.
If you are making masters of your thinest and thickest weights, you can kern each of the masters and interpolate kerning between them for instances.  Be careful to use the same kerning logic for both so that the instances make sense.
Your error message is addressed by Adams feature update post on language systems from about a month ago on this forum.

http://forum.fontlab.com/fontlab-studio-public-preview/new-macro-upgrade-fea-for-fls-51-for-mac-os-x-t8204.0.html

[Tags:]

Jump to: Please select a destination: ----------------------------- News and announcements ----------------------------- => Announcements from the forum’s moderators => News from the font industry ----------------------------- Type design and font technology ----------------------------- => Principles of type design => OpenType Layout feature development => Hinting => Font Formats and OpenType => Web font embedding => Font licensing ===> Electronic EULA Abstract (EEULAA) ----------------------------- Education and collaboration ----------------------------- => Work: Offers => Work: Looking for => Education: Offers => Education: Looking for => Typographic Events and Conferences ----------------------------- FontLab products ----------------------------- => News from FontLab => FontLab Studio ===> FontLab Studio Problems ===> FontLab Studio Tips and Tricks ===> FontLab Studio Wish List ===> FontLab Studio Public Preview => Fontographer ===> Fontographer Problems ===> Fontographer Wish List => TypeTool => AsiaFont Studio => TransType => ScanFont => SigMaker => Other Products ----------------------------- Photofont products ----------------------------- => BitFonter => Photofont WebReady => Photofont Start => Photofont ID => Photofont QX => The Photofont technology ----------------------------- Adobe Type products ----------------------------- => Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) ----------------------------- Apple Font products ----------------------------- => Apple Font Tools ----------------------------- Microsoft Typography products ----------------------------- => Microsoft Font Validator => Microsoft Visual OpenType Layout Tool (VOLT) => Microsoft Web Embedding Fonts Tool (WEFT) => Microsoft Visual TrueType (VTT) ----------------------------- Other products and Python scripting ----------------------------- => Python scripting => FontTools/TTX => Other font-related tools ----------------------------- Special interest groups ----------------------------- => SBL Fonts ===> SBL Hebrew ===> SBL Greek ===> SBL BibLit ----------------------------- FAQ and TechNotes ----------------------------- => OpenType Layout feature development FAQ and TechNotes => Hinting FAQ and TechNotes => Font Formats and OpenType FAQ and TechNotes => Web font embedding FAQ and TechNotes => Font licensing FAQ and TechNotes => FontLab Studio FAQ and TechNotes => Fontographer FAQ and TechNotes => TypeTool FAQ and TechNotes => AsiaFont Studio FAQ and TechNotes => TransType FAQ and TechNotes => ScanFont FAQ and TechNotes => SigMaker FAQ and TechNotes => BitFonter FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont WebReady FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont Start FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont ID FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont QX FAQ and TechNotes ----------------------------- Archive (MSN Groups) ----------------------------- => Archive: Old FontLab forum ===> Archive: FontLab Tips and Tricks ===> Archive: FontLab Bugs and Problems ===> Archive: FontLab Wish List ===> Archive: FontLab Announcements => Archive: Old Microsoft Font Validator group => Archive: Old Microsoft VOLT group => Archive: Old Microsoft VTT group ===> Archive: VTT Downloads ===> Archive: VTT Support ===> Archive: VTT Suggestions => Archive: Old Microsoft WEFT group ===> Archive: WEFT III ===> Archive: EOT for Email => Archive: Old SBL Fonts group ===> Archive: SBL Hebrew ===> Archive: SBL Greek ----------------------------- Various ----------------------------- => fontlab.com — the FontLab website => forum.fontlab.com — this forum => Other Topics