5.1 Wish List

[dave_at_efi]

Although it might be in an awkward form, I'd really like to see what others and I would like done to improve this already fine product.

And maybe a glimpse into how things are prioritized for implementation.

Thanks,

Dave

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

Indeed, we'd be delighted to hear!

[dave_at_efi]

OK, here's my Wish List for 5.1, most important first:

1.  Display location, not just Unicode, somewhere in the glyph header in the same mode as the whole font is being displayed in:  Decimal, Octal, or Hex.  Default to Decimal if another method is selected.

2.  Fix identified bugs/problems:
Character Omega (189D, Mac encoding) is not being generated in its assigned locations.  This is identical to the hyphen problem in 4.7.

3.  Implement an "Oval dialog box", wherein the height and width can be entered numerically, and the appropriate oval generated (anywhere (0,0?) -- it will be manipulated next step) and Selected.

4.  Add "Action buttons" to the glyph window header that, if clicked, do the following to the selected element/object/path:
   A.  Rotate clockwise 90 degrees
   B.  Rotate counterclockwise 90 degrees
   C.  Flip horizontal
   D.  Flip vertical
   E.   Open the Move dialog box
   F.   Open the Rotate dialog box
   G.  Open the Oval dialog box

5.  Assign the Tab key to Select Pointer Tool.

6.  Assign the Hyphen key to select the Rotate tool.

7.  When the Rotate tool is selected, double-clicking on a point will select the whole path for rotation.

8.  When generating an error message such as "Could not complete your request because an error occurred." include the glyph name/location where the error was discovered.

9.  Make Undo work at the whole-font level.  If I Copy/Paste a whole glyph into the wrong location, I must open up the glyph window to perform the Undo, rather than just select the error at the whole-font level and Undo.

10.  Implement Save All.

11.  Implement Generate All, using the dialog box for selecting the kind of font and location only once.

12.  Allow the user to modify the file name when Generating Font File...

13.  In Preferences, Editing Behavior, allow an option:  All points in a Pasted object are automatically selected, previously selected points are deselected.

14.  Expand Preferences to enable/disable any keyboard shortcuts.

15.  Be able to disable the 45-degree snap-to-when-moving feature.

16.  Display the incoming and outgoing Bezier directions of the point selected for Rotate. [If I am lining up a hemisphere to end a stroke, I want to see when the Beziers line up.]

17.  When a path or group is selected and then moved, start and continue the move along the slope of the Bezier going in that direction.  We are usually trying to keep something lined up, so following the Bezier helps us.

18.  "Paste Special" will Paste the selected elements from one glyph into all selected glyphs, without changing anything else within those glyphs. [Extremely useful when pasting Rules/Guidelines into all characters.]

19.  Increase the size of the triangular tangent point to same size as corner and curve.

20.  Eliminate the "Regular" in the automatically generated Font Info/Names section

21.  In the Flip dialog box, any keystroke but Return should get beeped, not ignored.

22.  When a glyph has been changed and the .fog not saved, make the glyph color bar much brighter to indicate the change.

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

Dave,

> 2.  Fix identified bugs/problems:
> Character Omega (189D, Mac encoding) is not being generated in its assigned locations

What exactly do you mean by "location"? The glyph index in the font, or the encoding position? Also, the font, which exactly font format and encoding are you talking about? Are you generating a Mac Type 1 Suitcase, a Mac Type 1 font, a Windows Type 1 font or something else? Which encoding is selected in Font Info? (MacOS Roman or something else?). How to you test the proper encoding of "Omega"?

> G.  Open the Oval dialog box

As far as I understand, there is no Oval dialog box currently. Can you specify what you mean?

> 20.  Eliminate the "Regular" in the automatically generated Font Info/Names section

Can you elaborate on this? Why would you want that?

As for your other suggestions, some of them are indeed already planned, while others will need careful consideration.

[Evertype]

Fog 5.0 has Window > View Windows by > Font name/File name/Both which is fine. But I would like to see the three buttons added to Preferences > Windows so that the user can choose the default he or she prefers.

In my case, I want Both to be the default.

[Evertype]

In Font Information > Encoding there is a whole lot of "Tiro" encodings which don't mean anything to me. Why are these all listed above the ISO 8859 encodings?

More importantly, however...

I would like to see block-based and script-based Unicode ranges.

[Evertype]

> G.  Open the Oval dialog box

As far as I understand, there is no Oval dialog box currently. Can you specify what you mean?

Dave's point 3:

3.  Implement an "Oval dialog box", wherein the height and width can be entered numerically, and the appropriate oval generated (anywhere (0,0?) -- it will be manipulated next step) and Selected.

[dave_at_efi]

In reply to Adam's post:

Dave,

> 2.  Fix identified bugs/problems:
> Character Omega (189D, Mac encoding) is not being generated in its assigned locations

What exactly do you mean by "location"? The glyph index in the font, or the encoding position? Also, the font, which exactly font format and encoding are you talking about? Are you generating a Mac Type 1 Suitcase, a Mac Type 1 font, a Windows Type 1 font or something else? Which encoding is selected in Font Info? (MacOS Roman or something else?). How to you test the proper encoding of "Omega"?

I encountered this problem using MacOS Roman encoding.  I'm not sure what term to use, glyph index or encoding position, but the 189 location I am referring to corresponds to what is displayed in the whole font window when viewed in Decimal.  Space is 32; tilde is 126.  Omega is 189.

All fonts generated, .ttf, .otf, Mac suitcase, PS of any flavor, have an undefined glyph in 189.  Omega, by glyph name, is defined elsewhere, beyond 256.  I tested the proper encoding of "Omega" by opening up each type of generated font in FontLab Studio 5, which clearly shows  an undefined hole in 189.  That is, what I specified to be there -- is not.  Perversely, an offsetting bug in FOG5.0 places the original contents of Omega back into 189 if the output font files are opened! I have a really good screenshot of this.  Is there any way to send it?

> G.  Open the Oval dialog box

As far as I understand, there is no Oval dialog box currently. Can you specify what you mean?

As Evertype noted above, I'd sure like to have one!  See #3 on my list.

> 20.  Eliminate the "Regular" in the automatically generated Font Info/Names section

Can you elaborate on this? Why would you want that?

My customers are teachers, and don't use Adobe Type Reunion.  I have to manually remove "Regular" from the names or they will see this in their Fonts Menu:

DN Manuscript - Regular
DN Manuscript Arr Rules - Regular
DN Manuscript Bold - Regular  [Oxymoronic]
DN Manuscript Dots - Regular
DN Manuscript Dots Arrows Rules - Regular
DN Manuscript Dots Arrows - Regular
DN Manuscript Dots Boxes - Regular
DN Manuscript Dots Rules - Regular
DN Manuscript Outlines Arr Rul - Regular
DN Manuscript Outlines - Regular
DN Manuscript Outlines Arrows - Regular
DN Manuscript Outlines Rules - Regular
DN Manuscript with Arrows - Regular
DN Manuscript with Rules - Regular

Yeesh.  Talk about adding nothing.

Dave

[Majus]

1. In a glyph window, have the ability to toggle between a normal preview and a reversed preview so the glyph appears as white on a black background.
2. In a glyph window, have the ability to toggle between the normal preview glyph orientation and the previewed glyph rotated 180 degrees.
3. Item 2 should also work with Item 1.

Why would this be desirable? Because it is a fact that when drawing certain shapes it is easy to make an error, such as an ill-drawn curve, that isn't always readily apparent in a normal view but can become quickly apparent when the image is either reversed out or rotated, or both. I feel such a feature would be a useful aid to all levels of users.

Another technique that is useful as regards drawing glyphs is to be able to toggle between full size and half-size, but that is already available in Magnification. In the old days (before computers!) we used what is commonly known as a reducing glass, and they are still useful today with screens although they can't provide the features asked for above.

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

Idea: the underline thickness and position should be calculated based on the "underscore" glyph if present.

[Yuri Yarmola (FontLab)]

Idea: the underline thickness and position should be calculated based on the "underscore" glyph if present.

Not a good idea. Underline should go below "underscore", or it will make that glyph disappear from links. Links such as "good_boy" or "good boy" will look the same in browser.

[Majus]

I don't think Adam was suggesting the underline be located vertically the same as the underscore, at least I didn't interpret it that way. Ideally the position of the underline would be at or below the descenders, and using the weight of the underscore as a reference for the weight of the underline is a good idea, IMHO.

[Yuri Yarmola (FontLab)]

it can also be located just below the underscore, that would be a good way to implement it. Noted.

[dave_at_efi]

Something that is missing in FOG5 is the option to View By (glyph) "Name".  Such a feature is available in Fontlab Studio, but not FOG.

I'm trying to find out why a 2343-glyph font generates a 2341-glyph .otf, and finding it impossible because when viewing by Unicode is selected, only two asterisks are displayed in the font window.  Most of the font is displayed as  **.     To track this problem, I'd have to open each glyph to find out its name then compare it to each glyph in the .otf file -- 2,000 times!

Please add "View By Name" to the wish list. 

Thanks.

[Evertype]

I'd really like to be able to set the outline font in the Template Layer to a colour other than black, so it would be easier to see when editing the outline in the Outline Layer.

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