TransType Pro NEXT wishlist

The biggest problem with TransType is its poor ability to generate Mac PostScript families. The naming system is a complete mess. Every large family conversion is an epic struggle.

The world of Mac PS font naming is a vicious hellscape. Various font managers deal with fonts if different ways so names have to be 100% perfect or the family won't work properly.

If I translate a large family from Win TT or OTF to Mac PS, I have to manually enter almost every naming field for each style. The default names do not produce a working font family on a Mac otherwise. The default fill in tools only serve to produce a Mac PS family that doesn't work on a Mac. They may be useful for some formats but not Mac PS. It all adds up to about half an hour of renaming every time I convert a large Win TT or OTF family to Mac PS. If the names in the original font are named properly "Twardoch style", it shouldn't require so much manual tinkering just to do a straight conversion.

When converting from OpenType fonts (either type) I'd like an option to collapse class based kerning.

Converting from VFB to any format should be more reliable. It crashes so much that I gave up trying.

I've never been able to convert from OTF to Mac PS reliably. The resulting fonts appear blank when tested on a Mac.

Converting from OTF to WinTT shows an improper version name. For example. If the original OTF font shows "OTF 1.000;PS 001.001;Core 1.0.29" then an OTF converted to WinTT should show "Version 1.000" and vice versa.

I'd like the default settings to actually work. If I use TransType Pro out of the box, I can successfully convert almost no formats. I took me a few hours of tinkering to set it up properly and about a week of trial and error to generate Mac PS families. I'd be very surprised if a novice user can convert a Win TTF family to Mac PS.

Autosplit families. When I convert a large family from Win PS, OTF or VFB, I have to manually split into reg/bold/bold/italic. If I make a mistake, I have to start all over again. If I manage to get it right, I have to manually enter a lot of fields depending on the target format.

Documentation: recommended settings and procedures that actually work for various format conversions.