Converting to font families

[jkorchok]

Please read the following in detail before responding: I have included a lot of detail.
I am using TransType Mac 3.0.2 to convert single TrueType fonts into families. I am able to do this reliably when creating a .dfont for Mac, but I have ongoing problems creating fonts for Windows. I will convert a set of four fonts for regular, italic, bold and bold italic variants, but usually when they are installed in Windows, the user only sees two fonts in a menu: either the regular and italic or the bold and bold italic. Occasionally I have gotten a result where you see bold and italic. I can't get all four variants to reliably show in say, Word's font menu. If I double-click on the installed font in the Windows font folder, two variants will show the correct font preview and two will not.
For all conversions, I set the Family and Menu names to the same name for all four files. The Full Name for each file is set to the names I want to appear in the Windows font folder after it is installed: FontName, FontName Italic, FontName Bold and FontName Bold Italic. The PostScript Name is the same, except the spaces are replaced with dashes. For each variant, I have tried every combination I can think of: checking the bold and italic buttons or not, selecting the weight from the drop-down or not, typing in the style name or not.
Your documentation does not cover this type of conversion, nor does it have a troubleshooting section.
I tried to upload a sample and send this report through your support section of your web site, but your php programming is defective and submitting the form only gave me a browser screen full of php errors. I can send a before and after sample of the fonts in question.
Would the Windows version work better for this? If so, can I get a cross-grade?

[Alex Petrov]

I can send a before and after sample of the fonts in question.

Please send me the files to apetrov at fontlab dot com and I'll try to help.

Would the Windows version work better for this?

I think no.

[Der FontMeister]

What is the name of your font? Was it Truetype or Type 1 originally?

It sounds you intend to create TTFs on the PC -why are you editing the PostScript name?

I'm pasting some info in about PC families which you may already be familiar with but just in case...
----------------------------------------
PC font Families

Issue
Windows font families can become problematic when certain family members don't show up in the font menu. This problem may occur whether the fonts are created on Macintosh or Windows.

Reason
Be advised that Windows only recognizes four members for a given font family name:

George-Regular ------ this is the head of the family, there can only be one Regular or Plain member!
George-Bold -------- note that each family can only have one member in the Bold range!
George-BoldItalic -------- note that each family can have only one BoldItalic or BoldOblique!
George-Italic -------- note that each family can have only one Italic or Oblique!

In order to create larger families create separate families by using a similar but distinct family name:

GeorgeCondensed-Regular
GeorgeCondensed-Bold
GeorgeCondensed-BoldItalic
GeorgeCondensed-Italic

You can also just make single stand-alone fonts with only one family member:
GeorgeUltra-Regular

Solution for FontLab Users

1.Go to File>Font Info>Names and Copyrights and enter Family Name, Weight and checkboxes for Bold or Italic. You may wish to select the More Styles button for other weights.
2. Select an appropriate Style Name under the Style Name pop-up menu.
3. The rest of the name fields are internal names and can be derived from what you have entered so far by clicking on the Build Names button.
4. You can test the name designations by clicking on the “Yin Yang” icon to the right of the Build Names button.
5. Go to the OpenType Specific Names selection if you are creating an OpenType font. Complete the OpenType naming selections as instructed in the FontLab manual, page 228.
6. Generate and test the font.
-------------------

Jimmy G.
FontLab