[Instructions] Installing RoboFab 1.2 rev 226 in FLS 5.1 on Mac OS X 10.7.2

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

I've just tested those instructions to install RoboFab 1.2 rev 226 with FontLab Studio 5.1 build 4311 and Mac OS X 10.7.2. They work fine.

Since the system Python 2.7 in Mac OS X 10.7.2 comes with pre-installed NumPy, it's no longer necessary to install NumPy. Therefore, if you're on Mac OS X 10.7.2 and you have FontLab Studio 5.1 build 4311 or newer installed, do the following:  

1. Quit FontLab Studio.

2. Download:
http://robofab.org/download/current/RoboFab226M_plusDependencies.zip

2. In Finder, navigate to the location where you downloaded the .zip file, double-click to unzip it (if it already hadn't happened). You should see a folder named RoboFab226M_plusDependencies.

3. Open the Terminal app.

4. In Terminal, type "cd " (with a trailing space) but don't hit Enter. Drag the RoboFab226M_plusDependencies folder to the Terminal window. You should see something like this in the Terminal window:

Code:

cd /users/[your username]/Downloads/RoboFab226M_plusDependencies

5. In Terminal, hit Enter.

6. In Terminal, do the following:
(Hit Enter after each line. After the first "sudo" you'll need to enter your computer's administrator password.)

Code:

cd FontTools
sudo /usr/bin/python setup.py install
cd ..
cd RoboFab
sudo /usr/bin/python setup.py install
cd ..
cd DialogKit
sudo mv Lib/dialogKit/ /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/

7. In Finder, do File / New Finder Window

8. If you have enabled Use custom locations for user data folders in FontLab Studio / Preferences / General Options / Folders and paths, navigate Finder to the folder that you've set as the FontLab Studio user data files folder, and skip to step 11.

9. If you have not customized the location, then in Finder's menu, choose Go / Go to Folder...

10. In the text box that appears, enter:

Code:

~/Library/Application Support/FontLab/Studio 5/Macros

and click on Go.

11. Your Finder should now should show a Macro folder with at least three subfolders in it (Effects, Export and System).

12. Switch to the Finder window that has the RoboFab226M_plusDependencies folder, and open the subfolder RoboFab/Scripts that is inside.

13. You should see a folder with several subfolders: "Contributed", "RoboFabIntro", "RoboFabUFO", "RoboFabUFO2", "RoboFabUtils".

14. Select those folders and drag them to the Macro folder in the other Finder window.

15. Open FontLab Studio and in the Edit Macro panel type in:

Code:

import robofab
import dialogKit

16. Click on the Run macro button in the Edit Macro panel.

If nothing appears in the Output panel, you have installed RoboFab and its FontLab macros and DialogKit successfully.

17. Make sure that in FontLab Studio, View / Toolbars / Macro is enabled.

18. Open any font, and in the Macro toolbar, choose RoboFabIntro in the first dropdown list.

19. In the second dropdown list, choose RoboFab Intro, Start here! and click on the Run button in the Macro toolbar.

Your Output panel should now show something like:

[Robofab is running on darwin. Python version: 2.7, Mac stuff: X, PC stuff: None, FontLab stuff: True, FLversion: 5.1/Mac(Build 4311), Glyphs stuff: False, Glyphs version: None

That means that you can now use all the other RoboFab macros.

Best,
Adam

[Dezcom]

Adam,
With the greatest of glee!!! I report to you that I finally got that mother fucker to work!!!
First I did as you said and dumped the "Python for Grownups" files.  Then I rebooted and tried the UFO script with still no result.
I then followed your detailed recipe for reinstalling the robofab suite (Your script was great except for your typo saying "Skip to step 8" which perhaps was intended to say "step 11"?) but even a true Python dummy like me was able to figure that out ;-P
I then rebooted and opened FontLab nervously; I opened one of my VFB files and ran the "export to UFO2" script.
BAM!!! That mutha ran like Bolt from the blocks at the Olympics!
I now have created my first actual ufo file, holy shit!

Thanks MORE than very much!!!

Glad you post this set of instructions to the FontLab Forum.  You should boast that you even got that bonehead Lozos to get his working!!! ;-D

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

Yeah, the "step 8" was an oversight. I kept adding intermediate steps and step 8 became step 11 at some point

Glad to hear it worked for you

[cdorje]

Are there instructions for installing robofab for use with FLS 5.1 on Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)? I had robofab set up and working with FLS 5.0.4, but when I installed FLS 5.1 it didn't find robofab. I followed the instructions for RoboFab 1.2 on OS 10.7.2 with one change: moving the dialogKit packages to python 2.6 rather than 2.7. The other packages found their way to python 2.6 by default, so it seemed like it should work. But when I test it, attempting the RoboFab Intro, Start Here, I get the following Output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 19, in <module>
  File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/robofab/world.py", line 95, in <module>
    from robofab.objects.objectsFL import CurrentFont, CurrentGlyph, RFont, RGlyph, OpenFont, NewFont, AllFonts
  File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/robofab/objects/objectsFL.py", line 6, in <module>
    from robofab.objects.objectsBase import BaseFont, BaseGlyph, BaseContour, BaseSegment,\
  File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/robofab/objects/objectsBase.py", line 27, in <module>
    from robofab.misc.arrayTools import updateBounds, pointInRect, unionRect, sectRect
ImportError: No module named misc.arrayTools

Any suggestions?

[Adam Twardoch (FontLab)]

arrayTools is part of fontTools, not robofab, so you need to install fontTools as well. http://robofab.org/download/index.html — get the RoboFab, FontTools, DialogKit, Vanilla Combo

[cdorje]

I did that according to the instructions at the beginning of this thread. Vanilla came as part of the package but there was no mention of installing that. Do I need to install Vanilla? More probably, there is something wrong with the fontTools installation. Does that have to be installed differently in Snow Leopard? Thanks for any help on this.

[cdorje]

PS: There is also an arrayTools.py lib in robofab. It seems to be referring to not finding that one, but I'm not sure.

[cdorje]

Mystery solved (I hope). In the robofab distribution files, there is a misc folder in the lib folder that was not in the build folder. In that misc folder is a copy of arrayTools.py and a couple of others. The notes says: "arrayTools and bezierTools, originally from fontTools and using Numpy, now in a pure python implementation. This should ease the Numpy dependency for normal UFO input/output and basic scripting tasks." So I copied the misc folder from lib to build in robofab and re-installed. Now all seems to be working.

For some reason, this alternate version of arrayTools and bezierTools are not needed in Lion, but apparently necessary in Snow Leopard which uses python 2.6 by default.

[LettError]

Hi.

A couple of points:

It's become very difficult to maintain PPC binaries of Numpy for Python 2.3.5. FontTools uses Numpy for a number of things. For instance if you want to use the TTX functionality of FontTools, Numpy is really needed. But the way FontTools is used by robofab does not necessarily require Numpy: for importing and exporting UFO only the arrayTools and bezierTools modules imported it. It turned out we could replace those with python native alternatives to make it possible to read and write UFO files in FontLab without a full Numpy installation.

Robofab.misc is missed by setup.py - good find. I will fix this.

Rather than the specific RoboFab installer listed by Adam in his step-by-step above, I would advise to just take the latest installer under the RoboFab, FontTools, DialogKit, Vanilla Combo headline. On the RoboFab download page:
http://robofab.org/download/index.html

For comments and questions about RoboFab I would like to invite you to come to the Robofab google group. The chances of being read and acted upon in a timely manner are slightly higher.
http://groups.google.com/group/robofab

Mystery solved (I hope). In the robofab distribution files, there is a misc folder in the lib folder that was not in the build folder. In that misc folder is a copy of arrayTools.py and a couple of others. The notes says: "arrayTools and bezierTools, originally from fontTools and using Numpy, now in a pure python implementation. This should ease the Numpy dependency for normal UFO input/output and basic scripting tasks." So I copied the misc folder from lib to build in robofab and re-installed. Now all seems to be working.

For some reason, this alternate version of arrayTools and bezierTools are not needed in Lion, but apparently necessary in Snow Leopard which uses python 2.6 by default.

[eliason]

Thanks cdorje for posting your solution. Very helpful!

[typeterrance]

I also had the same issue as 'cdorje' with a traceback of;
"ImportError: No module named misc.arrayTools"

I was able to resolve it by adding the misc folder (containing arrayTools) into the RoboFab build folder as cdorje suggested;
Copied 'misc' folder from here;
RoboFab491M_plusDependencies/RoboFab/Lib/robofab/misc
to here;
RoboFab491M_plusDependencies/RoboFab/build/lib/robofab/misc

...and then running the RoboFab install again through Terminal.

Perhaps this issue was not addressed with the RoboFab combo 491? I accessed it from the Robofab site on Jan 21st, 2012. Either way, I am so grateful for the volunteers who package RoboFab and it's goodies up for us Woodchucks.

[Note, a difference I had from cdorje is that I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion, but I'm not sure that it matters.]

Cheers,
Terrance

[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