WE + CE cause problem with accented characters

[_hardeliefde_]

While creating a CFF font which contains the WE as well as the CE character set, it causes problems with most of Adobe programs (Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, Photoshop Elements 2.0) under Mac OS X. Problem: the accented characters get replaced by Helvetica (Photoshop) or Myriad (Illustrator). Only InDesign treats it right.

I tested under Mac OS X 10.2 as well as 10.3; no difference. I tested on 'old machines', but fresh machines as well (machines which didn't have the fonts installed before); no difference. All the same problem.

Deleting the CE characters solves the problem, but yeah, I want to create a CFF font which contains both character sets.

Generating the font in FontLab or FDK doesn't make any difference.

So, what's the solution? Sounds like a mystery.

Bas

[_hardeliefde_]

Ok, if I understand it right: CFF-fonts only function in Adobe CS applications (concerning the Mac platform). All older versions of Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign don't support CFF fonts. Right?

A statement of Adobe would be appreciated on this *issue*.

groet,
Bas

[_Read_Roberts_]

Two comments:
OpenType/CFF fonts should work to some degree on versions of Mac OS from 8.x on. "Some degree" means that pre-Mac OSX, you need ATM for them to work, and you only get the Roman char set. On Mac OSX, Unicode savvy apps will give you access to the entire charset, but at the moment only Adobe apps support any OpenType features.

About your problem with CE charset: this is a known problem, and is still a mystery. Adam Twardoch has reported the same problem and has supplied some test fonts. I have spent over a day looking over the fonts, and looking into old code, and can't find any problem in the font data. Investigating further is likely to be a several day effort, and will happen, but not soon.

[_hardeliefde_]

So this means my conclusion is right: CFF fonts are fine from Adobe CS applications on, but not for any earlier versions (on Mac)?

[_Read_Roberts_]

I wouldn't state the limit so strongly. Adobe OpenType OT/CFF fonts are at least as functional as their Type 1 antecedents even under Mac OS 9. The main Adobe programs support the full character set and some OpenType features since InDesign 1.0. OT/TTF OpenType features are also supported under Mac OS X only in the same places that support OT/CFF OpenType features. The main exception is that there are still problems around support of non-Western glyph complements for non-Unicode programs - menu names sort in unexpected ways, and I think that kerning from the OTL 'kern' feature is still not exposed, even under OSX 10.3, although I haven't checked the last.

[Thomas Phinney]

OS X does not support kerning in cocoa applications, for either OpenType CFF fonts or Type 1 fonts. However, rendering of both is supported natively for both carbon and cocoa apps.

As Read notes, OS 8/9 requires ATM Light for OpenType CFF fonts or Type 1 fonts.

T