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googlefonts / how-to-hint-variable-fonts

A how-to guide to TrueType hinting variable fonts, with VTT
https://googlefonts.github.io/how-to-hint-variable-fonts
Apache License 2.0
40 stars 4 forks source link

Include a font with TT debugging glyphs? #23

Open aaronbell opened 3 years ago

aaronbell commented 3 years ago

It could be useful to include a font here that contains the TrueType mode debugging glyphs as it can be useful for better understanding what's going on. For example, even putting GDI rendering environments aside, there are some DWrite environments that don't support y-direction smoothing, which can cause a great deal of confusion as to why your perfectly-hinted font is not rendering correctly.

While this sort of thing isn't necessarily a "all the time" sort of tool, it can certainly be handy.

mikedug commented 3 years ago

Thanks Aaron. Was away / offline last week. Glad you found the document useful!.

I am curious to know which DirectWrite environments do not support y-direction smoothing? and or do you have an example of where this caused confusion?

aaronbell commented 3 years ago

@mikedug I believe the older (2015 / 2019) version of Visual Studio (not Code) runs DWrite without subpixel rendering or y-direction antialiasing (ttmode 006).

Admittedly such is an unusual case, but there was no way to debug the problem without the special glyphs to test.

chrissimpkins commented 3 years ago

Would the addition of a link to the Selawik debugging project suffice Aaron? Or do you feel that we need a brand new testing typeface?

aaronbell commented 3 years ago

Yes. It includes more than strictly necessary for our purposes here but it does what needs doing :)