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googlefonts / science-gothic

Science Gothic, a libre variable font
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Some Science Gothic VF outlines/interpolations mess up in Adobe Illustrator & other CoolType apps #107

Closed tphinney closed 4 years ago

tphinney commented 5 years ago

I have noticed that some SG variable font outlines misbehave in Illustrator. I suspect that this is a known Adobe bug I have heard about with variations.

The exact same outlines behave as expected in Chrome-Mac with Axis-Praxis. See most of the weirdness in this video, which is not reproducible on web or in FontLab: https://recordit.co/lUkEcHZEYJ

For now, just filing this so it is a “known issue”

tphinney commented 4 years ago

Adobe traditionally releases major updates on (or just before?) the first day of Adobe MAX. This year that is Saturday November 2 for workshops, or Monday November 4 for the conference proper. So we should re-check this issue whenever those new app versions are out, in a week or so.

tphinney commented 4 years ago

I’m testing with pre-release versions of some apps. I can’t really comment more than that yet. ;)

With regards to this issue, I still think it is CoolType related. I can attest sudden design discontinuities are visible in CoolType apps only, in a few specific glyphs such as /S and /e.

For example, see /S going from user axis settings of weight 674 to 675, with width at minimum (50) and Y Opaque at minimum (18).

tphinney commented 4 years ago

Filed with Adobe as AI-4225426

tphinney commented 4 years ago

Not our bug (as far as we know), so closing for now.

tphinney commented 4 years ago

I have been doing more testing, and do NOT see this in other variable fonts in current Adobe InDesign. But I do see it with Science Gothic. Whether it is technically our bug or theirs, it is not happening with all variable fonts, and perhaps we can address it somehow.

tphinney commented 4 years ago

Pinged an old colleague on the CoolType team.

tphinney commented 4 years ago
tphinney commented 4 years ago

This remains a problem in today’s Illustrator update. :( This happens with other non-Adobe variable fonts, but perhaps not all of them.

With Science Gothic, whether it is non-existent, subtle, or OMG-awful depends on where you look in the design space. With a quick check, one might not see the problem immediately.

tphinney commented 4 years ago

Here are some screenshots comparing Science Gothic in Illustrator (top of each comparison) to Chrome, on Mac. Chrome is exactly as expected; Illustrator, not so much.

For "subtle" errors, look at the bottom screen shots, and examine the /r /c and /e

Bad Illustrator Bad Illustrator 2
tphinney commented 4 years ago

This was fixed with the March update to Illustrator. Yay!