December 30, 2010

Big Generator Upgrade

angel.png

We're pleased to announce some really great new features in the Font Squirrel Generator.

New Menu Options

First off, we've reconfigured the base menu:

OptionDescription
BASICRunning fonts through the basic setting will keep processing to a minimum. We leave everything alone, except for tweaking the NAME table and adding a few space and hyphen glyphs. This is useful if you don't like the way the Generator handles your fonts.
OPTIMAL We've taken the guesswork out of getting great looking, great performing fonts. This setting will output your fonts using our best-practices settings. You should use this setting unless you need fine-grain control.
EXPERT With the expert setting you can get exactly what you want, the way you want it. We've also included an option to save your settings so you don't have to reconfigure when you come back.

OpenType Features

This is our most exciting new component. If you have a font with OpenType features, you can now flatten some of them into your webfont. For instance, some fonts have small caps built in, but they are completely inaccessible in a web browser. By selecting the "Small Cap" option, the Generator will replace all the lowercase glyphs with the small cap variants, giving you a small cap font. Please note that not all OpenType features are supported and if the font lacks OpenType features, using these options won't create them.

Here is an example. I uploaded the Linden Hill font which contains the Small Cap ('smcp') OpenType feature. Using the Expert options, I check the Small Caps box in the OpenType Options area. The Generator copies all the small caps to the lowercase position and now I have a regular and a small cap version of the font.

lindenhill_smallcaps_475.png

Spacing Adjustments

Some fonts would look better if the spacing was tweaked. Use the "Adjust Glyph Spacing" input to add or subtract space to all the glyphs in a font. The amount you need is relative to the "Em Square Value." So if the em is 2048 then adding 50 would adjust the width slightly. You can use negative values as well if the font needs to be tightened.

Remember Me

Some of you use the generator constantly. For you, the option to "remember my settings" will save you a bit of time.

Conclusion

We're constantly working to improve the performance and ability of the Generator. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments. We'd love to hear what you need and how you're using it.

Comments

Christian Vuong

awesome, can't wait to check it out..
December 30, 2010 at 01:34 PM
Dani

I have a question, I don't know if this has already been implemented and I missed it. Sometimes you just want some characters and not all from the font file, can you erase the ones you don't need to make the file size smaller withing the generator or should I still use another tool?

Thanks and great work.
December 30, 2010 at 03:20 PM
Ethan Dunham

@Dani - Yes, this is easy: Click on Expert, then "Custom Subsetting..." From there you will be able to fine tune exactly what glyphs you want to keep in the font. This is a core feature of the Generator.
December 30, 2010 at 03:34 PM
marco

Youn have a great service here and i'm checking new fonts each time they're posted. I have two hints, though (which might have been already brought up before).:

- it would be nice to be able to choose fonts from your repository, in order to be able to build subsets without having to upload
- in the demos, it would be useful to hint users at the point that in case a site visitor has the font installed, the browser nevertheless waits for the webfont to be loaded, as long as you don't put its 'regular' name in front of your font stack. Or am I missing something?
January 9, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Ethan Dunham

@marco - 1) This would be a good idea, agreed. 2) You are correct. We do this to avoid some potential issues (particularly on the Mac) and assures the designer that the font will be exactly as specified.
January 10, 2011 at 09:21 AM
Fredrik

Well this has to be the best site for @fonts! WTG!
January 23, 2011 at 07:00 AM
Andre

Hi Ethan, some fonts doesn't show the accents correctly..
the accents show partially.. see: http://www.andremendes.com.br/teste/

u have any sugestion?

thx dude!
January 26, 2011 at 07:47 AM
Andre

Ethan, there're are solution?
http://www.andremendes.com.br/teste/
u can see, the accents are there!! but doesn't appear correctly.
thx
January 28, 2011 at 09:54 AM
Andre

take a look here: http://www.andremendes.com.br/teste/font.jpg
January 28, 2011 at 10:03 AM
Andre

yes u're correct! on the mac works fine..

i think's padding problem; but just adjusting the padding the problem remains!.. i'll send a file!

thx
January 28, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Haitham

Thank you for this great tool, but I would like to know if the "Arabic" language will make it to your list of supported fonts? If yes, then when? Thanks again :)
February 8, 2011 at 07:05 AM
Ethan Dunham

@Haitham - you can try running them through with the "Basic" setting. Otherwise, the dependence on OpenType features makes them bad candidates for webfonts.
February 8, 2011 at 05:12 PM
Ander

I have the same problem Andre mentioned: the accents don't show correctly on uppercase characters.
It happens when using "Apply hinting". If you deactivate this feature, the accents show correctly (more or less), but the rendering quality decreases significantly.

Anyway, a small issue for a great & free service. for me, one of the most useful sites ever!
February 14, 2011 at 10:32 AM
brog

Hi,
Does your generator support the OpenType feature "Contextual Alternates"? It is not available as an option (unlike Stylistic Alternates), but maybe your generator is including Contextual Alts automatically? To get Arabic fonts working this would be essential.
Best, Brog
March 12, 2011 at 07:02 PM
Steve

I don't suppose you've open sourced the generator, so I could run it on my own server, have you?

-Steve
June 23, 2011 at 06:38 PM
Aldo

For several days I try to use the font-generator, it does not work for the event is under maintenance?
June 26, 2011 at 07:56 PM
Ruth

Very nice, i suggest webmaster can set up a forum, so that we can talk and communicate.
September 4, 2011 at 05:43 AM
m.zabihmand

hi
i have problem with add button and firefox 6 on:
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator

i can't see buttons
September 28, 2011 at 03:56 AM
Mika Castro

I am using fonts for my mobile phone. Can you please help me out?
October 20, 2011 at 01:56 AM
Office Boy

It would be great if we could run it on our server. What do you think? Can it be done?
November 18, 2011 at 06:47 AM

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