Open Type Collection

[Pyanepsion]

Version 2.2.0.1903 beta

Like variable fonts, Open Type collections are still not correctly exported to PDF, but unlike variable fonts, they are recognized by Affinity Suite, they display correctly in raster format, and they print correctly on inkjet printers, so why not in PDF?

On 7/21/2023 at 9:29 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Thought is being given into the complications of fully supporting these fonts, particularly exporting to formats like PDF and SVG, which do not support variable fonts natively and therefore need to convert them to traditional fonts at export. Not insurmountable but not straight forward.

There is an improvement with version 2.2.0.1903 beta.

1. The PDF file is now all in Angsana regardless of the font style.
2. On the other hand, only the Regular style is displayed, whatever the style.
3. In addition, the underline style is a combination of Angsana Regular with an underscore instead of Angsana Underline, and each of the 3 lines is separated instead of being continuous.
4. Each block of 3 lines of the PDF can now be modified with Adobe Acrobat Pro to give it Bold, Italic, Bold-italic styles.

Ressources :

If you are in a region where Thai fonts are required:

1. Open Windows ‘Settings’ (you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows +I).
2. Click on ‘Applications.’
3. Select ‘Optional Features’.
4. Find ‘Thai Supplemental Fonts’ and click on it.
5. Click on ‘Install’ to install the additional Thai fonts, including Angsana.

To download fonts for all languages:

Open Windows ‘Settings’ (you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows +I).

1. Click on ‘Fonts’.
2. Select ‘Download fonts for all languages’.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.

Once these steps have been completed, the Angsana font should be available in applications that use fonts on your system.

These instructions should be applicable to recent versions of Windows, such as Windows 10 or Windows 11, but bear in mind that the exact steps may vary slightly depending on your specific version of the operating system.

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Pyanepsion
Instructions for obtaining the Angsana fonts

[kenmcd]

Patrick's comment is regarding variable fonts, not font collections.

I tested a TTC file which also includes two font families, but has nine weights instead of just two, and includes italics.
The results are quite bad.

Affinity Publisher v2.1.1 - exported to a PDF, and then exported to an image.
Bold does not appear, and all the Italics are corrupted.

LibreOffice v7.5.5.2 - exported to a PDF, and then exported to an image.
Looks as expected.

[kenmcd]

I guess the problem is in the Export to PDF font handling.
Because printing and export-to-PNG both work.

APub Print to ImagePrinterPro - looks fine.

 

APub Export to PNG - looks fine.

[Pyanepsion]

8 hours ago, kenmcd said:

Patrick’s comment is regarding variable fonts, not font collections.

It would appear that the challenges encountered by the Affinity suite with the Open Type Collection and Variable Fonts font formats mainly revolve around the management of PDF files. Unlike other less powerful software or software suites such as Adobe Suite, QuarkXpress, Office 365, etc., Affinity encounters difficulties in correctly exporting a growing number of files due to these fonts, which are increasingly present in productions.

Admittedly, having to use workarounds to overcome this deficiency by converting these collections and variable fonts to older generation fonts using software such as Hight-Logic Font Creator is not taken very seriously by our customers, who then tend to think that our tool is a bit limited.

I would therefore encourage to explore this subject further. Perhaps others have encountered similar problems and found other solutions or additional explanations. Any input on this topic would be greatly appreciated, as it could help the community to better understand and address these situations.

[Callum]

Hi Pynaepsion,

This is something that is already logged to be investigated further. I'll update this thread once I have more info for you.

Thanks
C

[kenmcd]

Wanted to see what would happen with the Windows 10 Sitka fonts (4 TTC files).
Six optical sizes with two weights, Regular and Bold, plus the italics.
The optical sizes are: Small, Text, Subheading, Heading, Display, and Banner
Six R/I/B/BI style groups - one for each optical size.
On Windows 10, Sitka comes in four TTC font collection files - grouped by R/I/B/BI.
So all Regular styles for the six various optical sizes are in Sitka.ttc.
All Italic styles for the six optical sizes are in SitkaI.ttc.
All Bold styles for the six optical sizes are in SitkaB.ttc.
All Bold Italic styles for the six optical sizes are in SitkaZ.ttc.

I suspected that this may confuse APub, and it did.

First, when I pasted the correct working text from LibreOffice into APub,
all of the various Sitka font optical sizes (groups) were changed to Sitka Small.
Italic and Bold still applied - but all optical sizes were now the just Small font styles.

So I selected each of the other optical size four-line R/I/B/BI groups and applied the correct family/group - Text, Subheading, Heading, Display, and Banner - with the intention to use the Bold and Italic buttons to finish the corrections.
But noooooooo...
The Bold and Italic buttons instantly turned the family/group back to Small.
So for example highlight some Sitka Display text and press the Italic button and you now have Sitka Small Italic.

So I used the Font Style dropdown to apply all the correct styles, and that seemed to stick - the PDF output is correct.
But do not touch a Bold or Italic button or it will all return to Small.

Affinity wacko style group handling strikes again.

The image below is APub Export to PDF, and then exported to PNG from PDF-XChange Editor.

 

Note: This is on Windows 10 where Sitka is supplied as four TTC files.
On Windows 11 Sitka is supplied as two variable fonts, Regular and Italic.
 

Hmmm... let's see how it does with the Recursive TTC file - four families, eight weights, plus italics - 64 fonts... that should be fun.

[Paul Mc]

Hi @Callum, I'm hitting this issue more and more has there been any update on this?

[Callum]

I'm sorry the fix for this is taking longer than expected I can see from our internal bug report that this is something we are still actively looking into it should hopefully be fixed soon.

[Paul Mc]

@Callum Thanks.