Recursive: Font is not detected as Mono

Created on 28 Dec 2020 · 10Comments · Source: arrowtype/recursive

Problem description
With the recent updates, the font has lost its configuration as a Mono Font. Some dev apps are not recognized as Mono

Screenshots
You can see how is displayed in the selector in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

This is how this app displays for IBX Plex Mono

Environment (please complete the following information):

Font Version: 1.069
OS: Windows 10

Source

javlaks

👍1

All 10 comments

It seems to be the same than #370

javlaks on 28 Dec 2020

Thanks for letting me know! Sorry about that.

Hmm, it might be due to the new ligatures added in 1.069. I'm sorting out another issue currently, but I'll check on this ASAP after that and hopefully provide an update to fix it within a few days.

arrowtype on 28 Dec 2020

👍1

Thanks you man, and happy holidays 😉

javlaks on 28 Dec 2020

❤1

Okay, it’s looking like it probably _is_ the same issue as before – metadata isn’t set to classify this as a monospace font.

In the post table, this should be 1:

<isFixedPitch value="0"/>

In OS/2, this should be 600:

<xAvgCharWidth value="599"/>

The OS/2 Panose proption value is actually correct:

<bProportion value="9"/>

The hhea value for advanceWidthMax is also correct:

<advanceWidthMax value="600"/>

(I found these results with TTX, as well as FontBakery, which includes the following recommendations in a mono check.)

com.google.fonts/check/monospace (Click to expand)

Requirements for monospace fonts:                                         

      * post.isFixedPitch - "Set to 0 if the font is proportionally spaced,     
      non-zero if the font is not proportionally spaced (monospaced)"           
        www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/post.htm                            

      * hhea.advanceWidthMax must be correct, meaning no glyph's width value is 
      greater.                                                                  
        www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/hhea.htm                            

      * OS/2.panose.bProportion must be set to 9 (monospace). Spec says: "The   
      PANOSE definition contains ten digits each of which currently describes   
      up to sixteen variations. Windows uses bFamilyType, bSerifStyle and       
      bProportion in the font mapper to determine family type. It also uses     
      bProportion to determine if the font is monospaced."                      
        www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/os2.htm#pan                         
        monotypecom-test.monotype.de/services/pan2                              

      * OS/2.xAvgCharWidth must be set accurately.                              
        "OS/2.xAvgCharWidth is used when rendering monospaced fonts, at least   
      by Windows GDI"                                                           
        http://typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/15397/#Comment_15397          

      Also we should report an error for glyphs not of average width.           

      Please also note:                                                         
      Thomas Phinney told us that a few years ago (as of December 2019), if you 
      gave a font a monospace flag in Panose, Microsoft Word would ignore the   
      actual advance widths and treat it as monospaced. Source:                 
      https://typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/45140/#Comment_45140

Basically, several lines are failing in my scripts/instantiate-code-fonts.py script (or maybe getting overwritten somehow?), resulting in default values remaining. Possibly, this is disrupted when the powerline glyphs are added ... I’ll shuffle the script to see if that is the case.

arrowtype on 29 Dec 2020

Okay, I think I got it sorted (again).

@javlaks If you’d like to, could you please give the fonts in release 1.070 a try, and let me know if that solves the issue?

On my end, I’ve tested version 1.070 in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio on Windows 10, and it seems to be working as expected:

arrowtype on 29 Dec 2020

@arrowtype The release zip doesn't seem to have any subfolders or fonts inside of Recursive_Code.

danarnold on 29 Dec 2020

🤦‍♂️ Haha, sorry; daft mistake on my part. @danarnold can you please try it once more?

https://github.com/arrowtype/recursive/releases/tag/v1.070

arrowtype on 29 Dec 2020

@arrowtype Fonts are showing as monospaced for me! I don't have the software that this issue was originally opened with so @javlaks will have to weigh in on that.

danarnold on 29 Dec 2020

👍1

Hey guys, the font is working fine again. The apps are recognizing the font as expected