<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Announcements]]></title><description><![CDATA[Updates about RoboFont releases, extensions, etc.]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/category/16</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:44:17 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://forum.robofont.com/category/16.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:10:04 GMT</pubDate><ttl>60</ttl><item><title><![CDATA[Forum will close]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dear RoboFont users,
This forum is flooded with spam bots, I will close this but try to keep the content available.
We continue sharing and helping out roboFonters around in the RoboFont discord, join here: https://discord.gg/fbRmAFyZar
Frederik
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1069/forum-will-close</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1069/forum-will-close</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:10:04 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 4.4]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dear Users,
We are excited to announce the release of RoboFont 4.4! This version is packed with numerous new features, substantial improvements, and a multitude of bug fixes. Here’s a selection of the most important updates:


Python Upgrade: RoboFont has transitioned from Python 3.7 to Python 3.9. Please be aware that some extensions may require updates to be compatible with this version. You might wonder why we chose Python 3.9 when Python 3.11 is available. The reason is that Python 3.9 is the last version that allows for the convenient bundling of embedded packages, ensuring compatibility with both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. Once updated to 3.11, our focus will shift exclusively to Apple Silicon. For more information, consult the RoadMap section of the Technical Specifications page.



Design Space Document v5 Support: RoboFont now provides full support for all the new features of the design space document version 5. Erik van Blokland and Frederik Berlaen rewrote Batch and DesignSpaceEditor completely to take full advantage of these enhancements. Developers can also utilize the new UFOOperator object from the ufoProcessor package to manage their design space documents through Python. Many thanks to Erik van Blokland for his contribution!


Glyph Editor Improvements: The glyph editor has undergone substantial improvements since the last public release. Numerous enhancements have been made in areas such as outline management, guidelines, and image handling, resulting in a smoother and more consistent drawing experience.


Under-the-Hood Enhancements: Many changes have occurred under the hood of the application, some of which impact the public APIs utilized by developers. Notably, the subscriber module has received new add-ons, the list of embedded packages has been revised, and two new mojo submodules, pipTools, and ezuiViews, have been introduced.


Update internal GNFUL list.


(and before you ask, yes we tested it on macOS Sonoma)


Check the release notes: https://robofont.com/version-history/
Download available from robofont.com
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1066/robofont-4-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1066/robofont-4-4</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:42:05 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[The RoboFont Community is moving to Discord]]></title><description><![CDATA[New join link: https://discord.gg/KjvGV25bcB
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1050/the-robofont-community-is-moving-to-discord</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1050/the-robofont-community-is-moving-to-discord</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[roberto arista]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 07:17:04 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboHackathon 2023 – ezui edition]]></title><description><![CDATA[
Dear RoboFont Users,
we have great news for you!
We are planning three online RoboHackathon events before the summer. The first appointment will be on the 8th of March when Tal Leming will present ezui: a fresh new python wrapper around vanilla. ezui makes creating user interfaces SO-MUCH-EAZIER!
We’ll meet over Zoom from 20:00 to 22:00 CET. We’ll start with a short presentation by Tal followed by Q&amp;A and some lab/demos.
See you there!!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1053/robohackathon-2023-ezui-edition</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1053/robohackathon-2023-ezui-edition</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[roberto arista]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:05:05 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 4.3]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dear users,
RoboFont 4.3 is mature enough to be shared with you all! As usual, lots of bug fixes, user interface improvements, and a few adjustments on the APIs. Here's the list with the most important updates:

FontTools has moved to DesignSpaceDocument v5. Tools like Batch and Skateboard work with the new format, but they do not support discrete axes.
Add support for ctrl ⌃ + alt ⌥ + delete to completely remove a glyph from a UFO (including layers, kerning and groups).
Keep unsaved glyphs into account while testing external changes. It avoids loosing data not saved on disk when reverting.
Add support for dark mode and new toolbars on macOS 11 and 12.
   
Point coordinates are typeset in italic if "Slant Point Coordinates" is on in the Preferences
Adding a guideline with shift + g + click with an italic angle will apply the angle to the new guideline

Display dragging lines with the italic angle if "Slant Point Coordinates" is on in the Preferences.

Add anchor popover accept slanted coordinates, again, if "Slant Point Coordinates" is on in the Preferences.

Massive reorganization of the subscriber docs. It's now easier to share single methods with HTML anchors.
General improvement on the mojo.UI docs page: deeper hierarchy, categories, overall review of docstrings
Reload operation in scripting window are now undoable.
Add Reset Beam to space center settings menu as alternate of "Beam" (alt ⌥).

Add Omit Mac Names in RoboFont tab in the font info sheet.

Update internal GNFUL list.
Remove local FDK support.

Be aware that the minimum macOS version has been raised to 10.12.
Check the release notes: https://robofont.com/version-history/
 Download available from robofont.com
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1046/robofont-4-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1046/robofont-4-3</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:41:58 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont Community Slack Workspace]]></title><description><![CDATA[
RoboFont is opening a public Slack workspace!
It is going to be the perfect space to:

discuss the current application development
get access to beta updates
ask questions and report bugs
get in touch with other fabulous RoboFont users

The Slack workspace will be open to everyone, you can join it here.
EDIT: The RoboFont Community moved to discord.
Why Slack? A chat, differently from a forum or a mailing list, may allow an easier exchange between RoboFont and the community. Also, Slack is probably already sitting on your machine, as it becomes more and more the tool for professional (or not) written communication for teams.
We hope to see you there!
Frederik &amp; Roberto
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1031/robofont-community-slack-workspace</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1031/robofont-community-slack-workspace</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[roberto arista]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 29 Apr 2022 08:23:27 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 4.2]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dear users,
RoboFont 4.2 is out! Lots and lots of bug fixes, user interface improvements and a few changes to the APIs.
Here's a list with some of most important updates:


Layers management moves to a popover accessible from the Glyph Editor and the Font Overview.
It is now possible to synchronize mark color, unicode and width across layers
In the glyph editor, you can now jump to a component base glyph with alt ⌥ down + triple click
The Space Center supports the /?@layerName syntax. It shows the current glyph from a specific layer
The Subscriber API gets two new shiny functions:

mojo.subscriber.listRegisteredSubscribers lists all the active subscribers
with disableSubscriberEvents() context disables all active subscribers while the context is active. This is especially useful to avoid circular events when a subscriber triggers another subscriber, that might trigger another one, and so on. Here an example on how to use it


The SmartSet API gets a new editing context with SubscriberEditor(). Check here a few examples on how to manipulate programmatically smart sets
Save test installed fonts to a folder inside the application folder



According to UFO3 spec, outlines can have an off-curve first point. It may sound silly, but there are reasons for that. Check the updated docs.

Keep in mind that the minimum macOS version has been raised to 10.11.
Check the release notes: https://robofont.com/version-history/
 Download available from robofont.com
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1028/robofont-4-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/1028/robofont-4-2</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2022 11:11:05 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 4.1]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dear users,
RoboFont 4.1 is OUT! Lots of bug fixes, a few tweaks to the UI and better support for BigSur &amp; Monterey. Here's a list with some of most important updates:


Anchors and Guidelines can now be edited through a popover instead of a sheet




The subscriber docs were improved since 4.0 release


The guideline angle knob now rotates in the same direction as the guide it edits



Join selection got a little bit smarter. If you select two end-points and some other points, instead of closing the open contours, RoboFont will still join the selected end-points



“xHeight cut” display option in Space Center has been renamed “Cut Off”. You can now edit it with cmd ⌘ when no glyph is selected



4.1 adds support for space center underline selection, you can activate it through the Preferences Editor




The docs fancy a new shiny Custom Lib Keys page: https://robofont.com/documentation/reference/api/custom-lib-keys/


Check the release note: https://robofont.com/version-history/
Download available from robofont.com!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/998/robofont-4-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/998/robofont-4-1</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2021 13:54:38 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboHackathon 2021!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hey RoboFont developers!
Join us for the RoboHackathon 2021. Oct 6th and 13th we'll meet online to present and demo all the new amazing features of RoboFont 4.0.

Keynotes 📣!
Live coding 🧑‍💻!
Q&amp;A 🙋!

Check for the details on RoboHackathon 2021.

]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/972/robohackathon-2021</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/972/robohackathon-2021</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 16 Sep 2021 07:25:09 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont FOUR]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sehr geil! 👏🏼
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/804/robofont-four</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/804/robofont-four</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[martin]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jul 2021 12:55:25 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Your near future with RoboFont!]]></title><description><![CDATA[yes, Im getting very much closer to a RF4 release :)
Im not pinning a date.
The latest RF 3 runs on M1, as far as Ive tested, not with the full lightning speed of RF4.
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/926/your-near-future-with-robofont</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/926/your-near-future-with-robofont</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:59:24 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.5 Beta I]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hello RoboFont World !
A first beta version of RoboFont 3.5 has just been released.
Download RoboFont 3.5b
Here are some of the updates in this version:
Updated internal packages — Several embedded packages have been updated, including fontTools, fontMake, booleanOperations, fontMath and fontPens. cffsubr is now also included as an embedded library.
UFO version as tuple — The UFO format has a new versioning scheme with major and minor version numbers. This is now documented in the UFO specification and implemented in fontTools.ufoLib.
Adjustments to Glyph View colors — Based on feedback we received from users of Dark Mode, there have been several small changes to the way colors are composed in the Glyph View.
Improved interaction with Smart Sets and tabs — Interaction with Smart Sets has been fixed and improved, and native support for document tabs has gotten better.
Better auto unicodes — A small but very useful change: the glyph.autoUnicodes() function now also works with uniXXX and uXXXX names.
Generate features with FontTools — The Font Info sheet has a new option to generate OpenType features with FontTools. This prevents overflow issues and offers better support for LTR kerning.
…and last but not least:
Compatility with macOS Big Sur
We recommend users not to upgrade to macOS Big Sur yet!
macOS Big Sur, released earlier this month, introduced major changes to the way views are drawn to the screen – which prevented RoboFont 3.4 from working properly. This release makes RoboFont compatible with Big Sur, but also makes it slower.
The good news is that we have been working since July with Tal Leming on a whole new drawing system using CALayers, which fixes the issues and offers lots of new possibilities. We are very excited about it, and can’t wait to make it available to you.

As usual, see the Release Notes for the full list of changes.
And a big thanks to all RoboFont users for feedback, bug reports, feature requests, etc.
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/910/robofont-3-5-beta-i</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/910/robofont-3-5-beta-i</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2020 13:57:40 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont on macOS 11 Big Sur]]></title><description><![CDATA[Please don’t upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur yet!
The latest version of Apple’s operating system, macOS 11 Big Sur, was finally released to users this month. Together with a completely overhauled look, it introduces major changes to the way views are drawn to the screen. Unfortunately for RoboFont users, this prevents the current version of RoboFont from working properly on macOS 11.
The good news is that we have been working together with Tal Leming since July on a whole new drawing system using CALayers, which fixes the issues, offers lots of new possibilities, and is backwards-compatible with older versions of macOS. It will be included in the upcoming beta, to be released as soon as possible.
Thanks for the patience, looking forward to next betas!
In the mean time a quick fix RoboFont 3.5 is planned. However it is still not advised to upgrade to macOS 11.
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/908/robofont-on-macos-11-big-sur</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/908/robofont-on-macos-11-big-sur</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2020 14:58:50 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.4 Beta II]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hello RoboFont World! RoboFont 3.4 is almost ready…
Because this version contains some deep changes to make the app compatible with Apple’s updated notarization requirements, we’re making the release candidate available as a public beta to allow for one last round of testing and feedback.
If you can, please download RoboFont 3.4 beta, take it for a spin, and let us know if you come across anything weird. Feedback from users running older versions of macOS (10.10—10.12) is specially appreciated!
The updated documentation for 3.4 is also available online at robofont.com/beta. See also the release notes.
The final 3.4 release will follow within one or two weeks. Until then, stay healthy and safe!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/828/robofont-3-4-beta-ii</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/828/robofont-3-4-beta-ii</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2020 19:39:07 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.4]]></title><description><![CDATA[The beginning of the year has been very productive, and today we’re happy to announce the release of RoboFont 3.4.
Download RoboFont 3.4
Here are some of the highlights in this version:
Font-level Smart Sets
In addition to the default Smart Sets, which are saved in the application settings, RoboFont now also supports font-level Smart Sets, which are saved in the font. RoboFont 3.4 has a more powerful Smarts Sets panel with drag &amp; drop copying, nested folders, icons, contextual menu, etc.

All functions related to Smart Sets are now available from the new mojo.smartSet module, including new functions to get and set font-level Smart Sets – see Scripting Smart Sets for examples.
Improved RTL text preview
The Space Center’s right-to-left mode has been improved with basic arabic shaping rules, so that glyphs are selected automatically based on their init / medi / fina suffix.

This feature is currently provided as an extension, as it is still considered experimental.
Thanks to Bahman Eslami for his precious help.
New preferences for glyph cell colors
The Font Overview’s glyph cell colors can now be fully customized in the Preferences.

Package Installer
The Python menu now includes the Package Installer, a command-line interface to install Python packages from the Python Package Index (PyPI) using pip.

See the updated documentation for usage instructions.
Packages installed with the Package Installer become available only inside RoboFont!
Support for skip export glyphs and production names
UFO3’s new standard lib key public.skipExportGlyphs – which can be used to store a list of glyph names that should not be exported to generated font files – is now supported. The Font Overview’s glyph cells will now display a red X for glyphs which should be skipped, and a new Skip Export flag can be used as a filter when searching glyphs.

Skipped glyphs are defined as a list of glyph names in Font Info &gt; RoboFont. Individual glyphs can be added/removed from this list using a new checkbox in the Glyph section of the Inspector.

An interface for production names has also been added to Font Info &gt; RoboFont. This table corresponds to UFO3’s standard lib key public.postscriptnames, which was already supported when generating fonts.

APIs
The FontParts map has been updated – it turns out Groups was missing all this time!

The EditingTool has new attributes that offer more control over the selection of individual glyph parts when subclassing. This makes it easier to create tools to edit only anchors, for example, or only guidelines, images, components, etc.
It is now possible to validate a value before saving it to the defaults – this helps to prevent from accidentally corrupting the preferences while scripting.
Generating fonts from layers is now supported with font.generate(layerName).
Extensions
For users
Some new extensions have been released on Mechanic during the last months:


Mark Tool by Bahman Eslami
An interactive tool to adjust mark positioning using anchors.


Extreeeme45 by Jan Šindler
A useful script to insert extreme points at 45° angles.


Edit Font Dimensions and EyeLiner by Ryan Bugden
An interactive tool for quickly manipulating font dimensions, and a drawing helper which highlights points that are aligned to vertical metrics, guides or blue zones.


Marky Mark by Jackson Cavanaugh
Shows a glyph’s mark color in the top right side of the Glyph View.


These previously existing tools are now also available via Mechanic:


RoboFont Project by Frederik Berlaen
A tool to record the position of open documents as projects and restore them later.


SpeedPunk by Yanone
The original curvature visualization tool is now free and open-source.


For developers
There were also a few relevant updates for extension developers:


The ExtensionBundle has some improvements to the default stylesheet for extension docs written in Markdown format (for example, large images now scale to fit into window). A new pycExclude argument was also added in order to keep some files as .py in binary extensions (needed for creating custom menus, for example).


The Boilerplate Extension now includes example .mechanic files for GitHub, GitLab and BitBucket, showing the different URL schemes used by each platform.


Instructions for submitting new extensions to the Mechanic 2 server have been updated with a few tips, recommendations and links.


Documentation
The Workspace section of the documentation has been restructured to make the hierarchy of pages match the hierarchy of windows in the app.

The docs now follows the application’s development model with parallel ‘release’ and ‘beta’ versions, and a new beta documentation is available at robofont.com/beta. This setup will give us more freedom to rearrange content and introduce breaking changes between versions.
The Introduction to Python has been completely revised and updated to Python 3.
The long-awaited FontTools documentation is now also finally online. (thanks!)
A note about Apple’s updated notarization requirements
Notarization is an automated process designed to protect users from malicious software – it scans code for malicious content and checks software components for code-signing issues.
MacOS Catalina (10.15), released in October 2019, introduced the requirement that all newly-built apps and command tools distributed outside the App Store must follow Apple’s notarization prerequisites. RoboFont 3.3, released in November, was the first version of RoboFont to be notarized.
Since the 3rd February, Apple’s notarization requirements became stricter and all new apps must now be both hardened and properly notarized. We’re relieved to announce that RoboFont 3.4 passes the new requirements and has been sucessfully notarized.
The whole process was hard, painful and time consuming, and pushed back the release date by several weeks. In our experience, the new strict notarization requirements are a big burden for independent developers who build apps outside of Apple’s Xcode environment.
The good news is that the knowledge required to properly notarize PyObjC-based apps is now publicly available in the source code of DrawBot and FontGoggles. A gigantic thanks to Just van Rossum for his assistance!
Enjoy RoboFont 3.4!
As always, see the release notes for the full list of changes.
Big thanks to all designers and developers who contribute to the continuous improvement of RoboFont!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/803/robofont-3-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/803/robofont-3-4</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:16:48 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.4 Beta]]></title><description><![CDATA[RoboFont development never stops. Today we’re happy to release a first public beta of RoboFont 3.4 – just in time for your Christmas &amp; New Year’s break.
Download RoboFont 3.4b
Some highlights in this version:
Updated Preferences
The Character Set section of the Preferences has been renamed to Font Overview, and includes a new Appearance tab with new settings for adjusting the colors used in the glyph cells.

The Menus section has also been renamed to Short Keys, and includes a new search bar which makes it easier to find a particular short key or menu item.
Package Installer
The Python menu now includes the Package Installer, a command line interface to install Python packages from the Python Package Index (PyPI) using pip.

See the updated documentation for usage instructions.
Packages installed with the Package Installer become available only inside RoboFont!
SkipExportGlyphs
RoboFont 3.4 adds support for the new standard lib key public.skipExportGlyphs, which was recently added to the UFO3 specification. This key can be used to store a list of glyph names representing glyphs that should not be exported to generated font files.
The following interfaces to public.skipExportGlyphs have been added:


Font Info &gt; RoboFont includes a new text input field where the list of skippped glyphs can be defined as space separated list of glyph names.



Inspector &gt; Glyph includes a new checkbox labeled Exclude during export, which can be used to individually add/remove glyphs to the list of skipped glyphs.



The Font Overview’s glyph cells now display a red X for glyphs which should be skipped, and the skip export flag can be used as a filter when searching.



Updated API docs
RoboFont’s mojo API documentation has been reviewed and updated.
The vanilla documentation has also been updated with screenshots and missing examples.

As always, see the release notes for the full list of changes.
Huge thanks to all RoboFont users for feedback, bug reports, feature requests, etc.
Enjoy + Happy 2020!!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/775/robofont-3-4-beta</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/775/robofont-3-4-beta</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2020 12:22:26 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Activating ‘Dark Mode’ in macOS 10.14 &#x2F; RF 3.2]]></title><description><![CDATA[
glyph cell colors can't be changed because it conflicts with marking glyphs

Yeah, that's a valid concern, but I don't think it's impossible. What it:

the top of the glyph bar (where the name is) could still show the pure mark color, as it does regularly
the rest is white-on-black
the mark color shows however it should over dark gray (e.g. (1,1,0.6,0.5) would be a 50% yellow above the dark-gray background). As in the normal light UI, the marks over the glyph area could have a bit of transparency, while the top bar shows the true color.

I imagine that might look something like this:

]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/565/activating-dark-mode-in-macos-10-14-rf-3-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/565/activating-dark-mode-in-macos-10-14-rf-3-2</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[ArrowType]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2019 01:38:33 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.3]]></title><description><![CDATA[Today we’re proud to announce the official release of RoboFont 3.3, wrapping up all the work which was done since the release of RF 3.2 in January.
download RoboFont 3.3
RoboFont 3.3 consolidates the move to Python3 and UFO3: the embedded Python was upgraded to 3.7, the codebase was cleaned up from legacy Python 2 code, and more UFO3 attributes can now be edited by the application.
Here’s an overview of the main changes in this release:
Interface
More colorful

The Glyph Editor now supports individual colors for guidelines and anchors, as defined by the UFO3 spec. Guideline colors can be edited in the Inspector with a new Guidelines panel.
The Glyph View Preferences now offers separate settings for point, segment, contour and component indexes.
More elegant
The Accordion widget – used by the Inspector panel, the Batch extension and many other tools – has a new flat style which makes the interface feel lighter and cleaner.

More precise

The Updates Found window has a new diff view to visualise external changes to glyphs – so you can know exactly where and how your glif data is changing.
More quiet

RoboFont 3.3 adds support for macOS notifications, which disappear automatically after a few seconds and can be configured in the macOS Preferences. A PostBannerNotification object was also added to mojo.UI, so you can use notifications in your tools too.
Read more about the interface updates in the RoboFont 3.3b anouncement.
APIs

RoboFont 3.3 upgrades the embedded Python from 3.6.5 to 3.7.4 – see What’s New In Python 3.7 for an overview of the latest changes in the language. All embedded modules have also been updated to their latest versions.
With the official retirement of Python 2 scheduled for the end of this year, the RoboFont codebase was cleaned-up from legacy py2 code and is now py3 only. The same applies to many core libraries  embedded in RF. Goodbye py2, long live py3! (See also the note about extensions containing .pyc files below.)
RoboFont now embeds GoogleFont’s ufo2ft and fontmake libraries, providing users an alternative path for generating OpenType and TrueType fonts from UFOs. (Binary fonts are still generated using ufo2fdk and Adobe’s makeotf by default.)
As announced in the 3.2 release, ufoLib is now part of fontTools. In RoboFont 3.3, the standalone version of ufoLib is no longer available – so if you use ufoLib in your scripts, make sure to use fontTools.ufoLib instead from now on. Most extensions which use ufoLib have already been updated, let us know if you come across one which hasn’t.
The latest update of vanilla adds support for a new positioning mode, auto layout, which uses rules and constraints instead of absolute position and size. This model is a bit more complex, but it’s very powerful: it allows you to build user interfaces that dynamically respond to changes, and makes it (typically) faster and easier to implement revisions in complex interface layouts. See the updated documentation for explanation and examples of the new auto layout methods.
Extensions
RoboFont 3.3 introduces several new features which will get users and developers of extensions excited.
For users
The Mechanic 2 extension has undergone a major revision and is now a lot faster – huge thanks to Antonio Cavedoni for this invaluable contribution.
The Feature Preview extension has also been partially rewritten and now uses Harfbuzz instead of compositor for shaping. The new version is faster and can handle shaping of non-latin scripts.
Here is an overview of new extensions released during the last release cycle:


ThemeManager by Andy Clymer &amp; Connor Davenport
A tool for reading, writing, and storing custom .roboFontTheme files and switching Glyph View themes.


ToolManager &amp; GlyphPalette by Rafał Buchner
A special palette to activate/deactivate tools in the Glyph Editor, and a tool to visualize references to glyphs in components.


SideBear by Ryan Bugden
An Inspector panel to modify the current glyph’s sidebearings.


PasteGlyph by Tal Leming
An interface for quickly pasting a glyph into the one you are currently drawing.


Kern-A-Lytics by Adobe Type Tools
A tool for analyzing and fixing kerning consistency across several master fonts.


AngleRatioTool by LetteError
Shows the ratio between the length of incoming and outgoing sections of BCPs and tangents. Useful in preparing masters for interpolation.


GroupSpacing by Gustavo Ferreira
A tool to enable group spacing in the Space Center.


These previously existing tools are now also available via Mechanic:


LetterMeter by Just van Rossum &amp; Peter Biľak
A text-analysis tool for comparing multilingual texts and measuring the frequency of particular glyphs.


EventObserver by Frederik Berlaen
A debugging helper which observes events and displays attributes which are available in the callback info dict.


For developers
The Extension Folder Spec was updated to version 3.0, with the addition of an expiration date attribute to enable trial extensions, and support for version-specific lib folders for binary extensions (which means that .pyc-only extensions can now work across different major versions of Python). Also, the ExtensionBuilder supports documentation sources in markdown format now.
See the updated Boilerplate extension for examples of these new features.
Enjoy RoboFont 3.3!
RoboFont 3.3 is the first release which is notarized by Apple, following the new security measures introduced in macOS 10.15.
See the RoboFont 3.3 release notes for the full list of changes.
Big thanks to all designers and developers who contribute to the continuous improvement of RoboFont!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/725/robofont-3-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/725/robofont-3-3</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2019 10:33:41 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.3b]]></title><description><![CDATA[Four months after the release of RoboFont 3.2, we’re happy to announce that the first public beta of RoboFont 3.3 is out.
Download it now from the Downloads page.
This release is packed with new features and bug fixes. Here are some of the highlights:
New banner notifications
Messages are now shown using macOS notifications instead of alert windows. A small change which saves clicks and improves the user experience.

Notifications are unobtrusive: they appear at the top right of the screen and disappear automatically after a few seconds.
You can also use them in your tools and scripts:
from mojo.UI import PostBannerNotification
PostBannerNotification("hello world", "Welcome to RoboFont!")

Support for anchor and guideline colors
This release adds support for displaying individual guideline and anchor colors in the Glyph Editor.

The Inspector panel has a new Guidelines section, where color and other guideline attributes can be edited. Anchor colors can be edited in the Inspector too.
This feature was added in response to a question in the Forums.
New index color preferences
Speaking of colors: the index labels for different types of objects (points, segments, contours, components) can now have different colors.

The new color settings are available in Preferences &gt; Glyph View &gt; Appearance.
New diff view for external glyph changes
The Updates Found window has been improved with a new diff view for visualising external changes to glyphs:

The diff popup can be opened by clicking on a glyph name in the list of changed glyphs. Green lines show the external glif XML data, red lines show the current glyph data which will be modified.
This feature was added in response to a request in the Forums.
Extension expiration date and markdown docs
Extension metadata files can now include an expiration date attribute, allowing developers to create trial versions of their extensions.
The ExtensionBundle object now also supports documentation sources in Markdown format. If available, Markdown files are converted to HTML when the extension is built. A default stylesheet is applied, but you can also provide your own.
See the Boilerplate Extension and Building Extensions for updated documentation and examples.

Other changes in this version include:

add missing glyphs as template glyphs when sorting by character set
improvements to group kerning in the Kern Center
support for drag &amp; drop in canvas views
new flat UI style for accordion views
anchors snapping to contour points
updated embedded libraries

See the version history for the complete list of changes.
A big thanks to all beta testers and users providing feedback on the Forum!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/651/robofont-3-3b</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/651/robofont-3-3b</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:49:24 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboTools, a new umbrella for UFO-related code libraries]]></title><description><![CDATA[To all developers working with UFO-tools, here’s an important announcement:
The RoboFab Developers organisation on GitHub has been retired, and a new organisation has been created in its place: RoboTools!
From now on, RoboTools is the new home of FontParts, FontPens, and several other libraries originating from Type Supply.
The main goal behind this change is to have more people involved in maintaining these libraries and providing support to users.
Here’s the full list of libraries which are now under the RoboTools umbrella:

compositor
defcon
defconAppKit
extractor
fontMath
fontParts
fontPens
roboFab
ufo2fdk
vanilla

Big thanks to Just van Rossum and Ben Kiel for setting everything up.
Happy coding!

here’s the original announcement by Just van Rossum on Twitter
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/574/robotools-a-new-umbrella-for-ufo-related-code-libraries</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/574/robotools-a-new-umbrella-for-ufo-related-code-libraries</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[gferreira]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:28:25 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.2]]></title><description><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.2 is out…!
Upgrade now to get access to the latest improvements, bug fixes and updates to embedded libraries.
See the full list of changes in the RoboFont 3.2 release notes.
Here are some of the highlights in this release:
Support for macOS 10.14 (Mojave)
RoboFont 3.2 has been tested and updated to work with macOS 10.14 Mojave. Users who wish to upgrade to Mojave can do so without being worried about compatibility problems.
Mojave’s new Dark Mode, however, is not yet supported by default due to performance issues – but it can be turned on with a script. We hope to improve support for Dark Mode in the next release.
Extensions
Work on the Extensions infrastructure continues with improved validation of extension bundles, handling of dependencies between extensions, a new icon for .mechanic files, improved support for keyboard shortcuts, updated developer documentation, etc.
Since the previous release, new extensions have been published on Mechanic 2 (Blue Zone Editor by Andy Clymer, deCasteljau by Lukas Schneider, CheckParallel by Jesen Tanadi, EditThatNextMaster by Erik van Blokland), and others were updated to RoboFont 3 (CornerTools, ScaleFast, PenBall Wizard, Interpolation Matrix and Ground Control by Loïc Sander). Erik’s GlyphNameFormatter also includes important updates which affect the generation of glyph names in RoboFont (using GNFUL).
Glyph Editor
The Glyph Editor is faster and includes many small improvements related to layers, such as a new dialog to copy glyphs between layers, and better handling of template glyphs, metrics, unicode, anchors and images across layers.
Updated core packages
All embedded packages have been updated to their latest versions.
Some changes are worth mentioning: the ufoLib module (used to read and write UFO files) has been moved to fontTools.ufoLib; FontParts now includes a new object selection API; and PostScript autohinting is now done using the standalone psautohint module (instead of the AFDKO autohinter).
Support for single-file UFOs
RoboFont can now read and write single-file UFOs in the .ufoz format. This flavor of the UFO format is useful if you work with file sharing tools like DropBox, which don’t play very well with UFO packages containing lots of files.
Single-file UFOs, however, are considerably slower to read and write.
Website updates
The RoboFont homepage has a new icons menu for quick access to the main parts of the documentation:

The documentation is being continuously updated by adding new pages and improving existing content. The process is open and can be followed on the robofont_com repository.
Public betas
RoboFont 3.2 is the first release of RoboFont with public betas during development. This change allowed us to have more users testing the beta and providing valuable feedback before the official release. We will continue to offer public betas for RoboFont 3.3.

Special thanks to all beta testers &amp; users for their precious feedback and feature requests.
Enjoy!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/564/robofont-3-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/564/robofont-3-2</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2019 11:18:32 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.2b]]></title><description><![CDATA[A fresh public beta is available for download: RoboFont 3.2b.
This looks like it will be the Golden Master or Release Candidate for RoboFont 3.2.
Main changes in this version:

Support for single file .ufoz: a compressed UFO3. This will be slower in reading and writing but works better with services like dropBox.
several bug fixes both in external packages as internally.
Update of internal packages

Special thanks to all beta testers &amp; users for their precious feedback and feature requests.
Enjoy!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/495/robofont-3-2b</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/495/robofont-3-2b</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2018 10:37:20 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[GlyphBrowser with Unicode 11]]></title><description><![CDATA[
New names
Drag and drop UFO / ttf / otf to the names list to extract unicodes.
Available from Mechanic2 and GitHub

]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/548/glyphbrowser-with-unicode-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/548/glyphbrowser-with-unicode-11</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[erik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 05 Dec 2018 08:51:48 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.1]]></title><description><![CDATA[(the question was answered here)
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/490/robofont-3-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/490/robofont-3-1</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[gferreira]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2018 12:23:42 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 3.0]]></title><description><![CDATA[RoboFont 3 has landed. Finally!
From the outside, very little has changed…
but inside:

UFO 3
Python 3

With RF3 comes also a new website, a new documentation, and a new forum.
Read more about the changes in RF3 here.
See the version history for the full list of changes and additions.
RoboFont 3 requires a new license...
If you bought RoboFont 1.X after 08/Mar/2017, you will get a full discount. Contact the team with your order number for details.
As always, many thanks to all the beta testers &amp; all users posting on the forums for their precious feedback and feature requests.
enjoy!

The official RF 3.0 release was held back by a few months because of an issue which affected updating extensions using Mechanic. This issue was solved with Mechanic 2 – read more about it in the Robofont 3.1 release notes.
original announcement date: 06 March 2018
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/489/robofont-3-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/489/robofont-3-0</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2018 19:07:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[RoboFont 1.8]]></title><description><![CDATA[A big maintenance update by updating internal packages and some small fixes. There is almost nothing left to fix!
Have a look at the version history for the full list of changes and additions.
You should get an automatic update, if not you should redownload the app.
This update supports OSX 10.9+
I would like to thank all the beta testers and all users posting on the forums for their precious feedback and feature requests.
enjoy!
]]></description><link>https://forum.robofont.com/topic/443/robofont-1-8</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://forum.robofont.com/topic/443/robofont-1-8</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[frederik]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 06 Jan 2018 17:44:21 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>