vfb2ufo

RafaŁ Buchner

Hi guys!

I'm generating UFOs files from old VFBs files.
I'm using this script:

from mojo.UI import GetFolder
import os
from subprocess import Popen
import fontParts.world as fpw

# path to vfb2ufo on your machine
ufo2vfbLocation = "/usr/local/bin/vfb2ufo"

# path to folder with input VFBs
vfbsFolder = GetFolder(message="get source folder with *.vfb files")

# path to folder for output UFOs
ufosFolder = vfbsFolder+'_vfb2ufo'
if not os.path.exists(ufosFolder):
    os.mkdir(ufosFolder)
# collect all VFBs in VFBs folder
vfbs = [f for f in os.listdir(vfbsFolder) if os.path.splitext(f)[-1] == '.vfb']

# batch convert VFBs to UFO
for vfb in vfbs:

    # make file paths
    vfbPath = os.path.join(vfbsFolder, vfb)
    ufoPath = os.path.join(ufosFolder, vfb.replace('.vfb', '.ufo'))

    # call the vfb2ufo program
    p = Popen([ufo2vfbLocation, vfbPath, ufoPath]) # "-64", etc
    p.wait()
    font = OpenFont(ufoPath, False)
    font.save(formatVersion=3)

It is failing to open the font in RF with OpenFont function.
This is what I get in the output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "lib/fontObjects/fontPartsWrappers.pyc", line 1430, in __init__
  File "lib/fontObjects/__init__.pyc", line 440, in createFontObject
  File "lib/fontObjects/doodleFont.pyc", line 36, in __init__
  File "lib/fontObjects/ufo2.pyc", line 530, in normalizeUFO
  File "lib/fontObjects/ufo2.pyc", line 506, in _normalizeUFO
  File "/Applications/RoboFont.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python3.6/defcon/objects/font.py", line 529, in _get_features
  File "/Applications/RoboFont.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python3.6/fontTools/ufoLib/__init__.py", line 580, in readFeatures
  File "codecs.pyc", line 321, in decode
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xa9 in position 72: invalid start byte

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "vfb2ufo.py", line 29, in <module>
  File "lib/fontObjects/fontPartsWrappers.pyc", line 1932, in OpenFont
  File "lib/fontObjects/fontPartsWrappers.pyc", line 1438, in __init__
lib.tools.misc.RoboFontError: The file /path/to/file.ufo can not be read by RoboFont.

Is there maybe better way to generate UFO3 files out of VFBs?

frederik

sidetone: if vfb2ufo is installed and accessible in terminal, then RoboFont can open and generate vfb files. But vfb2ufo has lots of issues... there are combos possible with ufoCentral and eventually generating binaries and converting those...

good luck anyhow!

RafaŁ Buchner

Thanks guys! I will experiment with those scripts

connor

This old repo might come in handy. I haven't used it in a long time but I assume that it still works with the simple py3 adjustments.

colinmford

I assume these VFBs are coming from FL5?

We've had a little more luck with Tal's old UFO Central script than vfb2ufo... https://github.com/typesupply/fontlab-scripts/blob/master/UFOCentral.py

(Generates UFO2, but then saving them up to UFO3 is trivial)

Needs to be run from within FontLab5, though. If you're stuck without access to FL5 then vfb2ufo might be the best way.

As for your error, it seems like it's having an issue with the feature file of one of your fonts. Maybe stop it half way and see what the file looks like?