Cannot use OTF as webfont

[MatTheCat]

Following instructions on the README I generated font files I later tried to subset using pyftsubset, which led me to fonttools/fonttools#1134

When I try to load Roboto-Regular.otf or any subset Chrome tells me he failed to decode the font. However ots-sanitize tells me all is fine.

What's going on?

[RoelN]

The generated webfont is indeed rejected by Chrome with a Failed to decode downloaded font: ... message in the console.

It seems that removing the empty keys FamilyBlues and FamilyOtherBlues from CFF > CFFFont > Private results in a working OTF font after rebuilding it:

<FamilyBlues value=""/>
<FamilyOtherBlues value=""/> 

[anthrotype]

Oh, that issue was fixed in ufo2ft last year, the patch is in since version 0.4.0
googlefonts/ufo2ft#115

Recompiling the fonts with updated ufo2ft should fix the problem.

The latest OTS no longer complains about these empty blues operators:
khaledhosny/ots@8f90e63

Should go away once Chrome/Firefox update their embedded OTS copy

[anthrotype]

the solution suggested by @RoelN is quicker than recompiling the fonts from source. Just dump with ttx, strip those two empty values, and recompile with ttx.

[MatTheCat]

If I understand there are in fact two issues at the same time:

• google/roboto requires an outdated ufo2ft
• Chrome/Firefox embed an outdated OTS

Is that right?

[anthrotype]

correct

[MatTheCat]

Should I open a PR to update requirements then?

[anthrotype]

Should I open a PR to update requirements then?

it might not be so straightforward as other things may break, but you can try.

cc @m4rc1e

[MatTheCat]

Indeed just requiring ufo2ft==0.4.0 breaks things.

ImportError: No module named makeotfParts

[anthrotype]

related issue #239

[MatTheCat]

Ouch guess I'll have to be patient.

[m4rc1e]

Apologies for the delay.

I remember ufo2ft would set incorrect advance widths for glyphs made from components. We had to release and update the solve this. e2c5a2f

I think this has been fixed in ufo2ft. In the next release, I'll update the ufo2ft dependency.

[MatTheCat]

Nice! Do you have any idea when this could be released?

[MatTheCat]

@m4rc1e seems there is no more activity on this repository, has Roboto been moved somewhere else?

[m4rc1e]

@MatTheCat We're actively working on it. Unfortunately these things take time.

[MatTheCat]

No problem I understand; just wanted to make sure thanks.

[MatTheCat]

I guess https://github.com/typenetwork/roboto is to be used instead.