Autokerner 1.0.1 — FontLab 8

Classic bug-fix release for FontLab 8, with the matching browser build.

• Fixed independently changed sidebearings of composite letters such as i/j.
  They are measured from resolved outlines; source components remain components.
• Reference density, selected scope, protections, Fine-tuning and the full
  RU/EN/DE interface are retained. Kerning defaults are unchanged.
• Updated manuals, installation archives and SHA-256 checksums.

The defect was reproduced in the unmodified 1.0.0 calculation on five real
fonts; Karla is an outline-glyph control. 114 tests, one skipped, no failures.
The repair was tested with Apply/read-back/Undo in FontLab 9. Historical FL8
coverage is 8.4.3/macOS; a fresh FL8 runtime and Windows were unavailable.

Download autokerner-v1.0.1.zip for FontLab 8, or autokerner-web-v1.0.1.zip
for the browser files. The FontLab 9 hybrid is a separate beta release.
Review results; no universal optical improvement is promised.

RU: исправлены независимо изменённые апроши составных букв. Интерфейс и
настройки сохранены; универсального улучшения не обещаем.

Autokerner 9 Hybrid 0.1.0-beta.1

First public beta of Autokerner 9 Hybrid, on the full Classic interface.

• Choose Autokerner or FontLab 9 engines independently for spacing and kerning.
• Compare proposals before selecting what to review and apply.
• Preserve authored text kern through an explicit Add route, with MM/VF export
  planning and supported original avar storage through normal VFJ Save.
• Includes the composite-letter spacing repair from Classic 1.0.1.

FontLab 9's improved engines make useful combinations possible. For example,
try Autokerner spacing with native kerning. This is not a universal replacement:
the designer still makes the final choice.

Download autokerner-fontlab9-v0.1.0-beta.1.zip; it includes the script,
export profile, instructions and licenses. Read the limitations before use:
Preview does not shape authored text kern; MM text kern is an export plan;
exact avar coverage is one-axis Nunito/v1; macOS tested, Windows unverified.

Six approved slides include the interface, study method and four selected
examples. Local examples are not an overall ranking of engines.

Autokerner 1.0 — FontLab 8

Stable classic release for FontLab 8.

• Fixed stale calculation protection: editing a kerning value or class membership after Calculate now requires recalculation before Apply.
• Spacing and kerning algorithms are unchanged from 0.5.4.
• Updated English/Russian documentation, changelog, standalone script and browser builds.

Validation: 106 automated tests passed. The Calculate / manual edit / Apply workflow was checked on Forum, Ledger and Kelly Slab in FontLab 9.0.9805. Earlier FontLab 8 checks used 8.4.3; this release was not freshly run in FontLab 8 or Windows.

Download autokerner-v1.0.0.zip for FontLab; replace your old Autokerner.py and refresh Scripts. autokerner-web-v1.0.0.zip contains the browser version. SHA256SUMS.txt covers the downloads.

RU: стабильная классическая версия для FontLab 8. Исправлена защита от применения устаревшего расчета после ручной правки кернинга или классов. Алгоритмы не изменены. Документация на русском — README.ru.md.

The experimental FontLab 9 hybrid is separate and is not included in this release.

Autokerner 0.5.4

Download autokerner-v0.5.4.zip below (the script, a short README and the license) or dist/Autokerner.py, and replace the old file.

• Fonts with no spacing, several masters: one correction along the weight axis. The correction from sample letters spaced by eye (or from the From zero: H side number) now carries over to all masters. The master with the samples keeps its density (with the number, the master of middle weight); the others take the same correction to their own guessed density, so light weights stay looser and heavy ones tighter. With samples in the lightest and the heaviest master, the weights in between follow them. Before, a master with samples stood out of the row, and the number gave every weight the same H.

Thanks to Typedesigner on TypeDrawers.

Autokerner 0.5.3

Download autokerner-v0.5.3.zip below (the script, a short README and the license) or dist/Autokerner.py, and replace the old file.

• The FontLab window now speaks German. It opens in German when the system language is German (Russian for Russian, English otherwise): labels, tips, the summary, the preview, the edits and the progress messages are translated. The calculation is unchanged. The browser version stays in English and Russian.

Autokerner 0.5.2

Download autokerner-v0.5.2.zip below (the script, a short README and the license) or dist/Autokerner.py, and replace the old file.

• "Keep glyphs with a color mark" now keeps kerning too. A glyph flagged with Glyph → Flag, and the accented letters built on it, keep all their kerning pairs as they were, in the replace, add and selected-glyphs modes. Preview, Edits, the report and the check after writing show the same. Flagging a glyph after Calculate asks for a new calculation.

Thanks to Typedesigner on TypeDrawers.

Autokerner 0.5.1

Download autokerner-v0.5.1.zip below (the script, a short README and the license) or dist/Autokerner.py, and replace the old file.

• Fonts with no spacing: punctuation and symbols get sidebearings too. + = < > © ° ¶ † ½ and the like are placed by norms taken from well-spaced fonts; a symbol without its own norm gets a common one. Box-drawing characters, the fraction slash and standalone accents are left alone. Spaced fonts and the classic rule are unchanged.

Thanks to Typedesigner on TypeDrawers.

Autokerner 0.5.0

Download autokerner-v0.5.0.zip below (the script, a short README and the license) or dist/Autokerner.py, and replace the old file.

• The font keeps its own colour by default again. 0.4.0 and 0.4.1 made fonts 10% tighter by default. Looseness still makes a font tighter or looser.
• A font with no spacing is spaced from scratch. If the sidebearings are all zero, or the same on every letter (as an editor or a generator leaves them), there is no colour to keep. If a few sample letters are spaced by eye (n and o, H and O…), the rest follow them; otherwise the colour is guessed from the letter shapes. It can also be set as a number: Fine-tuning → From zero: H side. Letters, figures, punctuation, accented letters and composites are spaced; symbols such as + = < > © are not yet. Monospaced and pixel fonts are left alone.

Thanks to Thomas Phinney and Typedesigner on TypeDrawers.

Autokerner 0.4.1

Download dist/Autokerner.py and replace the old file.

• The hook of j no longer pulls its neighbour in. A descender that reaches below the neighbour and far toward it no longer makes a kerning pocket, so pairs like nj, Pj, oj are not kerned tighter when j already has a negative left sidebearing. On nine well-kerned fonts, pairs with j went from 24.8 to 3.8 units off the designers' kerning; the tails of g and y are not affected, and spacing evenness of 50 fonts did not change. Thanks to Typedesigner on TypeDrawers.
• Experimental option spacing_per_side (correct only the side that is off), off by default: closer to the designers on well-spaced fonts, less even on fonts that need fixing.

Autokerner 0.4.0

Download dist/Autokerner.py and replace the old file.

• Denser by default. The default colour is 10% denser than the plain area rule, closer to how display type is spaced by hand. Every glyph of a group moves by the same amount for that; the threshold still decides which glyphs are evened out, and accents, composites, punctuation and the word space follow. Looseness now counts from this default: +11% keeps the font's own colour.
• Proportional figures are spaced against the lowercase or the capitals, whichever height they have, and figure pairs are kerned. Tabular figures are left alone. Before, figures were not spaced at all, and replacing the kerning dropped the font's own figure kerning.
• No enclosure. A glyph is never clamped between the ink of its neighbour above and below within the line, like a hyphen pushed into the fork of k or x: such a pair is kerned only up to that point.
• Measured on 56 fonts against 0.3.3: 8–9% denser, figure evenness 19.4 → 13.9%, enclosed pairs 3,826 → 2,899, collisions in the line 21 → 59 (164 in the original files).
• docs/willis: the techniques of Nathan Willis's thesis tested on his nine test fonts and 47 more.