Patching custom font file?

[rodhash]

I have a custom font file my-font.ttf, how do I add the nice glyphs from it into my CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf font?

Tried a few different things already for instance moving this my-font.ttf into src/glyphs and issued the fontforge cmd but my glyphs were not added to CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf:

 $ fontforge -script ./font-patcher --name MyCustomFont toPatch/CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf -out result

ps: I also tried using -c or --complete. Tried many other flags too.

Is that the proper place for it? Keep it under src/glyphs?

I'm able to install this my-font.ttf into my Mac and my iTerm2 is able to use it just fine. Here I can see the new glyphs in my terminal so the font seems to work fine.

But my intention here is patching my CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf font in order to add the new glyphs to it.

Suggestions?

Also tried merging both fonts as in this link but doesn't seem to work. I mean a new font is generated but I don't see the new glyphs added.

Thanks.

[Finii]

I believe you

• Have already a Nerd Font patched font (i.e. CodeNewRoman NF)
• Want to add some special 'your own' glyphs
• That glyphs are in my-font.ttf

So, 'take all glyphs in my-font.ttf and add them to CodeNewRomanNF.

In your command line above you do not mention my-font.ttf:

$ fontforge -script ./font-patcher --name MyCustomFont toPatch/CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf -out result

The --help says:

So maybe you need

$ fontforge -script ./font-patcher --custom my-font.ttf --name MyCustomFont toPatch/CodeNewRomanNerdFont-Regular.otf -out result

You do not need to put my-font.ttf into any special directory.

The glyph scaling/shifting might be unsatisfactory, as the patcher does not 'know' much about the glyphs it shall add; some default is used that might or might not be ok for you,

Here is a slightly more verbose help ;-)

[rodhash]

Oh boy I missed this "custom" parameter now my custom glyphs were added! :)

The glyph scaling/shifting might be unsatisfactory, as the patcher does not 'know' much about the glyphs it shall add; some default is used that might or might not be ok for you

Yeah it seems something is off .. I see the new glyphs but they are not properly aligned.

[rodhash]

What would be these default? I think I might need to play around with those values to make my glyphs align properly but I'm not finding the proper flags in the docs.

[Finii]

There are no commandline options, change the defaults in the script here:

        CUSTOM_ATTR = {
            # previous custom scaling => do not touch the icons
            # 'default': {'align': 'c', 'valign': '', 'stretch': '', 'params': {}}
            'default': {'align': 'c', 'valign': 'c', 'stretch': 'pa', 'params': {'careful': self.args.careful}}
        }

font-patcher around line 950

Find possible values further up in the script. There is also this explanation of the flags:

        # Stretch 'xz' or 'pa' (preserve aspect ratio)
        # Supported params: overlap | careful | xy-ratio | dont_copy | ypadding
        # Overlap value is used horizontally but vertically limited to 0.01
        # Careful does not overwrite/modify existing glyphs
        # The xy-ratio limits the x-scale for a given y-scale to make the ratio <= this value (to prevent over-wide glyphs)
        # '1' means occupu 1 cell (default for 'xy')
        # '2' means occupy 2 cells (default for 'pa')
        # '!' means do the 'pa' scaling even with non mono fonts (else it just scales down, never up)
        # '^' means that scaling shall fill the whole cell and not only the icon-cap-height (for mono fonts, other always use the whole cell)
        # Dont_copy does not overwrite existing glyphs but rescales the preexisting ones
        #
        # Be careful, stretch may not change within a ScaleRule!

You can also use different rules for different custom glyphs, just look how that is done in the other cases.

[rodhash]

Oh it's right there, thanks again! Later after work will play with those values.

[Finii]

👍 for finding out the fix for your initial CRITICAL: Can not detect sane font width problem

[BEST8OY]

@Finii
FontForge auto width option is really nice though for shifting issue!

[Finii]

This is what --variable-width-glyphs does. Do not understand why the resultant font should crash an application 🤔

[BEST8OY]

Is this situation in the scope of --variable-width-glyphs behavior?
It's as if it doesn't recognize spaces
1.With this option
Look at the timer Icon

2.Without this option

[Finii]

Ah yes, it removes bearings (borders).
Well, then I guess there is no better way to patch the font as you do already.
--custom is not very flexible and just a byproduct.

For glyphs that need to have space around (bearings) in the normal sets I define a negative "overlap": value.
So if the amount of these buffer zones around the bounding box of the added glyphs shall always be the same, you can add that to the

'default': {'align': 'c', 'valign': 'c', 'stretch': 'pa', 'params': {'overlap': -0.1}}

Ten percent (10%) border in total, i.e. 5% width border left and 5% right.

[Finii]

Hmm, but here is also no border and you said you want it to look like this

[BEST8OY]

The overlap option when using --variable-width-glyphs fixes sublime crash.

But since I still need my spaces I go with my way (fixing the width manually with FontForge Auto Width option)