Font names in Linux

[ghost]

Font names show issues in Linux (Mint) and as result small caps (08 and 12) versions are not showing. Can this be fixed by separating all font files or similar. (using EBGaramond-0.015d.zip)

Thanks for great font

[georgd]

In the current development I’m changing the font names of the small caps fonts which as a side effect might solve your issue. However, may I ask you in which application they are not showing?

[ghost]

Sure. Inkscape is not working for sure. Gimp have some issues also

[georgd]

Ok. And the problem you are talking about is that you can choose normal and italic fonts but not the small cap font?

[ghost]

There is multiple issues. If installed separate all fonts work, but together not. Only all small caps is showing, EB 08 and initials. Not able to choose EB12 and small caps (08 and 12)

Best thing is not to put them in family groups ans subgroups.

[georgd]

Well, there are two issues. One is the smallcaps issue. It was a bad idea of me to put the smallcaps fonts in the same family as the normal and italic ones. This will be fixed with the next release. The other one is an issue of some component. I suppose, it’s Pango. The fonts refer to the family EB Garamond 12 or EB Garamond 08 (and now also EB Garamond SC 12 and EB Garamond SC 08) and to the preferred family EB Garamond (and EB Garamond SC). Clearly, those applications read the preferred family field and group by that without being able to show all the choices. IMO, they should rather only group by family.

[ghost]

Great to hear about upcoming fix. It is true Inkscape is not able to show all choices, but in many other fonts it is showing them.

[georgd]

Which ones besides bold and italic?

[ghost]

semibold, thin, heavy, ultrabold, medium, oblique, condensed

[georgd]

That’s all different kinds of boldness and as far as I know, they are usually all related by the family alone, they don’t need the preferred family.

[ghost]

Found this info also, maybe can help you: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2169621

Cheers

[ghost]

Installe new oo16 version, and you did great work in dividing fonts. Only one issue left is that now there is only onew weight avbailable in all fonts. Bold and Normal are the same in all fonts. Same goes for italics. Here is preview image: http://s27.postimg.org/rffaeepeb/eb2.png

[ghost]

So basicly not registering EBGaramond12 at all.

[georgd]

I fear you misunderstand something here: there are only regular weights around atm. 08 and 12 are the design sizes, ie. they are based on founts designed for the physical size of about 8 and 12 points. Bold fonts are still not usable and thus not released. The problem is that the apps you use don’t understand the concept of optical sizes and therefore just ignore the EBG12 fonts. This should be reported at some project (Pango?) but I’m not yet sure at which. For the time being, the only (questionable) solution is to remove the -08-fonts.

[ghost]

Thanks for clarification.. Yes I did removed them (08) before you wrote and it works fine.

[khaledhosny]

The fonts refer to the family EB Garamond 12 or EB Garamond 08 … and to the preferred family EB Garamond

I think using preferred family like this is wrong, preferred family should be the same as family unless your family has more than 4 fonts then you use family to group the basic 4 fonts and preferred family to group all the fonts under the same family. Check the spec http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/name.htm.

[georgd]

@khaledhosny I did this after the model of Latin Modern and Adobe font families with more than one optical size (eg. Minion Pro, Garamond Premier Pro, ...). They share one single preferred family for all optical sizes and all font styles: "Latin Modern Roman" for "LM Roman 10", "LM Roman 17", "LM Roman 12", ... If I remember correctly, this is the mechanism by which optical sizes work with fontspec. Which alternative would you recommend?

[khaledhosny]

I see, you are right then. The real issue here is the lack optical size support in the Linux font stack. I’m not sure how this can be handled gracefully. CC @behdad who might have some suggestions.

[behdad]

Fontconfig supports optical sizes for a while now.

[gadmm]

This is https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95428

A workaround is to add the following rules to /etc/fonts/local.conf

<match target="scan">
  <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond</string></test>
  <edit name="family" mode="delete"/>
</match>
<match target="scan">
  <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond SC</string></test>
  <edit name="family" mode="delete"/>
</match>

[gadmm]

Here's a file which you could distribute with the next release so that Linux package maintainers install it at /etc/fonts/conf.d/80-ebgaramond.conf until fontconfig treats it better.

[gadmm]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond</string></test>
    <edit name="family" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond SC</string></test>
    <edit name="family" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond 08</string></test>
    <test name="style" compare="contains"><string>08</string></test>
    <edit name="style" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond 12</string></test>
    <test name="style" compare="contains"><string>12</string></test>
    <edit name="style" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond SC 08</string></test>
    <test name="style" compare="contains"><string>08</string></test>
    <edit name="style" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
  <match target="scan">
    <test name="family" compare="eq"><string>EB Garamond SC 12</string></test>
    <test name="style" compare="contains"><string>12</string></test>
    <edit name="style" mode="delete"/>
  </match>
</fontconfig>