FontForge now supports HarfBuzz-based font preview: https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/pull/5522
Special thanks to Khaled Hosny @khaled for kind and thorough code review!
"#HarfBuzz Study: Introducing #HarfRust"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aH_waagdEM5UhslQxCeFEb82ECBhPlZjy5_MwLNLBYo/preview
HarfBuzz Study: Introducing HarfRust behdad June 10, 2025 [Comments welcome on GoogleDocs] Introduction What’s in the name History HarfBuzz (حرفباز) HarfRust (حرفراست) Not to be confused with: RustType The contenders 2017: harfbuzz_rs 2019: Allsorts 2020: RustyBuzz 2021: swash 2025: HarfRust ...
Any one else seeing weird glyph placement (as in glyphs being displaced up and down left and right) when using Arabic color (OT-SVG) fonts in InDesign?
I tried reporting it but it didn't get any response, and now I wonder if it is a general issue or something in my fonts is triggering it: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/49040762-in-arabic-opentype-svg-fonts-glyphs-shift-seeming
In Arabic fonts with SVG table, glyphs move up, down, left, and right seemingly randomly, and typing more text or adding vowel marks change how the glyphs are shifted. If the fonts are processed to remove the SVG table, they work fine (but color glyphs are not colored, obviously). Illustrator and Photoshop do not have this issue, and the font with SVG table works normally. I tested this with https://github.com/aliftype/raqq/blob/main/fonts/Raqq.ttf as well as https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Reem+Kufi+Ink. Text used in the screenshot: خط كوفي ا أ إ ب ت ث ج ح خ خَطٌ كُوفِي أ إ بَ This is InDesign 20.0, but the issue was present also in the previous versions.
"#HarfBuzz Study: Subsetter"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_vZrt97OorJ0jA1YzJ29LRcGr3YGrNJANdOABjVZGEs/preview
HarfBuzz Study: Subsetter Behdad Esfahbod & Garret Rieger 9 April 2025 [Comments welcome on GoogleDocs] Introduction Requirements Other subsetters Prior papers and presentations Design Read/write instead of decompile/modify/compile Input specification Subset Planning and Execution Glyph closure...
#HarfBuzz 11.0.0 is out with lots of goodies. Among them is integration with the Fontations / Skrifa Rust font library, lots of optimizations, and new APIs:
#HarfBuzz 11.0.1 is out with a few but important bug fixes. Please update.
"#HarfBuzz Study: Caching"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_VgObf6Je0J8byMLsi7HCQHnKo2emGnx_ib_sHo-bt4/view
HarfBuzz Study: Caching behdad April 2, 2025 [Comments welcome on GoogleDocs] Introduction Design Patterns The hb_cache_t objects The hb_set_digest_t object The hb_bit_set_t object The table accelerators The table scratchpads Caches on hb_face_t Shape-plan cache OpenType shaping Skipping work w...
2025Q1 Fonts Quarterly Optimize all the things / Everybody gets font-funcs March 31, 2025 behdad [Comments welcome on GoogleDocs] Introduction Runtime & memory performance improvements Shaping speedups: AAT and OpenType AAT speedups OpenType speedups Drawing VARC fonts speedups COLRv1 speedups ...
Max Iorsh
behdad
Jens Kutílek
Tiro Typeworks