Which form of the Cyrillic lowercase ghe with a stroke (uni0493) is preferable in the italics?

Here are some semples of the Cyrillic lowercas ghe with a stroke (uni0493). Which one is more correct for the italic style?

The Script Style of House Numbers

I found this video on YouTube about the style of digits used for house numbers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HgD3v1ASP4
and I felt that it would be of interest to many people here. After watching the video more fully, though, I am not so sure. He doesn't really come to any conclusions, not being able to solve the mystery or even get very far towards doing so. It is about numbers that look like this:

Hinting Variable Fonts

Hello Everyone,  Is there a way to autohint variable fonts, either CFF or True Type?
From what I can understand ttfautohint is not hinting TT variable fonts, but what about CFF variable fonts is it possible to autohint them?

Many Thanks!

Monotonic Greek in double encoded unicase fonts

Question 1 — quadruple encoding

Since the letter shape of Alpha and Alphatonos looks identical in Monotonic Greek (and it is true for double encoded unicase fonts), I would like to encode all ~tonos versions to their base letters. Is it a good idea? If so, is my encoding map correct?

Alpha 0391 03B1 0386 03AC ← Alphatonos Beta 0392 03B2 Gamma 0393 03B3 Delta 0394 03B4 Epsilon 0395 03B5 0388 03AD ← Epsilontonos Zeta 0396 03B6 Eta 0397 03B7 0389 03AE ← Etatonos Theta 0398 03B8 Iota 0399 03B9 038A 03AF ← Iotatonos Iotadieresis 03AA 03CA 0390 ← iotadieresistonos Kappa 039A 03BA Lambda 039B 03BB Mu 039C 03BC Nu 039D 03BD Xi 039E 03BE Omicron 039F 03BF 038C 03CC ← Omicrontonos Pi 03A0 03C0 Rho 03A1 03C1 Sigma 03A3 03C3 03C2 ← sigmafinal SigmaLunateSymbol 03F9 03F2 Tau 03A4 03C4 Upsilon 03A5 03C5 038E 03CD ← Upsilontonos Upsilondieresis 03AB 03CB 03B0 ← upsilondieresistonos Phi 03A6 03C6 Chi 03A7 03C7 Psi 03A8 03C8 Omega 03A9 03C9 038F 03CE ← Omegatonos

Question 2 — suppress tonos in ccmp

Also, in the case when tonos is a separate symbol in the text, I would like to compose it in ccmp, but directly to Alpha glyph instead of Alphatonos (which is not presented in the font and is encoded in Alpha glyph now). Will this substitution break the source text if the user copy it or change the font?

script grek; language dflt; lookup ccmp_grek_1 { sub Alpha acutecomb by Alpha; sub Epsilon acutecomb by Epsilon; sub Eta acutecomb by Eta; sub Iota acutecomb by Iota; sub Omicron acutecomb by Omicron; sub Upsilon acutecomb by Upsilon; sub Omega acutecomb by Omega; } ccmp_grek_1;

Introducing Colr Pak - a free open source editor for COLR v0 and v1 fonts

Color Pak is a cross-platform desktop application for designing and editing color fonts. It is a fork of Fontra Pak, extended with dedicated tooling for COLRv0 and COLRv1 color font authoring — including a visual paint graph editor, palette management, and gradient handles directly on the canvas.

Your fonts stay entirely on your computer and are never uploaded anywhere

Key Features

• COLRv1 Paint Graph Editor — visually compose  PaintSolid, PaintLinearGradient, PaintRadialGradient, PaintSweepGradient, PaintGlyph, PaintTranslate, PaintScale, PaintRotate, PaintSkew, and PaintTransform nodes per glyph.
• COLRv0 Layer Mapping — manage color layer stacks with palette index assignments for simpler color fonts.
• One-click COLRv0 → COLRv1 Upgrade — automatically convert an existing v0 layer mapping into an equivalent COLRv1 PaintColrLayers structure.
• Masterless COLRv1 Variation (WIP) — author variable color parameters (gradient stops, transform values, alpha) as independent per-axis keyframes, without requiring separate outline masters.
• Live Canvas Rendering — see COLRv1 paint effects rendered in real time on the glyph canvas as you edit.
• Palette Management — define and switch between multiple color palettes; the active palette is reflected immediately in the canvas preview.
• Full Fontra Editing Core — all standard Fontra editing features (glyph drawing, variable font axes, anchors, components, etc.) are included. 

Public Release 0.1.0 is now available for Linux,Microsoft Windows and MacOS (both Apple Sillicon and Intel newer that MacOs 10.15) . Installation instructions are available at https://github.com/mitradranirban/colr-pak/blob/main/INSTALLATION.md 

Commercial Support For Type

Hi All

After 10 year with The Northern Block as Head of Operations, I am starting up on my own helping Type Designers/Foundries with the commercial side of the business.

The aim is simple: help foundries handle licensing opportunities confidently and convert enquiries into well-structured, higher-value agreements.

Many foundries regularly receive licensing enquiries from agencies, brands, and software companies, but responding to those requests, evaluating the opportunity, and structuring the right commercial terms can take significant time alongside design and production work.

I will be operating on a retainer plus commission model, and I hope this approach will allow foundries to know they can access experienced licensing and commercial expertise without needing to build an internal business development or licensing function.

Areas where I will typically can provide support include:

• Assessing and responding to incoming licensing enquiries
• Structuring appropriate licensing terms for agencies, brands, and enterprise clients
• Supporting negotiations for extended or enterprise licences
• Advising on commercial positioning of existing libraries
• Helping formalise licensing agreements and partnership discussions

If additional support around licensing enquiries or commercial discussions would be useful, I would be happy to arrange a short introductory conversation; or you can email me
[email protected]

Thank you all for reading!
Scott

Is there any standard glyphsets for Indic languages
The data obtained from tools like Hyperglot and Shaperglot are often incomplete, confusing and contradictory. How can I get glyphset which will provide essential conjunct list for various Indic languages

Best places worldwide to study typography (not type design)

I know the University of Reading (UK) is well known for typography at undergraduate level. But, I’m curious which other universities are leading typography worldwide (any country, any language).

Specifically, I mean typography as the study of the "organisation of writing"… not the design of typefaces. Thanks for your insights!

New font editor announcement: Counterpunch, also in Alpha ;)

Introducing Counterpunch, a next-generation font editor that runs directly in your browser.
Inspired by the counterpunch, a traditional punch-cutting tool from the metal type era, this modern digital type design tool introduces vital concepts such as full bidirectional complex script shaping, in-place component editing, code-driven dynamic glyph filters, and a digital assistant that streamlines everyday font engineering tasks.
For those who have grown weary of the repetitive edit-compile-test cycle of traditional font editors, Counterpunch offers a welcome solution. The editor provides a genuine what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience, where the editor rendering is 100% consistent with the end product that users would see in browsers, design applications, or text processors. This eliminates the frustration of dealing with vowel marks or complex contextual substitutions and positioning that do not display as expected in the editor.
Counterpunch is fully open-source, licensed under the GPLv3 license, which ensures that it will remain free from commercial exploitation.
Although the editor is currently in its alpha stage, with many features still in development, it is already a valuable tool for debugging and analysis. You can load your existing font sources and utilize the assistant and dynamic glyph filters to examine them with greater confidence and in unprecedented detail.
Counterpunch comes with Python scripting out-of-the-box, and the assistant can catch and repair your broken Python scripts and even translate your established scripts from other editors to work with the Counterpunch object model. It’s self-healing user code.
A fully functional Public Beta is expected for late spring, and the release of the finished product is slated for October 2026.
While the editor is free to use for everyone and without registration, the Counterpunch project operates a paid monthly subscription to use the assistant. With prices varying by country to make the tool universally accessible, you’re getting state-of-the-art font engineering at your fingertips while supporting the growth of the project financially.
“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan
Counterpunch has a whole lot of future product ideas lined-up. Stay tuned and follow along for the ride.
The editor is currently in Alpha stage with many features not yet implemented, and correct display depends on compatibility with fontc, Google Font’s new font compiler.

Here’s a small teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwCjRV_TzAE
And the website: https://counterpunch.space/

Input Request for a Metafont Porting of the "ethiop" Typeface

Hello Everyone,

This post is a request for any feedback, particularly on technical aspects vs stylistical, of a typeface recently re-migrated from Metafont sources. Our goal has been to maintain the unique style and spirit of the original design while cleaning up some obvious shortcomings of the contours that resulted from the conversion process.  The release can be found here:

https://github.com/raeytype/ethiop/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta-1

with more detail on the project page:  https://github.com/raeytype/ethiop

Briefly on the background: The "ethiop" LaTeX + Babel package, and accompanying typeface, was released in 1998 as a product of the graduate work of Dr. Berhanu Beyene. The Metafont files were ported by another team in 2002 and were incorporated into the GNU FreeSerif typeface.  As a GNU product, the typeface became widely used. An eventual goal of the effort is to offer the enhancements back to the GNU project for a revision of the FreeSerif font.

Below is a sample of the enhancements made. Remarks on best practices to follow that will help improve quality and portability are much appreciated.