ProofGenerator
A tool to automatically generate Kerning Proofs with predefined sample strings in InDesign.
The ProofGenerator is based on SpecimenDropper, by Alphabet Type: https://github.com/AlphabetType/SpecimenDropper/releases/tag/1.0
Setup and Usage of the ProofGenerator (macOS)
- Download and unpack "ProofGenerator.zip"
- Drop ProofGenerator.app into Applications folder
- drag and drop one, or more font files (.otf, .ttf) into ProofGenerator
Resources
(right click on ProofGenerator app > Show package contents > Resources)
- template_proof.idml: Layout Template for the InDesign Proof.
- GT-Sample-Strings.txt: can be used as Sample Text in a Font Editor
- sort-samplestrings.py: A python script to sort and split the GT-Sample-Strings.txt into seperate text files.
- strings (latin-basic.txt, latin-kerning.txt, etc.): These files are exported from "GT-Sample-Strings.txt" via the "sort-samplestrings.py" script, and are being used in the .idml Layout template.
Customisation
Use the files stored in the ProofGenerator App for customisations (right click on ProofGenerator app > Show package contents > Contents > Resources).
You can customise the layout and content of the template to fit all your proofing needs (Resources > template_proof.idml) and edit/add to the sample text (Resources > Strings > GT-Sample-Strings.txt). Make sure to run sort-samplestrings.py script after you made changes to the Sample Strings and update the link to the txt files in the InDesign template. You currently have to use a non-standard font in the layout document, so the program understands what text will be displayed with your font. Also you have to align the text to the grid manually after re-linking the txt files, because paragraph styles are not working (yet).
Check out Alphabet Types SpecimenDropper if you want to generate type specimens https://github.com/AlphabetType/SpecimenDropper
GT-SampleStrings
The GT-Sample-Strings.txt file can be used in the Font Editor to display and check the proportions, spacing, kerning etc. of your font
Structure of GT-Sample-Strings.txt:
0-1) basics to check proportions in UC and LC latin, spacing of glyphs/numerals/”special” characters
2-3) latin spacing, lating kerning
4-5) cyrillic spacing, cyrillic kerning
6-7) greek spacing, greek kerning
8-x) additional things to check (kerning exceptions, lc+UC kerning strings for Latin, language specific details, etc.)
The GT-Sample-Strings.txt currently supports following Charactersets:
- Latin Plus, by underware https://underware.nl/latin_plus/character_set/
- Adobe Cyrillic 2 https://github.com/adobe-type-tools/adobe-cyrillic-charsets
- Adobe Greek 1 https://github.com/adobe-type-tools/adobe-greek-charsets
Setup and Usage of GT-Sample-Strings.txt in Glyphs App
In Glyphs: Preferences > Sample Strings > Open File > select GT-Sample-Strings.txt
Switch to glyph-view and use cmd + alt + f to select sample text
Setup and Usage of GT-Sample-Strings.txt in Robofont
In Robofont: Preferences > Space Center > Input Text > + > add seperate lines from GT-Sample-Strings.txt
Open Space Center > Select Sample Text in Dropdown Menu
ProofGenerator-py
The ProofGenerator-py folder contains the Python Script for the ProofGenerator. You can rund the script from the command line: python ProofGenerator.py [path to font file]