Different weights previewed at different heights even though Key Measurements are the same?

richardvan's picture

I'm currently working on my first font family, using FontLab 5. Now I've got three weights so far (regular, italic, bold). However there is something that concerns me: I'm using MainType 2.1 for Windows for font management, and in the preview my Italic is shown at a much smaller font size than my other weights (about 1/3 to 1/4). It behaves normally in InDesign though. When I check other font families they are previewed more uniformly.

I checked the key measurements but they are all the same. Is it probably connected with the Font BBox as these values are different? But I don't know how to change that. Or some rulers that are above the en square? Does anyone faced a similar problem before?

malcolm's picture

The Font BBox or Bounding Box is the maximum dimension box for all glyphs in the font. When designing it is a good idea to decide on a maximum overall ascent/descent that none of the fonts in the family will exceed. That then can be the basis of your max Ascent/Descent for the whole family.

If you are using TrueType then the Vertical Device Metrics can also have an effect on how fonts are displayed by some applications, particularly in Windows.

Syndicate content Syndicate content