Chartwell Font - Ligatures or Opent Type issue?

[JonathanLamb]

I just picked up this awesome looking Open Type font called Chartwell:

http://tktype.com/chartwell.php

I thought it would be a match made in heaven with Omnigraffle to set up simple graphs, spark lines, etc. but I can't for the life of me get it to display correctly. It works on a completely basic level, but it seems that values are not being connected right.

The Line Graph form ends up looking like a bar graph–no sloping line segments. Pie Chart displays each segment separately. The Bar graph only displays their default alphabet.

It works flawlessly in InDesign and a couple other apps.

I have "Common Ligatures" enabled in Font Palette -> Typography, and have played with Format -> Font -> Ligatures settings in the main menus. Disabled these reverts it to a plain alphabet completely.

Does Omnigraffle lack some specific support for Ligatures or OTT fonts that would prevent this from working? Anyone else tried Chartwell out?

[traviskochel]

Hi Jonathan. Found this through google alerts.

I'm Trying to eventually get Chartwell ready for the web and am/was having this exact same problem in Safari.

It turned out that the <span> tags I was using to color the text were causing interference. Even though they were hidden from the rendered page, the context was broken, and the connected values were not triggered. When removing the tags it works, unfortunately only in one color.

So, I'm thinking something similar may be at work here. Perhaps Omnigraffle is inserting some hidden code.

However, I just downloaded the Omnigraffle trial for Mac and "Lines" and "Pies" worked for me, even with multi-colors. Did you try the options found in "Format>Font>Ligature?" Those options seem to operate independently of the "common ligatures" button.

In Safari, "Bars" has the same issue of going back to the default text. I've got a temporary fix, which may work for Omnigraffle as well. I haven't quite found the root of the problem though, and thus haven't gone public with the fix.

I'd be happy to help you troubleshoot further, or send you the temporary fix for "Bars." Just email me with your order number. My address can be found on tktype.com

[JonathanLamb]

Hi Travis, great to hear from you!

It's interesting that it works as intended for you in the Trial version. I just tested in both standard and pro version, I can give a spin with the trial version on another machine here to see if there's some bizarre thing making a difference there.

I did play with the ligature settings under the menu Format -> Font -> Ligatures, between Default, None, and All.

Selecting "None" of course renders only the numbers.

With Default selected, it renders the line graph as discrete bars and pie slices separately (see attached screenshot).

With Default selected, and "Use Common Ligatures" unchecked, it renders only alphanumeric characters.

With All selected, it renders as in the screenshot regardless of whether "Use Common Ligatures" is checked.

I will see how it works on a colleague's machine

[traviskochel]

Hmm.. Someone from Omni Group may need to jump into this, as I can't recreate the issue, and don't have access to an older version of Omnigraffle. What version are you using? I'll send them a quick email when I get a chance.

If you give them all the same color, does it work? It seems as though you've got ligature support, and it's being activated, but something is breaking the context between the plusses. Perhaps some option that is off by default, which may explain why it works on my fresh install of the trial. Note, I'm not suggesting to restore Omnigraffle to default settings, just thinking out loud.

Please let me know if it works on your colleague's computer.

[JonathanLamb]

Yeah, so interestingly I've confirmed it works fine on my laptop and on a colleague's computer. So there's something funky going with my desktop version of Omnigraffle. Tried fully uninstalling the font and deleting omni prefs... not sure what else to attempt.

On Graffle 5.2.3, OS 10.5.8

Not even sure what else to list!

Thanks so much for your help. If it wouldn't be a bother, I'd be willing to try out your fix for bars in Omnigraffle on my laptop for now. I'll send you an Email.

[JonathanLamb]

It might be coincidental, but both systems on which it worked are running 10.6+

[traviskochel]

Just in case anyone was wondering. It appears that in osx 10.5 and below, the Mac text engine lacks the proper support for contextual substitutions, to display Chartwell.

Apple has fixed this in 10.6, and Omnigraffle does indeed display Chartwell correctly in that environment. However iWork applications (Pages, Keynote, etc.) seem to carry over the existing problem.