User Guide

FontLab 4
146
OpenType Export Options
As we said before, in structure there is not much difference between
TrueType and OpenType fonts. The key difference is that OpenType fonts
contain some additional tables that allow advanced typographic and lexical
features. The additional data is stored in 3 tables: GDEF, GSUB and GPOS.
We will discuss these tables in full detail in the OpenType chapter, so all
you need to know here is that if you want to have OpenType features in
your font, you have to let FontLab export these tables.
OpenType export features are stored in the OpenType page of the Tools >
Options dialog box:
Export OpenType
Tables
Keep this option on to export OpenType tables. If it is off,
you will get a plain TrueType font without any OT features.
Export VOLT data VOLT is a Microsoft tool to define OpenType features.
FontLab can try to export some of the features in VOLT
format so you can open the font in VOLT and continue
working on OpenType. Please note that you also need to
have this option activated in the Import section of the
TrueType page:
Generate “kern”
feature if it is not
defined
The typical way to store kerning data in a plain TrueType
font is to create a “kern” table that enumerates all the
kerning pairs in the font. OpenType fonts define kerning
differently, using the feature named “kern”.
Switch the option on to have FontLab automatically generate
the “kern” feature from the kerning pairs table that you
created in the Metrics window.