Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Add "Source Serif 4" with that name #2599

Closed
davelab6 opened this issue Aug 4, 2020 · 10 comments · Fixed by #4067
Closed

Add "Source Serif 4" with that name #2599

davelab6 opened this issue Aug 4, 2020 · 10 comments · Fixed by #4067
Assignees
Labels
I New Font II Commissioned Commissioned project to do
Milestone

Comments

@davelab6
Copy link
Member

davelab6 commented Aug 4, 2020

Per adobe-fonts/source-serif#77 Adobe Fonts will release the next version of Source Serif Pro as "Source Serif 4"

Generally we don't want versions in family names, although there are a few exceptions (Lobster Two, Exo 2, etc)

Adobe have offered to add a GF target to their build script to output a version named for us with the legacy name, which I accepted, but I thought I'd file this issue to discuss.

@thlinard
Copy link
Contributor

My comments:

  • "Std" and "Pro" are not very relevant suffixes. Especially since they are only used to indicate support for AL2 for Std and AL3 for Pro, but many have used the suffix "Pro" to mean "more professional" (which did not mean much…).
  • In the absence of better mangement of versions, putting the version in the font name, like in software (Photoshop 2020, Word 2016, etc.), is not such a bad idea.

My question is mainly: when Source Serif 5 will be released, how will it be handled by Google Fonts?

@davelab6
Copy link
Member Author

davelab6 commented Aug 12, 2020 via email

@thlinard
Copy link
Contributor

The same way. We don't want multiple versions, we want a single version of each family, for caching and simplicity.

Well, in this case, I think that answers the question: just remove the version number, and keep "Source Serif" (keeping the "Pro" doesn't make sense, as it will disappear, and the name without suffix will ultimately be the part that will stay the longest). You can even rename right away.

@davelab6
Copy link
Member Author

davelab6 commented Aug 12, 2020 via email

@thlinard
Copy link
Contributor

Keeping the "Pro"? In light of Frank Grießhammer's comment "nobody could have known that the three-weight version would stick around on Google Fonts for 5 more years", aren't you afraid everyone will think Google has once again stuck to the old version? And people will ask for another service to get the latest version?

@frankrolf
Copy link
Contributor

“Pro” does not necessarily connote Adobe – other foundries have used the same naming system.
Pro really doesn’t mean much anymore (one wonders what’s “professional” about one language using more accented glyphs than another).

e.g.
https://www.fonts.com/support/faq/opentype-varieties
https://www.fontshop.com/families/ff-good/buy?selected_package_type=styles&selected_product_type=1&selected_characterset=15

@davelab6
Copy link
Member Author

Pro really doesn’t mean much anymore

I'm OK to keep it

@frankrolf
Copy link
Contributor

I believe that keeping “Source Serif Pro” on Google Fonts while going forward with ”Source Serif 4” everywhere else will be a big point of user confusion.

Source Serif 4 has many changes which will make the family behave differently from version 3.
One of these changes is repositioning the text size and -weight master within the design space, to coincide with the Regular style. While the changes to outlines created here are really minute, they will influence all interpolations in the immediate vicinity.
This particular fix, and a fine re-evaluation of kerning pairs which will lead to document reflow.

I understand reflow might not be as big of an issue with digital-only documents, but I would not want to want to destroy a typesetter’s work. Keeping the font name forever certainly is convenient, but (IMO) also irresponsible toward the users.

Suggestion:
Keep Source Serif Pro on the service, while also serving Source Serif 4?

@davelab6
Copy link
Member Author

Keep Source Serif Pro on the service, while also serving Source Serif 4?

@frankrolf is there a variable font weight axis version of Source Serif 2 or 3?

If so, GF could onboard that as "Source Serif Pro" so that GF is acting responsible toward existing users of bringing the 'compress' benefit of variable fonts to them, and not changing metrics much if at all; then we can de-list that family in the catalog, so its not offered for new users, and there's no confusing double listing of "Source Serif Pro" next to "Source Serif 4" anywhere in any UI; and meanwhile add the new "Source Serif 4" family without changing the name so that it is consistent with the name found elsewheere.

@frankrolf
Copy link
Contributor

That’s great news, thanks Dave!

If I understand correctly, you’d want to add https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-serif/releases/tag/3.001R as Source Serif Pro (this is the version currently is served, I think).
The release linked above includes both CFF2 and TTF VFs.

The release for SS4 is here: https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-serif/releases/tag/4.004R

@davelab6 davelab6 changed the title How to handle the upcoming Source Serif Pro -> Source Serif 4 rename? Add Source Serif 4" Sep 16, 2021
@davelab6 davelab6 changed the title Add Source Serif 4" Add "Source Serif 4" with that name Sep 16, 2021
@RosaWagner RosaWagner added this to the 2021 Q4 milestone Sep 16, 2021
@RosaWagner RosaWagner added the II Commissioned Commissioned project to do label Oct 15, 2021
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment
Labels
I New Font II Commissioned Commissioned project to do
Projects
None yet
Development

Successfully merging a pull request may close this issue.

5 participants