Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 103157
Liberation Fonts v1.04 have no kerning tables
Last modified: 2009-07-12 18:54:15 UTC
Liberation Fonts version 1.04 do not support kerning in openoffice.org. Tested on Windows and Linux. The version 1.00 in known to work OK on Linux. The version 1.03 works OK on Windows. The version 1.04 does not support kerning on both Linux and Windows. The kerning works in Abiword, but not in OpenOffice.org. Liberation fonts are available here: https://fedorahosted.org/releases/l/i/liberation-fonts Version 1.04.93 is default for Ubuntu 9.04 and Fedora 11. The version 1.00 is default for Ubuntu 8.04.
Created attachment 63243 [details] Liberation 1.00, 1.03 and 1.04 comparison on Linux with Abiword and OpenOfice.org
Created attachment 63244 [details] Another font kerning comparison of AbiWord and OpenOffice Writer
OpenOffice Writer was created pdf file also without kerning, but AbiWord was created good. And is it OpenOffice bug or font bug? The same problems occurs when using the Liberation fonts with Apache FOP (by https://bugzilla.redhat.com/ show_bug.cgi?id=503430)
Confirming as per dixix57.
Liberation 1.00 to 1.03 contained the traditional kern tables, but 1.04 did neither contain them nor their newer GPOS.kern counterparts. Version 1.05 provides kerning details only via GPOS, but not via the traditional tables. Since 1.05 onyl uses the "pair adjustment" type of GPOS.kern there is no good reason they do not also provide the traditional tables. Especially when considering the OpenType 1.06 specification, which is quite clear on that topic: "Fonts intended for cross-platform use or for the Windows platform in general should conform to the 'kern' table format". I support this notion. @fyva: if you use fontforge to create your fonts please do not forget to enable the "Traditional Kerning" checkbox in File->GenerateFonts->Options->SFNT It would be even better if you used a version of fontforge that has my patch from issue 102911 applied. Other than that there is the enhancement issue 31764 for OOo to use GPOS.kern instead of SFNT.kern.
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