What's up with VI @ FontLab?
A quick status report from the Public Preview period: FontLab VI was close to done, the bug list was short, and Variable Fonts were the last big feature going in.
The team had been heads-down finishing FontLab VI, which is why none of us turned up at the recent TypeCon and ATypI conferences. Here is what we would have talked about over lunch.
Bug fixes. During the Public Preview, the developers fixed over a thousand bugs. The to-do list was down to 46, plus another 18 fixes waiting to be verified in the next internal build. Internal builds usually landed once or twice a week.
Variable Fonts. The last major feature in flight was full support for OpenType Font Variations, alongside finalizing OpenType export across all its varieties: CFF, TrueType, and the various color formats. Both would show up in upcoming builds.
The User Guide. Two type designers had joined the team and were testing FontLab VI and helping complete the User Guide. They would also become part of the support team once VI shipped.
The Public Preview, for both macOS and Windows, already had several thousand regular users pulling each new build every couple of weeks. Many reported problems and sent suggestions on the forum, and that feedback shaped the app directly.