4. Workflow Overview

This is a general overview of the workflow.

Initial setup (one-time)

• Install and configure Docker and anvil
• Set up a font projects folder and clone projects of interest

These steps are covered in Setting Up Tools.

Daily routines

• Start up Docker and the container (anvil up)
• Navigate to the project folder
• Pull any changes others have made to the project
• Change things! Some ways to do that:
  • Manually edit files using a text editor
  • Run scripts to make changes
  • Run the preglyphs script to create a Glyphs file that can be edited
  • Open the UFOs directly in other apps (Robofont, FontForge, FontLab)
• Save and normalize your changes
  • Run preflight scripts (including preflightg, preflightff, preflightfl)
• Use Smith commands to:
  • Clean and configure the build folder
  • Build the fonts
  • Prepare test files
• Review the results (in /results)
• Commit your changes locally then push them to the main project
  • You may need to issue a pull request if it’s not your project
• Exit the container and shut it down (exit and anvil down)

See Modifying Font Sources and Building Font Projects for details.

Preparing a font release

• Modify the project metadata to reflect the release, including font version number
  • In the UFOs (fontinfo.plist)
  • In the FONTLOG.txt
• Adjust any other documentation
• Tag the last commit to reflect the release version
• Build the fonts using smith zip, smith tarball, or smith release
• Make a release on Github, uploading the release package from results/releases/

Contributing back to the project

• Contact the project maintainer to indicate your interest in contributing back to the project
  • You may need to agree to a CLA (Contributor License Agreement)
• Issue a pull request containing your changes
• Adjust your submission as needed until it is accepted!

Read Contributing Changes for more information.