Fontforge: TTF generated with only bitmaps doesn't render in Windows

[sunaku]

• [x] Screenshot
• [x] The FontForge version and the operating system you're using
  
  
  
  • To view the generated TTF: Windows 7
  
  
  • To generate the TTF:
  
  

$ fontforge --version
Copyright (c) 2000-2014 by George Williams. See AUTHORS for Contributors.
 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
 with many parts BSD <http://fontforge.org/license.html>. Please read LICENSE.
 Based on sources from 15:13 UTC  5-Apr-2016-ML-D.
 Based on source from git with hash:
no xdefs_filename!
TESTING: getPixmapDir:/usr/share/fontforge/pixmaps
TESTING: getShareDir:/usr/share/fontforge
TESTING: GResourceProgramDir:/usr/sbin
trying default theme:/usr/share/fontforge/pixmaps/resources
fontforge 15:13 UTC  5-Apr-2016
libfontforge 20160405

$ uname -a
Linux yantram 4.6.3_1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jun 25 05:40:29 UTC 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

• [x] The behavior you expect to see, and the actual behavior
  
  
  
  • Expected: Bitmaps inside the TTF should appear in Windows Font Viewer.
  
  
  • Actual: Bitmaps inside the TTF do not appear in Windows Font Viewer.
  
  
• [x] Steps to reproduce the behavior
  
  
  
  1. Download https://github.com/sunaku/tamzen-font/archive/bdf2ttf-fontforge.zip
  
  
  2. Extract it and go inside the extracted folder.
  
  
  3. (optional) Run fontforge -script ttf/bdf2ttf.pe ttf/Tamzen-Regular.ttf bdf/Tamzen[0-9]*r.bdf to generate the output ttf/Tamzen-Regular.ttf file. The script's source code is available on GitHub.
  
  
  4. (optional) Open the ttf/Tamzen-Regular.sfd file and observe that bitmaps are actually present.
  
  
  5. (optional) Open the ttf/Tamzen-Regular.ttf file and observe that bitmaps are actually present.
     
     
  
  
  6. Double-click on the output ttf/Tamzen-Regular.ttf file under Windows and observe that none of the bitmaps are rendered (as shown in the main screenshot at the top of this bug report).
  
  
• [ ] (optional) Possible solution/fix/workaround

[ctrlcctrlv]

Expected: Bitmaps inside the TTF should appear in Windows Font Viewer.

Do you have a TTF made of only bitmaps that does appear?

[sunaku]

Yes, please see these TTFs generated from the same BDFs in https://github.com/koron/bdf2ttf/issues/1#issuecomment-230130135.

[ctrlcctrlv]

Sorry, I'm using Windows 10 and can't get a preview on that archive with fontview.exe, but viewing it in FontForge seems okay.

The reason that I'm asking this of you is so that I can examine both in TTX and see what error FontForge is making.

I'm also somewhat dubious over whether Windows even supports these kinds of TTF files.

[sunaku]

Here's the result of double-clicking the TTFs (in the ZIP file I linked to earlier) under Windows 7:

Indeed, these fonts _do work properly_ under Windows 7, as demonstrated by Notepad here: :trophy:

[flowchartsman]

Over a year with a fairly serious issue and no progress or updates? What's the story, guys?

[flowchartsman]

Still broken. Coming up on the two year anniversary.

[ctrlcctrlv]

@flowchartsman This is a community maintained project. No one is paid to work on this. I also would definitely disagree that this issue is in any way severe. A TrueType font containing only bitmaps is a rarity in the first place, and their utility in any situation over dedicated pixel font formats is incredibly dubious.

Your comments sound entitled. I think you should change your perspective.