Mirek Długosz: Customizing fonts’ look with OpenType features

This post discusses the challenges of selecting and configuring programming fonts, highlighting the importance of OpenType features for customization. Two useful websites, programmingfonts.org and codingfont.com, are mentioned as resources for discovering new fonts. The author details their process for evaluating fonts, focusing on the ability to customize glyphs like the lowercase L and uppercase i, and ligatures. Several web-based font testing tools, including Wakamai Fondue and Bulletproof Font Tester, are reviewed, each with its strengths and weaknesses. The author's dissatisfaction with existing tools led them to create Font Feature Tester, a command-line tool written in Rust, along with a Python script for automating image generation. This tool generates images showcasing different font configurations, enabling easy visual comparison. The process involves creating configuration files for each font and feature set, allowing for pausing and resuming the evaluation. A future vision for Font Feature Tester includes a graphical user interface with tabbed views, improved font and feature selection, and cross-platform compatibility. The author expresses their hope for community involvement in this project. The current tool addresses a specific need, but integration with other tools remains an area for future improvement.