Mathematical signs are misaligned

[thlinard]

The horizontal bar of + − ÷ should be the same, and aligned vertically (in the middle) with × =.

Particularly visible for the Thin weight:

Additionally, the × has display issues at certain sizes or zoom in InDesign 2020. Example with the Regular:

[davelab6]

@thlinard thanks for reporting this; which exact font files are you looking at to see this?

@dberlow points out < and > are different widths... And he and his team will fix all such issues. Please do report :)

Unlike what I said in googlefonts/roboto-flex#116 (comment) though, we will need to take care that these glyphs retain the same advance widths, but adjusting the glyph's vertical position within that space (or forms) is fine.

[davelab6]

(I just spoke on the phone to @dberlow about this and he is also very grateful for your report, and will fix anything you can point at :)

[mikedug]

just to add, I have not seen, nor can I repro the broken multiply sign in the Variable Roboto.

Thomas, can I ask, which font is showing this problem? Is the illustration you show, the Roboto Regular font rendering in InDesign?

[m4rc1e]

I think it's a rasteriser issue in Indesign, nothing to do with the font per se.

I was able to replicate it in Indesign but not in a browser.

[pichotta]

The /multiply might have an issue with the start point in the wdth axis. I can re-create it in typetools.typenetwork.com using a combination of wdth and opsz.

[thlinard]

My version is Roboto VF 3.002: https://github.com/google/fonts/tree/master/apache/roboto

I'm not very concerned with the display bug in InDesign: some fonts manage to work around it, if you can do that too, fine, otherwise too bad.

On the other hand the bad alignment (/multiply, /minus) worries me more.

[m4rc1e]

I'm not too concerned about this issue atm. The current v2.138 static fonts also have the same issue:

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto?preview.text=%C3%97%C3%B7%E2%88%92&preview.text_type=custom

Not saying this issue shouldn't be fixed but it can happen once we've successfully pushed the v3.002 update.

[thlinard]

It's up to you to decide which priority to give to the problem, but here is a more complete exposition, with ×<>+÷−¬=≠±≤≥.

Roboto Thin:

Roboto Black:

The vertical alignment needs to be corrected, and the thickness (and somewhat the length) of the horizontal bar of +÷−¬=≠±≤≥ should be the same.

[thlinard]

The same example in Encode Sans VF 3.002 (default or lnum feature) https://github.com/google/fonts/tree/master/ofl/encodesans

[dberlow]

That’s In flex Jill, thanks, I’m on it. On Aug 24, 2020, at 10:40 AM, pichotta <[email protected]> wrote:  The /multiply might have an issue with the start point in the wdth axis. I can re-create it in typetools.typenetwork.com using a combination of wdth and opsz. — You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[thlinard]

Roboto VF (at least version 3.09: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto) is available in the API, this issue can now be fixed!

[thlinard]

Roboto v. 3.10, wght=100:

Roboto v. 3.10, wght=900:

Reference: Johannes Küster, Fonts for Mathematics