Roboto-GMM

This is a branch of the source repository for Roboto: Google’s signature family of fonts, the default font on Android and Chrome OS, and the recommended font for Google’s visual language, Material Design.

Build Process using FontForge

Fontforge is an open source font editor which also has support for Python scripts.

Currently, this script will only generate the fonts but can be expanded later.

Here is a resource link with details on the Python modules Fontforge supports.

Windows Requirements

1. Make sure to have Python 2.7 installed on your system.
2. Install Fontforge project on your system.
3. Make sure there is an Environment Variable in the Path for the folder where the ffpython.exe file is stored.

To Generate Fonts

ffpython.exe .\build.py

The font files will be generated in the build\published folder.

Adding Glyphs to Project in FontForge

1. Open the Roboto-GMM-Regular.sfd in FontForge.
2. On the File Menu use View -> Go to This will bring up a dialog box to enter the Unicode name. example uni2220 Click Ok and it will highlight the empty glyph location.
3. Double-Click the empty glyph to open the Glyph Dialog
4. Inside the Glyph Dialog Box:
   1. Choose File --> Import
   2. Set the type of file you wish to import and click Import
   3. Make any adjustment needed
   4. Click File --> Save
5. Make sure to Save or Save All from the main dialog to update the .sfd file
6. Please note that saving these files may cause the builds to break if there is a version mismatch
7. If this happens, open each .sdf file in notepadd++ and change the version in the top line from 3.2 to 3.0

Additional Note:

When creating the glyphs make sure to keep in mind the Ascent: 1638 and the Decent: 410 with an overall Em Size: 2048.

Anytime the .sfd file is altered, it will change the setting SplineFontDB: to 3.2. Please make sure to change this back to: SplineFontDB: 3.0. This is needed in order for the build to succeed. You can alter this setting by opening up the .sfd file in Visual Studio Code.