Classes mess up Opentype Glyph generation

I've been working on a new set of fonts. I have the 8-bit versions done and I was going to generate the glyphs used by my Opentype features. This has never been a problem. Simply Open the feature set you want to use and compile. All the missing glyphs are added.

Normally they are added in a manner that can be easily edited as you are building a font. For example, I am accustomed to A-Z.sc being added in a block, followed by all the composite, accented small cap glyphs. All of a sudden the added glyphs were scrambled into alphabetical order and nothing was together. I wanted the oldstyle figures together, the lining figures together, the denominators together, and so on. They were horrible scrambled.

This drove me crazy for a day and a half. Finally I realized the problem.I was building on one of my existing forms and I had classes added. I was inspired to delete all the classes and then add the features and compile. The problem is solved.

Make sure classes are deleted before using the Opentype panel compiling command to add your OpenType glyphs.


This is an addition to my font design book.
Practical Font Design: 2nd Edition: Rewritten for FontLab 5
Practical Font Design Using FontLab 5