Typeface identification

[Jonathan Kew]

On 26/04/2023 10:10, Peter Flynn wrote:
> The implementation of collections is a step in the right direction. The 
> big problem is that the categorisation is a human job because the 
> metadata provided by the font-file creators is often very poor (and 
> there isn't much provision to store it). For example, how would you go 
> about listing all the sans-serif fonts you have installed, having access 
> only to the font files themselves? AFAIK the only indication *might* be 
> in the font name or the file name; but Raleway (for example) has no 
> indication that I can find that it is a sans-serif typeface.

In theory, for OpenType fonts you should be able to determine this from 
the panose classification values in the OS/2 table.

And looking at Raleway, it does indeed identify itself as sans-serif:

     <panose>
       <bFamilyType value="2"/>        Latin Text
       <bSerifStyle value="11"/>       Normal Sans
       <bWeight value="5"/>            Book
       <bProportion value="3"/>        Modern
       <bContrast value="3"/>          Very Low
       <bStrokeVariation value="1"/>   No Fit
       <bArmStyle value="1"/>          No Fit
       <bLetterForm value="6"/>        Normal/Rounded
       <bMidline value="0"/>           Any
       <bXHeight value="3"/>           Constant/Standard
     </panose>

However, I wouldn't trust the panose data to be accurate/meaningful in 
many of the fonts out there in the world... maybe some heroic person 
would care to do (or has done) a survey to see how often these values 
are set reasonably by designers/vendors.

JK