Previously, we saw that there is a rule called the Adobe Glyph List Specification for glyph names in Latin fonts. When working with the font design tool Glyphs, you’ll come across names that are slightly different, called NiceNames.

For example, there is a character “Ģ” used in languages such as Latvian. The Unicode code point for this character is “0122” in hexadecimal. According to the Adobe Glyph List Specification, the name of this glyph is “uni0122” or “u0122.” However, in the Glyphs editor, this glyph is displayed under the name “Gcommaaccent” (a G with a comma accent), which is a human-readable name (NiceName).

This NiceName is merely a name used while it is “designing in progress.” When exporting fonts as final files (OTF), Glyphs references its internal database and converts the NiceName to a name (Production Name) that complies with the Adobe Glyph List Specification.

While NiceName is user-friendly, the increasing number of naming conventions can make things confusing, and I bet many Glyphs users have probably struggled at least once with the distinction between “NiceName” and “Production Name.”

(mm)