I have not installed ttx2.3 on Lion. I am using ttx2.2 from AFDKO with no problem. Here are the differences between 2.2 and 2.3 according to the file changes.txt

TTX/FontTools Version 2.3

- TrueType Collection (TTC) support
- Python 2.6 support
- Update Unicode data to 5.2.0
- Couple of bug fixes

Maybe I should add that the AFDKO ttx comes with its own python, it does not rely on some pre-installed python.

Well, on my mac with Lion, there are three versions of python. If I type python2.5 I get python2.5, if I type python2.6, I get python 2.6. Here is a trace of execution:

% ls /usr/bin/python*
/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/python2.6 /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/pythonw /usr/bin/pythonw2.6
/usr/bin/python-config /usr/bin/python2.5-config /usr/bin/python2.6-config /usr/bin/python2.7-config /usr/bin/pythonw2.5 /usr/bin/pythonw2.7

You are not limited to python2.7 and to use the python fontforge module with a slightly modified mactools installation of fontforge, I have to use python2.6 (works on OS X 10.5 and OS X 10.7; have'nt tried yet on OS X 10.6). I know nothing of fontlab (don't want to pay just to answer questions on typophile).

First, then, do the ls /usr/bin/python* thing. Also, if your machine has /usr/local/, try ls /usr/local/bin/python* in case there is a Python interpreter lurking there.

Assuming you found, say, /usr/bin/python2.5: Say python2.5 ttx foo.ttf to check if it runs to completion. If /usr/bin/python2.6 exists, try again with that.

Then, open the ttx script in a text editor and change the #! /usr/bin/env python (the sha-bang line) at the top to reflect the latest version that works. Save it, and you should be back to NERV's motto.

Hi Göran,

you need to edit one line in the fontTools source:

https://github.com/mcolyer/fonttools/commit/e732bd3ba63c51df9aed903eb214...

After that you need to run sudo ./setup.py install again in the fontTools folder.

You're probably right, somebody should test fontTools thoroughly for stuff like this. As I understand it, it's a 64 bit issue, so the other way to avoid it is by switching Python to 32 bit by default:

defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Prefer-32-Bit -bool yes

Ok well. It worked to *create* the TTX but when going back to the TTF I get this:

Parsing 'GlyphOrder' table...
Parsing 'head' table...
Parsing 'hhea' table...
Parsing 'maxp' table...
Parsing 'OS/2' table...
Parsing 'hmtx' table...
Parsing 'cmap' table...
Parsing 'fpgm' table...
Parsing 'prep' table...
Parsing 'cvt ' table...
Parsing 'loca' table...
Parsing 'glyf' table...
Parsing 'kern' table...
Parsing 'name' table...
Parsing 'post' table...
Parsing 'gasp' table...
Parsing 'GPOS' table...
Parsing 'GSUB' table...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/ttx", line 11, in
ttx.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttx.py", line 295, in main
process(jobs, options)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttx.py", line 280, in process
action(input, output, options)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttx.py", line 186, in ttCompile
ttf.save(output)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/__init__.py", line 201, in save
self._writeTable(tag, writer, done)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/__init__.py", line 597, in _writeTable
tabledata = self.getTableData(tag)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/__init__.py", line 609, in getTableData
return self.tables[tag].compile(self)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otBase.py", line 73, in compile
self.table.compile(writer, font)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otBase.py", line 616, in compile
conv.write(writer, font, tableStack, value)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otConverters.py", line 185, in write
value.compile(subWriter, font, tableStack)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otBase.py", line 604, in compile
conv.write(writer, font, tableStack, value[i], i)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otConverters.py", line 185, in write
value.compile(subWriter, font, tableStack)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otBase.py", line 604, in compile
conv.write(writer, font, tableStack, value[i], i)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otConverters.py", line 185, in write
value.compile(subWriter, font, tableStack)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otBase.py", line 590, in compile
table = self.preWrite(font)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/tables/otTables.py", line 186, in preWrite
gidItems = [(getGlyphID(item[0]), getGlyphID(item[1])) for item in items]
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/FontTools/fontTools/ttLib/__init__.py", line 548, in getGlyphID
raise KeyError, glyphName
KeyError: 'glyph65535'

And it only seem to be happening on some fonts I now realized. Must be something wrong with the font perhaps? It’s a TTF generated from Fontlab 5.1.

That is due to the fact that the python that comes installed on the mac is ucs-2 and not ucs-4. Here is a trace of execution on my mac (python2.5, python2.6 and python2.7 in /usr/bin do the same):

501 % /usr/bin/python -c "import sys; print sys.maxunicode;"
65535
502 % /opt/local/bin/python -c "import sys; print sys.maxunicode;"
1114111
503 %

I installed a ucs-4 python (2.6) with macports to use with fontforge to handle glyphs above 0xFFFF.

>   65535 or 2¹⁶ − 1 is the maximum glyph index in OpenType fonts
Sorry, I had misread your comment. GlyphID is indeed 16 bits.