Quality assurance of fonts is a constant requirement for font publishers and every foundry has their own set of tools to ensure that the fonts they publish are in a good condition. However, individual tools are often used, Font Bakery runs checks on TrueType files that are meant to be published at Google Fonts. I was commissioned in 2017 to rewrite it into a modern, modular architecture. My new design takes into account the fact that the software is available under a libre license, and encourages sharing of generally useful checks (eg for the latest OpenType format specifications) while also allowing for foundry/private/custom specifications. The talk will introduce Font Bakery, and unpack the opportunity for foundries to collaborate on technical font quality assurance, and take a peek into the future of font production tooling and publishing workflows.
