Andika compact fonts

Someone asked to install Andika compact on a new computer. I looked just now and did not see Andika compact on the Andika download page. Is Andika compact now replaced by Andika NewBasic?

It looks like we aren’t actively promoting the use anymore. You can look under “previous versions” to see the Compact packages for previous versions.

You can also download the current version through TypeTuner. This link will automatically download it:

https://scripts.sil.org/ttw/fonts2go.cgi?family=Andika&pkg=Compact

Andika Compact has a different, closer linespacing and also a much more extensive character inventory than Andika New Basic (ANB).

Just below the download links for ANB on the Andika Downloads page there are links to Subsets and Modified Versions; Andika Compact is among the Modified Versions. These are were modified from the current version, 6.2. Also, as Lorna pointed out, you can download a current version using TypeTuner.

I’m a heavy “user” of SIL software so I might not have the best perspective on fonts. But I quit using Andika Compact and other TypeTuned variant fonts a while ago because one can “fairly easily” fine-tune line spacing, alternate character forms (glyphs), etc, in modern production software (Bloom, InDesign, PTX Print, LibreOffice, MS Office, etc).

It makes sense in our projects’ workflow to use standard fonts where possible rather than needing to install customized fonts on multiple devices. I think even Andika New Basic is less preferred than “normal” Andika, which contains the full character set as well as discrete Italic, Bold and Bold Italic versions that work better than A.New Basic in publishing software.

Please correct me or add to what I’ve described here! Also, I’m not sure how the App Builders handle these issues.

Kim

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Yes, I agree that for publishing and design the standard Andika fonts are perfectly adequate, since from v6 they now how bold and italic and bolditalic faces, which was the chief advantage of New Basic for about 10 years until the team completed everything for Andika.

Notably one can’t adjust line spacing in Paratext itself, though the interlinear CSS is modifiable, so if you don’t like wasting vertical space there the Compact versions can be helpful. Similarly for use of space in FieldWorks list/table views.

Are you able to access both character variant (cv) and stylistic set (ss) user selectable font features in both InDesign and MS Office? I was under the impression that in those two applications only one type of user selectable font features were available (that is, the applications allowed setting either cvXX or ssXX features, but not both).

In Paratext I thought user selectable font features were only available for features in Graphite enabled fonts, now that Andika (and Charis and Gentium Plus) no longer have Graphite, are you able to access the user selectable font features using these fonts in Paratext?

Hi Bobby,

Quick answer because I have a meeting all day.

I use Linux tools, currently PTXPrint and LibreOffice. All the variant sets are easily user selectable in both of these (except I preferred the Graphite descriptive names over “cv-43”). In Bloom you have to edit the style sheets, and there’s no auto carryover into a new book Collection, but it’s doable with help, if people need it. So I’d forgotten that InD. and MS have more limited availability.

Since we don’t ever print directly from Paratext now that PTXPrint is here I keep forgetting to ask the PT team about this. We can live with “primer a” and “small glottal” on our PT screens as long as we can set the alternates as default in PTXPrint.

So maybe I was too glib in saying that modern software is adequate. I would definitely be unhappy if I could not access both cv and ss sets at the same time!

Thanks for broadening my perspective!

Blessings, Kim