SVG fallback generated by Google Fonts not working?

[justvanrossum]

I understand that the GF-served version of this font contains an SVG table as a fallback for COLR.

In Safari (macOS 10.15.7, Safari 15.6.1), going to this GF URL shows this:

Whereas Bungee Spice shows this:

At the same time I get the report from @GaetanBaehr that the SVG fallback also doesn't show color in (up-to-date) Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, whereas other SVG-in-OT fonts do.

Posted here by request of @chrissimpkins, Cc @anthrotype

[anthrotype]

I don't know how to reproduce. If I load that URL in Safari 16.2 on macOS 13.1 (the one I currently have available on my local machine) the SVG color glyphs are loading fine. So maybe it is a bug in macOS or Safari that has later been fixed?
I remember we encountered several of such bugs when developing OT-SVG support in nanoemoji:
https://github.com/googlefonts/nanoemoji/issues?q=safari+label%3A%22svg+compat%22

[ArthurTypearture]

I have run this through some other tests and found out some things. Browsers are fine, other uses vary.

• Safari 16.2 works fine with the SVG fallback

• Firefox 109.0 uses the SVG fallback properly

• In Illustrator 27.2 ('23) Nabla uses the (non-color) fallback version. Bungee Spice is even more interesting: It is invisible until outlined (see attached). (Nabla remains black when [outlined).]

• Indesign 18.1 ('23) Showcases Nabla as (non-color) fallback version. Bungee Spice works as intended.

[chrissimpkins]

Can I be of help in passing any information along to Apple or Adobe here? Do we feel that there is an issue in the Nabla family that we should address or is this all related to support out there?

[ArthurTypearture]

I don't think these fault are Nabla centric, but I do find it strange that there is a difference between the Nabla and Bungee Spice fallback in Adobe programs. They were generated the same way , so I would expect similar results (e.g. both visible only upon outline or both non-color fallback).

Also, I note that Bungee Spice in non-COLRv1 mode fallbacks to a masked bitmap, is this correct? The exports from Nabla however are all tidy (except for the missing gradients).

[justvanrossum]

FYI this is still not working.