kern feature disabled but pairs present
Audit code: feature-kern-disabled-with-pairs
Definition
The kern feature is disabled in project.features.kern but kerning pairs exist in project.kerning. The pairs ship in the OTF dead — they're emitted into the file but the off flag tells renderers to skip them. Either enable kern on the Features tab (the typical case once pairs are set) or delete the pair data.
How Patens surfaces this
The Patens audit module checks for feature-kern-disabled-with-pairs across five teaching surfaces: the edit-panel inline issue list, the
project-wide audit page, the release pre-flight check, the family hub,
and the home-page project tile. Every surface shows the same plain-English
explanation and links back to this page. This rule is detection-only — there's no automatic fix because the
correction is design-dependent (it requires a judgment call about the
glyph's intended shape or the font's intended behaviour). The audit
message links to the specific glyph or field that needs attention.
Run this check yourself
Patens runs every audit rule live as you draw — including this one.
The editor (in private alpha) shows feature-kern-disabled-with-pairs firing on real
glyphs, or check your own work from the CLI:
npx patens audit your-project.font.jsonCanonical references
Primary literature where this rule is established or explained. Drawn from the open-licensed corpus — browse the full 42-source canonical library or read the research artifact.
- Adobe OpenType Feature File Specification ↗
Adobe Type Tools · 2005 · Adobe Systems· § feature kern
When kerning pairs exist but the kern feature is disabled, the kerning is silently ignored — a common cause of "my font lost its kerning" bugs.