Can't merge Helvetica Neue with Noto Emoji

I need to draw text with Imagemagick, but because it doesn’t have proper emoji support, I need to create a merged font consisting of Noto’s monochrome emoji and Helvetica Neue’s everything else. I thought fonttools merge helvetica.ttf notoemoji.ttf would do the trick, but alas:

~/fonts$ fonttools merge HelveticaNeue-Regular.ttf NotoEmoji-Regular.ttf
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/fonttools", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('fonttools==3.29.0', 'console_scripts', 'fonttools')()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/__main__.py", line 29, in main
    runpy.run_module(mod, run_name='__main__')
  File "/usr/local/opt/python@2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 192, in run_module
    fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "/usr/local/opt/python@2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code
    exec code in run_globals
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 1129, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/misc/loggingTools.py", line 372, in wrapper
    return func(*args, **kwds)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 1122, in main
    font = merger.merge(args)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 962, in merge
    table = clazz(tag).merge(self, tables)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 160, in merge
    return m.mergeObjects(self, self.mergeMap, tables)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 1008, in mergeObjects
    value = mergeLogic(getattr(table, key, NotImplemented) for table in tables)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/fonttools/3.29.0/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontTools/merge.py", line 49, in equal
    assert all(item == first for item in t), "Expected all items to be equal: %s" % lst
AssertionError: Expected all items to be equal: [1000, 2048]

I just installed fonttools 3.29.0 on my Mac via homebrew. Help would be appreciated.

[SamusAranX]

it can’t be done without writing code

That’s what I feared. Thanks for clearing that up though.

Does the EULA for your version Helvetica Neue grant you permission to make modifications?

I honestly have no idea. I extracted my ttf from the version of HelveticaNeue.ttc that comes with macOS High Sierra. But since I’m neither redistributing nor selling it, who could possibly care?

[khaledmsm]

did you find solution ?