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FontUtils

Toolkit for font developers

Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, Alan Ward, David Raymond, 2016-09-08

Introduction

SIL FontUtils collection provides command line tools for manipulating TrueType fonts. These tools are cross-platform and work on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Written in pure Perl, the source modules (Font::TTF::Scripts and the supporting library package Font::TTF) have been available for a number of years and are an essential tool of NRSI's font development processes. For Perl users the most up-to-date sources can be retrieved from our Subversion repositories.

These scripts are also packaged as standalone Windows executables, making them usable by those who do not have Perl.

The utilities

Utilities arranged by category

Obsolete or outdated utilities

A number of utilities formerly installed with this package have been obsoleted by alternative tools or deemed to be low usage and so are no longer installed as executables by the standard installers (binary or source). However, the source bundle includes all of these in the Examples folder.

Obsolete / outdated utilities

Usage

All of the tools are commandline, so you will typically launch them by typing the command name and parameters into a CMD window.

Most tools provides their own "usage" message explaining the parameters. To get the usage message, execute the command with no parameters. For example:

C:>ttfname
Usage:
      ttfname [-f "full_name"] -n "name" [-t num] [-q] infile.ttf outfile.ttf
    Renames the TTF with the given name and outputs the newly named font to out.ttf.

Options:
      -f "name"   specifies new full name (optional) as opposed to the
                  default calculated form.
      -l lang     language number to use (default all langs)
                  if specified name entries will be added for all platforms and
                      encodings covered by the cmap if not already there
      -n "name"   specifies new font family name (not optional)
      -p          Don't update postscript font name
      -q          disable signon message
      -r num      Removes all strings of the given id
      -s filename overrides -n and gets string from file. Useful for -t
      -t num      overrides the normal naming areas to change another
                  string -f becomes inactive. Use -l as well to create entry.
      -w "name"   overrides subfamily in the font (think weight). So a full name
                  may be made from -n and -w together.

Note also that many of the commands now support a -h option for more complete help.

Download and Installation

Windows binary installer

The installer should be downloaded to a temporary folder and then launched. This will install the package. By default the installer adds the installation folder to your PATH.

As an alternate installation: turn off the option to modify your PATH variable during installation. When the installer has finished, copy all the .BAT files from the install directory (typically C:/Program Files/SIL/FontUtils to a folder that is already on your PATH.

FontUtils 1.06 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2016-09-08 Download "TTFontUtils_1_06_02.exe", Windows application, 4MB [4764 downloads]

Older versions

FontUtils 1.05 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2015-01-26 Download "TTFontUtils_1_05.exe", Windows application, 3MB [3131 downloads]

FontUtils 1.04.1 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2014-01-14 Download "TTFontUtils_1_04_1.exe", Windows application, 3MB [3276 downloads]

FontUtils 1.00 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2012-08-29 Download "TTFontUtils_1_00.exe", Windows application, 3MB [3964 downloads]

FontUtils 0.13 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2009-04-09 Download "TTFontUtils_0_13.exe", Windows application, 2MB [3979 downloads]

FontUtils 0.11 Installer Martin Hosken, Bob Hallissy, 2008-06-11 Download "TTFontUtils_0_11.exe", Windows application, 2MB [3557 downloads]

FontUtils 0.10 Installer Martin Hosken, 2007-11-16 Download "TTFontUtils_0_10.exe", Windows application, 2MB [4330 downloads]

Perl source

Perl 5.8 or newer is required.

These two packages are available in several ways:

CPAN source

Snapshots of the source packages are available on  CPAN. The links for the latest such snapshot are  Font-TTF and  Font-TTF-Scripts. Two dependencies you will also need are  Text-PDF and  Text-Unicode-Equivalents

Public GitHub Repository

You may browse or obtain updated sources directly from our public  GitHub repository. From this repository you will need four packages:

•  Font::TTF::Scripts the Perl font utility programs
•  Font::TTF the TTF Perl library
•  Text::PDF required PDF support library
•  Text::Unicode::Equivalents required Unicode support library

Perl module installation

Once you have an appropriate make program, the easiest way to get and obtain the modules is using the cpan program that is likely to be part of your Perl installation. Simply execute:

cpan -i Font::TTF
cpan -i Font::TTF::Scripts

If you don't have cpan, or it doesn't work, download and unpack the source archives from the links above. Then, first for library modules (Font:TTF, Text:PDF, Text:Unicode:Equivalents) and finally for Font:TTF:Scripts, locate the folder containing the file Makefile.pl. From a command prompt in that folder, give the standard Perl module install incantation of:

perl Makefile.pl
make
make test
make install

(substituting dmake for make if on Windows).

Changes

Both of the two constituent source packages contain a Changes file that identify the changes made in recent revisions. To view these files directly with a web browser click  Font:TTF Changes and  Font:TTF:Scripts Changes.

Summary of significant changes in FontUtils v 1.06

Bug fixes and/or new capabilities:

• make_gdl
  • new options: -o, --package, --classwarn
  • improved attachment processing
  • doesn't crash if the matching "moving APs" (e.g., "_above") don't exist.
  • removed non-functioning -d option; use --autodefines instead
• make_fea
  • new options: --markattach, --preinclude, --package, --classwarn
  • many bugfixes and improvements in generated code
• make volt — new options: --package, --classwarn
• ttftable — new option: -s
• ttfname — -t 0 now works
• ttfsubset — fix graphite generation
• fret
  • now handles glyphs that reference empty glyphs
  • better PDF generation for embedded fonts
• dumpfont
  • new option: -d
  • now supports dumping woff metadata

General bug fixes include:

• Mark-to-ligature and extension lookup processing
• Silf table processing
• Documentation corrections

Support

A public mailing list is available for users and developers of the Font::TTF and Font::TTF::Scripts packages. Visit  the Font-TTF list to view the content online or to subscribe with your GoogleGroups login. If you don't have a GoogleGroups login, simply send a subscription request to Font-TTFgooglegroups.com.

Please recognize, however, that the existence of this group does not change the fact these utilities and libraries are essentially unsupported. If you find and report a bug, we'll try to find time to fix it. If you find a bug and suggest a patch, we'll get around to reviewing the suggestion as soon as we can. But no guarantees on time-frames.

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