d9e83d6348
as recommended by @davelab6 in https://github.com/behdad/fonttools/pull/366#issuecomment-139270612
168 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
168 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
[](https://travis-ci.org/behdad/fonttools)
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[](https://landscape.io/github/behdad/fonttools/master)
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[](https://coveralls.io/r/behdad/fonttools)
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### What is this?
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fontTools is a library for manipulating fonts, written in Python.
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The project includes the TTX tool, that can convert TrueType and OpenType fonts to and from an XML text format, which is also called TTX.
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It supports TrueType, OpenType, AFM and to an extent Type 1 and some Mac-specific formats.
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The project has a [BSD-style open-source licence](LICENSE.txt).
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Among other things this means you can use it free of charge.
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### Installation
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To download and install fontools on your system, run the following commands:
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FontTools requires Python 2.7, or Python 3.3 or later.
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```sh
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git clone https://github.com/behdad/fonttools.git ;
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cd fonttools ;
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python setup.py install ;
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```
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Full build and installation instructions are in [Doc/install.txt](https://github.com/behdad/fonttools/blob/master/Doc/install.txt)
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### TTX – From OpenType and TrueType to XML and Back
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Once installed you can use the `ttx` command to convert binary font files (`.otf`, `.ttf`, etc) to the TTX xml format, edit them, and convert them back to binary format.
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TTX files have a .ttx file extension.
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```sh
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ttx /path/to/font.otf ;
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ttx /path/to/font.ttx ;
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```
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The TTX application works can be used in two ways, depending on what platform you run it on:
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* As a command line tool (Windows/DOS, Unix, MacOSX)
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* By dropping files onto the application (Windows, MacOS)
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TTX detects what kind of files it is fed: it will output a `.ttx` file when it sees a `.ttf` or `.otf`, and it will compile a `.ttf` or `.otf` when the input file is a `.ttx` file.
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By default, the output file is created in the same folder as the input file, and will have the same name as the input file but with a different extension.
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TTX will _never_ overwrite existing files, but if necessary will append a unique number to the output filename (before the extension) such as `Arial#1.ttf`
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When using TTX from the command line there are a bunch of extra options, these are explained in the help text, as displayed when typing `ttx -h` at the command prompt.
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These additional options include:
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* specifying the folder where the output files are created
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* specifying which tables to dump or which tables to exclude
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* merging partial `.ttx` files with existing `.ttf` or `.otf` files
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* listing brief table info instead of dumping to `.ttx`
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* splitting tables to separate `.ttx` files
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* disabling TrueType instruction disassembly
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### The TTX file format
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The following tables are currently supported:
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BASE, CBDT, CBLC, CFF, COLR, CPAL, DSIG, EBDT, EBLC, FFTM, GDEF,
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GMAP, GPKG, GPOS, GSUB, JSTF, LTSH, MATH, META, OS/2, SING, SVG,
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TSI0, TSI1, TSI2, TSI3, TSI5, TSIB, TSID, TSIJ, TSIP, TSIS, TSIV,
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VDMX, VORG, avar, cmap, cvt, feat, fpgm, fvar, gasp, glyf, gvar,
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hdmx, head, hhea, hmtx, kern, loca, ltag, maxp, meta, name, post,
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prep, sbix, vhea, vmtx
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Other tables are dumped as hexadecimal data.
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TrueType fonts use glyph indices (GlyphIDs) to refer to glyphs in most places.
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While this is fine in binary form, it is really hard to work with for humans.
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Therefore we use names instead.
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The glyph names are either extracted from the `CFF ` table or the `post` table, or are derived from a Unicode `cmap` table.
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In the latter case the Adobe Glyph List is used to calculate names based on Unicode values.
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If all of these methods fail, names are invented based on GlyphID (eg `glyph00142`)
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It is possible that different glyphs use the same name.
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If this happens, we force the names to be unique by appending `#n` to the name (`n` being an integer number.)
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The original names are being kept, so this has no influence on a "round tripped" font.
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Because the order in which glyphs are stored inside the binary font is important, we maintain an ordered list of glyph names in the font.
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### Development and feedback
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TTX/FontTools development is ongoing, with an active community of developers including professional developers employed at major software corporations and type foundries as well as hobbyists.
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Feature requests and bug reports are always welcome at <https://github.com/behdad/fonttools/issues/>
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The best place for discussions about TTX from an end-user perspective as well as TTX/FontTools development is the <https://groups.google.com/d/forum/fonttools> mailing list.
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You can also email Behdad privately at <behdad@behdad.org>
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### History
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The fontTools project was started by Just van Rossum in 1999, and was maintained as an open source project at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fonttools/>.
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In 2008, Paul Wise (pabs3) began helping Just with stability maintenance.
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In 2013 Behdad Esfahbod began a friendly fork, thoroughly reviewing the codebase and making changes at <https://github.com/behdad/fonttools> to add new features and support for new font formats.
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### Credits
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Windows setup script: Adam Twardoch
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Icon: Hannes Famira
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### Acknowledgements
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In alphabetical order:
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Olivier Berten,
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Samyak Bhuta,
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Erik van Blokland,
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Petr van Blokland,
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Jelle Bosma,
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Sascha Brawer,
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Tom Byrer,
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Frédéric Coiffier,
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Vincent Connare,
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Dave Crossland,
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Simon Daniels,
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Behdad Esfahbod,
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Behnam Esfahbod,
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Hannes Famira,
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Sam Fishman,
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Matt Fontaine,
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Yannis Haralambous,
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Greg Hitchcock,
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Jeremie Hornus,
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Khaled Hosny,
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John Hudson,
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Denis Jacquerye,
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Jack Jansen,
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Tom Kacvinsky,
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Jens Kutilek,
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Antoine Leca,
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Werner Lemberg,
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Tal Leming,
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Peter Lofting,
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Cosimo Lupo,
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Project Mashabow,
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Dave Opstad,
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Laurence Penney,
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Roozbeh Pournader,
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Garret Rieger,
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Read Roberts,
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Guido van Rossum,
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Just van Rossum,
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Andreas Seidel,
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Georg Seifert,
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Miguel Sousa,
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Adam Twardoch,
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Adrien Tétar,
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Vitaly Volkov,
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Paul Wise.
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### Copyrights
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Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Just van Rossum, LettError (just@letterror.com)
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See [LICENSE.txt](LICENSE.txt) for the full license.
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Copyright (c) 2000 BeOpen.com.
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All Rights Reserved.
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Copyright (c) 1995-2001 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
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All Rights Reserved.
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Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam.
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All Rights Reserved.
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Have fun!
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