| TTX/FontTools |
| |
| TTX/FontTools is a suite of tools for manipulating fonts. It is written in |
| Python and has a BSD-style, open-source licence -- see LICENSE.txt. |
| It's hosted at http://sourceforge.net/. |
| |
| The flagship is TTX, a tool to convert OpenType and TrueType font files to |
| an XML-based format (also called TTX), and back. This lets you edit TTF or |
| OTF files with any text editor. |
| |
| The FontTools library currently reads and writes TrueType font files, reads |
| PostScript Type 1 fonts and more. |
| |
| |
| Scope |
| |
| TTX/FontTools' functionality is aimed towards font developers and font tool |
| developers. It can of course be used to just access fonts (outlines, |
| metrics, etc.) but it is not optimized for that. It will be further |
| developed so it can be the core of any font editor. And that's exactly |
| what it will be for our upcoming major rewrite of RoboFog, our (commercial) |
| PythonPowered font editor for MacOS. |
| |
| |
| Installation |
| |
| For Windows and MacOS there are easy-to-use TTX installers. The rest if this |
| document is meant for people who want to use TTX/FontTools from the source. |
| |
| You need the following software: |
| |
| Python |
| The fresh versions as well as older versions (You need 2.0 or higher) |
| can be downloaded from |
| http://www.python.org/download/ |
| or here |
| http://sourceforge.net/projects/python/ |
| |
| Windows: grab the Windows installer, run the full install. |
| Un*x: follow the build instructions. |
| MacOS: grab the installer, run "Easy Install" |
| |
| The numpy extension |
| See http://numpy.scipy.org/ |
| |
| Now run the "setup.py" script from the FontTools archive. This will install |
| all the modules in the right places, as well as tries to compile the one |
| (optional) C extension contained in FontTools. On Unix it also installs the |
| "ttx" command line tool. This tool can also be used on Windows, but might |
| need some fiddling. |
| |
| For instructions how to build a standalone Windows installer, see |
| Windows/README.TXT. Thanks a LOT to Adam Twardoch for this essential |
| contribution. |
| |
| For TTX usage instructions, see the file "documentation.html". |
| |
| |
| Feedback |
| |
| Please join the fonttools-discussion mailing list at SourceForge. Subscription |
| info can be found if you follow the "Mailing Lists" link at the SourceForge |
| project page: |
| http://sourceforge.net/projects/fonttools/ |
| You can also email me directly at just@letterror.com. |
| |
| If you want to follow the development of FontTools closely, or would like to |
| contribute, you can also subscribe to the fonttools-checkins mailing list. |
| |
| |
| Anonymous VCS access |
| |
| The FontTools sources are also accessible here: |
| http://sourceforge.net/projects/fonttools/ |
| Let me know if you'd like to become a co-developer. |
| |
| |
| Developer documentation |
| |
| Sorry, documentation beyond doc strings in the source code is still on my to-do list... |
| Below follows a brief overview of what's there. |
| |
| |
| The library |
| |
| Cross-platform |
| fontTools.t1Lib -- Provides a Type 1 font reader. Writing is a planned feature. |
| fontTools.ttLib -- Extensive TrueType tools. Reads and writes. This is the flagship |
| of FontTools, it's by far the most mature component. Contains a completely modular |
| TTF table converter architecture. See ttLib/tables/table_API_readme.txt. |
| fontTools.afmLib -- And AFM file reader/writer. |
| fontTools.cffLib -- Reads CFF fonts. Writing is a planned feature. |
| fontTools.unicode -- A simple (but large) module that translates |
| Unicode values to their descriptive names. Still Unicode 2.0. |
| fontTools.agl -- Interface to the Adobe Glyph List: maps unicode values |
| to glyph names and back. |
| |
| Mac-specific |
| fontTools.fondLib -- A reader/writer class for Mac FOND resources. |
| fontTools.nfntLib -- Reads Mac NFNT bitmap font resources. |
| |
| |
| Thank-you's |
| |
| (in alphabetical order) |
| Erik van Blokland, Petr van Blokland, Jelle Bosma, Vincent Connare, |
| Simon Daniels, Hannes Famira, Greg Hitchcock, John Hudson, Jack Jansen, |
| Antoine Leca, Werner Lemberg, Peter Lofting, Dave Opstad, Laurence Penney, |
| Guido van Rossum, Adam Twardoch. |
| |
| Copyrights |
| |
| FontTools/TTX -- 1999-2002 Just van Rossum; Letterror (just@letterror.com) |
| See LICENCE.txt for the full license. |