Doc/ttx.1

.Dd May 18, 2004
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.Dt TTX 1 "FontTools Manual"
.Sh NAME
.Nm ttx
.Nd tool for manipulating TrueType and OpenType fonts
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Bk
.Op Ar option ...
.Ek
.Bk
.Ar file ...
.Ek
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a tool for manipulating TrueType and OpenType fonts.  It can convert
TrueType and OpenType fonts to and from an
.Tn XML Ns -based format called
.Tn TTX .
.Tn TTX
files have a
.Ql .ttx
extension.
.Pp
For each
.Ar file
argument it is given,
.Nm
detects whether it is a
.Ql .ttf ,
.Ql .otf
or
.Ql .ttx
file and acts accordingly: if it is a
.Ql .ttf
or
.Ql .otf
file, it generates a
.Ql .ttx
file; if it is a
.Ql .ttx
file, it generates a
.Ql .ttf
or
.Ql .otf
file.
.Pp
By default, every output file is created in the same directory as the
corresponding input file and with the same name except for the
extension, which is substituted appropriately.
.Nm
never overwrites existing files; if neccesary, it appends a suffix to
the output file name before the extension, as in
.Pa Arial#1.ttf .
.Ss "General options"
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl t Ar table"
.It Fl h
Display usage information.
.It Fl d Ar dir
Write the output files to directory
.Ar dir
instead of writing every output file to the same directory as the
corresponding input file.
.It Fl v
Be verbose.  Write more messages to the standard output describing what
is being done.
.It Fl a
Allow virtual glyphs ID's on compile or decompile.
.El
.Ss "Dump options"
The following options control the process of dumping font files
(TrueType or OpenType) to
.Tn TTX
files.
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl t Ar table"
.It Fl l
List table information.  Instead of dumping the font to a
.Tn TTX
file, display minimal information about each table.
.It Fl t Ar table
Dump table
.Ar table .
This option may be given multiple times to dump several tables at
once.  When not specified, all tables are dumped.
.It Fl x Ar table
Exclude table
.Ar table
from the list of tables to dump.  This option may be given multiple
times to exclude several tables from the dump.  The
.Fl t
and
.Fl x
options are mutually exclusive.
.It Fl s
Split tables.  Dump each table to a separate
.Tn TTX
file and write (under the name that would have been used for the output
file if the
.Fl s
option had not been given) one small
.Tn TTX
file containing references to the individual table dump files.  This
file can be used as input to
.Nm
as long as the referenced files can be found in the same directory.
.It Fl i
.\" XXX: I suppose OpenType programs (exist and) are also affected.
Don't disassemble TrueType instructions.  When this option is specified,
all TrueType programs (glyph programs, the font program and the
pre-program) are written to the
.Tn TTX
file as hexadecimal data instead of
assembly.  This saves some time and results in smaller
.Tn TTX
files.
.It Fl e
Don't ignore decompilation errors, but show a full traceback and abort.
.El
.Ss "Compilation options"
The following options control the process of compiling
.Tn TTX
files into font files (TrueType or OpenType):
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl t Ar table"
.It Fl m Ar fontfile
Merge the input
.Tn TTX
file
.Ar file
with
.Ar fontfile .
No more than one
.Ar file
argument can be specified when this option is used.
.It Fl b
Don't recalculate glyph bounding boxes.  Use the values in the
.Tn TTX
file as is.
.El
.Sh "THE TTX FILE FORMAT"
You can find some information about the
.Tn TTX
file format in
.Pa documentation.html .
In particular, you will find in that file the list of tables understood by
.Nm
and the relations between TrueType GlyphIDs and the glyph names used in
.Tn TTX
files.
.Sh EXAMPLES
In the following examples, all files are read from and written to the
current directory.  Additionally, the name given for the output file
assumes in every case that it did not exist before
.Nm
was invoked.
.Pp
Dump the TrueType font contained in
.Pa FreeSans.ttf
to
.Pa FreeSans.ttx :
.Pp
.Dl ttx FreeSans.ttf
.Pp
Compile
.Pa MyFont.ttx
into a TrueType or OpenType font file:
.Pp
.Dl ttx MyFont.ttx
.Pp
List the tables in
.Pa FreeSans.ttf
along with some information:
.Pp
.Dl ttx -l FreeSans.ttf
.Pp
Dump the
.Sq cmap
table from
.Pa FreeSans.ttf
to
.Pa FreeSans.ttx :
.Pp
.Dl ttx -t cmap FreeSans.ttf
.Sh NOTES
On MS\-Windows and MacOS,
.Nm
is available as a graphical application to which files can be dropped.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Pa documentation.html
.Pp
.Xr fontforge 1 ,
.Xr ftinfo 1 ,
.Xr gfontview 1 ,
.Xr xmbdfed 1 ,
.Xr Font::TTF 3pm
.Sh AUTHORS
.Nm
was written by
.An -nosplit
.An "Just van Rossum" Aq just@letterror.com .
.Pp
This manual page was written by
.An "Florent Rougon" Aq f.rougon@free.fr
for the Debian GNU/Linux system based on the existing FontTools
documentation.  It may be freely used, modified and distributed without
restrictions.
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