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jvraeed5692002-05-03 19:10:39 +0000[diff] [blame]4<TITLE>TTX/FontTools</TITLE>
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jvraeed5692002-05-03 19:10:39 +0000[diff] [blame]10<H1>TTX/FontTools</H1>
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]11
jvraeed5692002-05-03 19:10:39 +0000[diff] [blame]12<A HREF="http://fonttools.sourceforge.net/">TTX/FontTools</A> is a
13suite of tools and libraries for manipulating fonts. It is written in
14Python and has a BSD-style, open-source licence -- see LICENSE.txt.
15It's hosted at <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/">sourceforge.net</A>.
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]16
17<P>
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]18It currently reads and writes TrueType font files, reads PostScript Type 1 fonts
19and more. It contains two command line programs to convert TrueType fonts to an
20XML based format (called TTX) and back.
21
22<H3>Scope</H3>
23
jvraeed5692002-05-03 19:10:39 +0000[diff] [blame]24TTX/FontTools' functionality is aimed towards font developers and font tool
25developers. It can of course be used to just access fonts (outlines,
26metrics, etc.) but it is not optimized for that. It will be further
27developed so it can be the core of any font editor. And that's exactly
28what it will be for our upcoming major rewrite of <A
29HREF="http://www.robofog.com/">RoboFog</A>, our (commercial)
30PythonPowered font editor for MacOS.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]31
32<H3>Installation</H3>
33
34You need the following software to use FontTools:
35
36<UL>
37<LI>
jvr8eb99922002-05-02 08:11:37 +0000[diff] [blame]38 <B>Python</B>. The fresh versions as well as older versions (You need 2.0 or higher) can be obtained here:
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]39 <A HREF="http://www.python.org/download/">http://www.python.org/download/</A>
40 or here:
41 <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/python/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/python/</A>
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]42
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]43 <P>Windows: grab the Windows installer, run the full install.
44 <BR>Un*x: follow the build instructions.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]45 <BR>MacOS: grab the installer, run "Easy Install"
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]46<P>
47<LI>
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]48 The <B>Numeric Python</B> extension (you don't need this under MacOS, since it's
49 included in the MacPython installer). Get a fresh version from the download page,
50 linked from here:
51 <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/</A>
52 <P>Windows: grab the "Numeric-*.exe" archive, it's an installer. Make sure the
53 Python version in the archive name (eg. "2.1") matches the Python version you have.
54 <BR>Linux/Un*x: get a source archive and run this command from the unpacked directory:
jvrec8ca4b2002-05-03 19:02:26 +0000[diff] [blame]55 <BR><TT>python setup.py install</TT>
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]56<P>
57<LI>
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]58 <B>PyXML</B>, a set of XML tools:
59 <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyxml/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyxml/</A>
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]60
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]61 <BR>Installation should be very similar to installing Numeric Python, see above.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]62
63</UL>
64
65
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]66Now run the "setup.py" script from the FontTools archive. This will install
67all the modules in the right places, as well as tries to compile the one (optional)
68C extension contained in FontTools. (XXX: need precompiled Mac and Windows binaries,
69*or* a way to skip compilation when there's no compiler available.)
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]70
71<P>Additional Mac instructions:
72De-binhex "TTX.rsrc.hqx" by dropping it onto StuffIt expander. (Or use your
73own preferred method)
74The "TTX.py" script included in this archive is the Mac-only main program:
75Drop it onto the "BuildApplet" app inside the Python folder; this will
76produce the TTX applet.
77
78
79<H3>User documentation</H3>
80
jvrec8ca4b2002-05-03 19:02:26 +0000[diff] [blame]81<P>For Unix and DOS there are three command line programs:
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]82<UL>
jvrec8ca4b2002-05-03 19:02:26 +0000[diff] [blame]83 <LI>ttdump -- dumps a TrueType (or OpenType) font file to TTX format.
84 <LI>ttcompile -- compiles a TTX file back into a TTF (or OTF) file.
85 <LI>ttlist -- lists minimal info about each table in a font.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]86</UL>
jvrec8ca4b2002-05-03 19:02:26 +0000[diff] [blame]87They can all work with multiple input files. There are some extra
88options which are explained by the 'usage' text; use the -h option to
89display it. The setup.py script installs them as global tools, the
90source is in the Tools directory.
91
92<P>For MacOS there's a application called TTX. If you drop a TrueType
93file onto it, it will convert it to XML. If you drop an XML file onto
94it, it will convert it back to TrueType. Please read the additional
95README file in the Mac subdirectory, since it behaves quite differently
96than the command line programs described below.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]97
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]98<P>Adam Twardoch contributed a Windows registry script (ttx_shellext_win32.py) which
99makes the two above tools available under the Right Mouse Button. I haven't tested
100these myself, but I'm very interested in hearing about the results!
101
jvr7de32f22002-05-12 12:48:14 +0000[diff] [blame^]102<H3>A note about glyph names and TrueType GlyphID's</H3>
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]103
104TrueType fonts use glyph indices (GlyphID's) to refer to glyphs in most places.
105While this is fine in binary form, it is really hard to work with for
106humans. Therefore we use names instead.
107
jvr7de32f22002-05-12 12:48:14 +0000[diff] [blame^]108<P>The glyph names are either extracted from the 'CFF ' table or the 'post' table,
109or are derived from a Unicode 'cmap' table. In the latter case the Adobe Glyph List
110is used to calculate names based on Unicode values. If all of these mthods fail,
111names are invented based on GlyphID (eg. "glyph00142").
112
113<P>It is possible that different glyphs use the same name. If this happens,
114we force the names to be unique by appending "#n" to the name (n being an
115integer number). The original names are being kept, so this has no influence
116on a "round tripped" font.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]117
118<P>Because the order in which glyphs are stored inside the TT font is
jvr7de32f22002-05-12 12:48:14 +0000[diff] [blame^]119important, we maintain an ordered list of glyph names in the font.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]120
121<H3>Feedback</H3>
122
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]123Please join the fonttools-discussion mailing list at SourceForge. Subscription
124info can be found if you follow the "Mailing Lists" link at the
125<A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/fonttools/">SourceForge project page</A>.
126You can also email me directly at <A HREF="mailto:just@letterror.com">just@letterror.com</A>.
127
128<P>
129If you want to follow the development of FontTools closely, or would like to
130contribute, you can also subscribe to the fonttools-checkins mailing list.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]131
132<H3>Anonymous CVS-access</H3>
133
jvrf5ccb352001-08-10 08:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]134The FontTools sources are also accessible through CVS, see the
135the <A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/fonttools/">SourceForge project
136page</A>. Let me know if you'd like to become a co-developer.
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]137
138<H3>Developer documentation</H3>
139
140Sorry, documentation beyond doc strings in the source code is still on my to-do list...
141Below follows a brief overview of what's there.
142
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]143<P>
144<H3>The library</H3>
145
146Cross-platform
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]147<UL>
148 <LI>fontTools.t1Lib -- Provides a Type 1 font reader. Writing is a planned feature.
149 <LI>fontTools.ttLib -- Extensive TrueType tools. Reads and writes. This is the flagship
150 of FontTools, it's by far the most mature component. Contains a completely modular
151 TTF table converter architecture. See ttLib/tables/table_API_readme.txt.
152 <LI>fontTools.afmLib -- And AFM file reader/writer.
153 <LI>fontTools.cffLib -- Reads CFF fonts. Writing is a planned feature.
154 <LI>fontTools.unicode -- A simple (but large) module that translates
155 Unicode values to their descriptive names. Still Unicode 2.0.
156 <LI>fontTools.agl -- Interface to the Adobe Glyph List: maps unicode values
157 to glyph names and back.
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]158</UL>
159
160Mac-specific
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]161<UL>
162 <LI>fontTools.fondLib -- A reader/writer class for Mac FOND resources.
163 <LI>fontTools.nfntLib -- Reads Mac NFNT bitmap font resources.
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]164</UL>
165
Juste5ad9c92000-03-15 20:56:20 +0000[diff] [blame]166<H3>Thank-you's</H3>
167
168(in alphabetical order)
169Erik van Blokland, Petr van Blokland, Jelle Bosma, Vincent Connare,
170Simon Daniels, Hannes Famira, Greg Hitchcock, Jack Jansen, Antoine Leca,
171Werner Lemberg, Peter Lofting, Dave Opstad, Laurence Penney,
172Guido van Rossum, Adam Twardoch.
173
174<H3>Copyrights</H3>
175
jvrec8ca4b2002-05-03 19:02:26 +0000[diff] [blame]176FontTools/TTX -- 1999-2002 Just van Rossum; Letterror (just@letterror.com)
Just4977da41999-12-18 18:18:09 +0000[diff] [blame]177
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