Ubuntu Manpage: fontforge - create, modify, and view font files

Provided by: fontforge-common_20230101~dfsg-4_all

NAME

       fontforge - create, modify, and view font files

SYNOPSIS

       fontforge   [-allglyphs]   [-c string]   [-cmap maptype]   [-depth pixeld]  [-display str]
       [-lang=ff]  [-lang=py]  [-help]  [-keyboard ktype]  [-last]  [-new]  [-nosplash]  [-quiet]
       [-recover mode]  [-script file]  [-skippyfile]  [-skippyplug]  [-sync]  [-unique] [-usage]
       [-vc class] [-version] [fontfile ...]

DESCRIPTION

       FontForge will read PostScript (pfa, pfb, ps, cid), OpenType (otf), TrueType  (ttf,  ttc),
       Macintosh resource fonts (dfont, bin, hqx), Scaled Vector Graphics (svg), TeX bitmap (pk),
       Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format (bdf), and X11 bitmap (pcf) fonts.   Font  files  may  be
       compressed  with  gzip  (for  example,  myfont.pcf.gz).   FontForge will also read its own
       format: Spline Font Database (sfd) files.

       If the argument list contains a font file name (or several), fontforge  opens  a  fontview
       window for each font displaying the characters of that font.  In the absence of options or
       arguments, the program opens a file-picker window, allowing you to  browse  your  disk  to
       find a font file, or create a new one.

       This manual page is intended only as a rudimentary overview; see the HTML Users Manual for
       more complete information.

       If no fontfiles are specified, and neither is -new, and there is nothing to recover,  then
       FontForge will produce an open font dialogue box.

       If  a  scriptfile  is  specified  then  FontForge will not open the X display, nor will it
       process any additional arguments. It will execute the scriptfile and give it any remaining
       arguments

       If  the  first  argument  is  an  executable filename, and that file's first line contains
       "fontforge", then it will be treated as a scriptfile.

OPTIONS

-new Creates a new font.

-last Loads the last sfd file closed.

-recover none|auto|inquire|clean
Control error recovery. none suppresses crash revcovery. auto performs
automatic recover if the program crashed before saving changes; this is the
default. inquire asks what to do with auto-saved crash recovery files. clean
deletes recovery information.

-allglyphs Load all glyphs in the 'glyf' table. of a TrueType collection.

-nosplash Suppress display of the splash screen.

-quiet Don't print non-essential information to stderr.

-unique If a copy of fontforge is already running, open all arguments in it and have
this process exit.

-display display-name
Employ the X display specified by the string display-name (for example:
localhost:0).

-depth pixeld
Attempt to employ a visual that matches the specified pixel depth, pixeld.

-vc val Sets the visual class if possible.

-cmap current|copy|private
Sets the type of color map. current attempts to allocate colors int he
current (shared) color map. The program will likely not find everything it
requires. copy allocates what can be allocated, then copies the current color
map; it can thus make use of cells other programs are using. private creates
a new color map and fills it with the required colors.

-dontopenxdevices
In case that fails.

-sync Syncs the display, debugging.

-keyboard ibm|mac|sun|ppc
Generates appropriate hotkeys in menus. Use ibm on an IBM-compatible PC. Use
mac on a Mac computer running Mac OS. Use sun on a Sun workstation. Use ppc
on Power PC Mac running SUSE GNU/Linux.

-usecairo=yes|no
Use (or not) the cairo library for drawing.

-help Displays a help message and exits.

-docs Displays help file output and then invokes a browser using the BROWSER
environment variable.

-version Prints the version of fontforge and exits.

-lang=py Use Python for scripts (may precede -script).

-lang=ff Use fontforge's legacy scripting language.

-script scriptfile
Executes scriptfile. Must be the first option (or follow -lang). All other
arguments are passed to scriptfile. Execute the script named file. Does not
open the X display. This must be the first argument passed to FontForge. Any
other arguments are handled by the script file itself. Any other command line
arguments will be passed to the script. The program contains a command
interpreter, which allows access to most but not all of its interactive
features. If a script file is executable, and if its first line contains the
string "fontforge", then the argument -script may be omitted. This means that
FontForge can be used as an interpreter.

-dry scriptfile
Syntax checks scriptfile (dry run). Must be the first option. All other
arguments are passed to scriptfile. This option can only be used with
fontforge's own scripting language, not with Python.

-c script-string
Executes argument as scripting commands. Must be the first option. All other
arguments are passed to the script.

-skippyfile Do not execute Python init scripts when initializing.

-skippyplug Do not load (enabled) Python plugins when initializing.

EXAMPLE

       Sample usage:

              fontforge myfont.ttf &

ENVIRONMENT

       BROWSER
              Specifies the name of a browser program for examining online documentation.

       AUTOTRACE
              Specifies the location of the autotrace program.  Usually FontForge can figure this
              out without help, but not always.

       MF     Specifies the location of the metafont program.

       FONTFORGE_VERBOSE
              Turns on verbose mode in scripting.  Each statement is printed as it is executed.

FILES

       ~/.FontForge/autosave
              Crash recovery directory.

       /usr/share/fontforge/*.ui
              Translations for user interfaces.

       /usr/share/fontforge/doc/*.html
              Optional location for online documentation.

       /usr/share/fontforge/*.cidmap
              "Encoding"       files       for       Adobe's       cid       formats,        from
              http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/cidmaps.tgz.

NOTE

       FontForge used to be called PfaEdit.

AUTHORS

       FontForge is Copyright © 2000–2014 by George Williams, and is currently maintained by  the
       FontForge development team.  See /usr/share/doc/fontforge/AUTHORS for a comprehensive list
       of contributors.

LICENSE

       FontForge   is   licensed    under    GPLv3+:    GNU    GPL    version    3    or    later
       (http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)   with   many   parts   covered   by   a   BSD  license
       (http://fontforge.org/license.html).   Please  read  the  LICENSE  file  included  in  the
       FontForge           distribution           for           details,          or          see
       https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/blob/master/LICENSE.

       FontForge   is   available   as   a   whole   under   the   terms   of   the    GNU    GPL
       (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html),  version  3 or any later version.  However, almost
       all   of   its    parts    are    available    under    the    "revised    BSD    license"
       (http://www.law.yi.org/~sfllaw/talks/bsd.pdf)  because  FontForge  was  mostly  written by
       George Williams, using that license.

       The Revised BSD License is very permissive, and allows for code to be combined with  other
       code under other licenses.

       There  are many useful libraries available under copyleft libre licenses, such as the LGPL
       and GPL, which FontForge started to use in 2012.

       For example, Pango and Cairo are available under the LGPL.

       Some features added since 2012 are licensed  by  their  individual  developers  under  the
       GPLv3.

BUGS

       See the FontForge Github Issue Tracker, at https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/.

                                           2017 Jun 18                               FONTFORGE(1)