1FONTFORGE(1)                General Commands Manual               FONTFORGE(1)
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NAME

6       fontforge - create, modify, and view font files
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SYNOPSIS

9       fontforge  [-c string]  [-cmap maptype]  [-depth pixeld] [-display str]
10       [-lang=ff]  [-lang=py]  [-library-status]   [-help]   [-keyboard ktype]
11       [-new]  [-nosplash]  [-recover mode]  [-script file]  [-sync]  [-usage]
12       [-vc class] [-version] [fontfile ...]
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DESCRIPTION

15       FontForge will read PostScript (pfa, pfb,  ps,  cid),  OpenType  (otf),
16       TrueType (ttf, ttc), Macintosh resource fonts (dfont, bin, hqx), Scaled
17       Vector Graphics (svg), TeX bitmap (pk), Glyph Bitmap Distribution  For‐
18       mat  (bdf),  and  X11 bitmap (pcf) fonts.  Font files may be compressed
19       with gzip (for example, myfont.pcf.gz).  FontForge will also  read  its
20       own format: Spline Font Database (sfd) files.
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22       If  the argument list contains a font file name (or several), fontforge
23       opens a fontview window for each font displaying the characters of that
24       font.   In  the  absence  of  options or arguments, the program opens a
25       file-picker window, allowing you to browse your disk  to  find  a  font
26       file, or create a new one.
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28       This  manual  page  is intended only as a rudimentary overview; see the
29       HTML Users Manual for more complete information.
30
31       If no fontfiles are specified, and neither is -new, and there is  noth‐
32       ing to recover, then FontForge will produce an open font dialogue box.
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34       If  a  scriptfile  is specified then FontForge will not open the X dis‐
35       play, nor will it process any additional arguments. It will execute the
36       scriptfile and give it any remaining arguments
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38       If  the first argument is an executable filename, and that file's first
39       line contains "fontforge", then it will be treated as a scriptfile.
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OPTIONS

42       -new        Creates a new font.
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44       -last       Loads the last sfd file closed.
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46       -recover none|auto|inquire|clean
47                   Control error recovery.  none suppresses  crash  revcovery.
48                   auto  performs  automatic  recover  if  the program crashed
49                   before saving changes; this is the default.   inquire  asks
50                   what  to  do  with  auto-saved crash recovery files.  clean
51                   deletes recovery information.
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53       -allglyphs  Load all glyphs in the 'glyf' table. of a TrueType  collec‐
54                   tion.
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56       -nosplash   Suppress display of the splash screen.
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58       -quiet      Don't print non-essential information to stderr.
59
60       -unique     If  a  copy of fontforge is already running, open all argu‐
61                   ments in it and have this process exit.
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63       -display display-name
64                   Employ the X display specified by the  string  display-name
65                   (for example: localhost:0).
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67       -depth pixeld
68                   Attempt to employ a visual that matches the specified pixel
69                   depth, pixeld.
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71       -vc val     Sets the visual class if possible.
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73       -cmap current|copy|private
74                   Sets the type of color map.  current attempts  to  allocate
75                   colors int he current (shared) color map.  The program will
76                   likely not find everything  it  requires.   copy  allocates
77                   what  can  be allocated, then copies the current color map;
78                   it can thus make use of cells  other  programs  are  using.
79                   private  creates  a  new  color  map  and fills it with the
80                   required colors.
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82       -dontopenxdevices
83                   In case that fails.
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85       -sync       Syncs the display, debugging.
86
87       -keyboard ibm|mac|sun|ppc
88                   Generates appropriate hotkeys in menus.  Use ibm on an IBM-
89                   compatible  PC.   Use mac on a Mac computer running Mac OS.
90                   Use sun on a Sun workstation.  Use ppc on Power PC Mac run‐
91                   ning SUSE GNU/Linux.
92
93       -usecairo=yes|no
94                   Use (or not) the cairo library for drawing.
95
96       -help       Displays a help message and exits.
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98       -docs       Displays  help file output and then invokes a browser using
99                   the BROWSER environment variable.
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101       -version    Prints the version of fontforge and exits.
102
103       -library-status
104                   Prints information about optional libraries and exits.
105
106       -lang=py    Use Python for scripts (may precede -script).
107
108       -lang=ff    Use fontforge's legacy scripting language.
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110       -script scriptfile
111                   Executes scriptfile.  Must be the first option  (or  follow
112                   -lang).   All  other  arguments  are  passed to scriptfile.
113                   Execute the script named file.  Does not open  the  X  dis‐
114                   play.  This must be the first argument passed to FontForge.
115                   Any other arguments are handled by the script file  itself.
116                   Any  other  command  line  arguments  will be passed to the
117                   script.  The program contains a command interpreter,  which
118                   allows  access  to most but not all of its interactive fea‐
119                   tures.  If a script file is executable, and  if  its  first
120                   line  contains  the  string  "fontforge", then the argument
121                   -script may be omitted.  This means that FontForge  can  be
122                   used as an interpreter.
123
124       -dry scriptfile
125                   Syntax  checks  scriptfile  (dry  run).   Must be the first
126                   option.  All other  arguments  are  passed  to  scriptfile.
127                   This option can only be used with fontforge's own scripting
128                   language, not with Python.
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130       -c script-string
131                   Executes argument as scripting commands.  Must be the first
132                   option.  All other arguments are passed to the script.
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EXAMPLE

135       Sample usage:
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137              fontforge myfont.ttf &
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ENVIRONMENT

140       BROWSER
141              Specifies  the  name  of  a browser program for examining online
142              documentation.
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144       AUTOTRACE
145              Specifies the location of the autotrace program.  Usually  Font‐
146              Forge can figure this out without help, but not always.
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148       MF     Specifies the location of the metafont program.
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150       FONTFORGE_VERBOSE
151              Turns  on  verbose mode in scripting.  Each statement is printed
152              as it is executed.
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FILES

155       ~/.FontForge/autosave
156              Crash recovery directory.
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158       /usr/share/fontforge/*.ui
159              Translations for user interfaces.
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161       /usr/share/fontforge/doc/*.html
162              Optional location for online documentation.
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164       /usr/share/fontforge/*.cidmap
165              "Encoding" files for  Adobe's  cid  formats,  from  http://font
166              forge.sourceforge.net/ cidmaps.tgz.
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SEE ALSO

169       sfddiff(1)
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171       The  HTML  version  of  the  FontForge  manual,  available  online  at:
172       http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/.
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NOTE

175       FontForge used to be called PfaEdit.
176

AUTHORS

178       FontForge is Copyright © 2000–2014 by George Williams, and is currently
179       maintained by the FontForge development team.  See /usr/share/doc/font‐
180       forge/AUTHORS for a comprehensive list of contributors.
181

LICENSE

183       FontForge is  licensed  under  GPLv3+:  GNU  GPL  version  3  or  later
184       (http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)  with  many  parts  covered by a BSD
185       license (http://fontforge.org/license.html).  Please read  the  LICENSE
186       file  included  in  the  FontForge  distribution  for  details,  or see
187       https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/blob/master/LICENSE.
188
189       FontForge is  available  as  a  whole  under  the  terms  of  the  [GNU
190       GPL](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html), version 3 or any later ver‐
191       sion.  However, almost  all  of  its  parts  are  available  under  the
192       "revised                          BSD                          license"
193       ([pdf](http://www.law.yi.org/~sfllaw/talks/bsd.pdf)) because  FontForge
194       was mostly written by George Williams, using that license.
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196       The  Revised  BSD License is very permissive, and allows for code to be
197       combined with other code under other licenses.
198
199       There  are  many  useful  libraries  available  under  copyleft   libre
200       licenses,  such  as the LGPL and GPL, which FontForge started to use in
201       2012.
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203       For example, Pango and Cairo are available under the LGPL.
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205       Some features added since 2012 are licensed by their individual  devel‐
206       opers under the GPLv3.
207

BUGS

209       See  the  FontForge  Github  Issue Tracker, at https://github.com/font
210       forge/fontforge/issues/.
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214                                  2017 Jun 18                     FONTFORGE(1)
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