1FONTFORGE(1) General Commands Manual FONTFORGE(1)
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6 fontforge - create and modify PostScript, TrueType and SVG fonts
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9 fontforge [-c string] [-cmap maptype] [-depth pixeld] [-display str]
10 [-last] [-help] [-keyboard ktype] [-new] [-nosplash [-recover mode]
11 [-script file] [-sync [-usage] [-vc vclass] [-version] fontfile ...
12
14 The program fontforge allows you to create and modify font files,
15 accepting input in the following formats (with associated file exten‐
16 sions appearing in parentheses):
17 Glyph Bitmap Distribution (.bdf)
19 Macintosh resource fonts (.dfont, .bin, .hqx)
21 OpenType (.otf)
23 fontforgespline font database (.sfd)
25 POSTSCRIPT, which includes:
27 ASCII format (.pfa)
29 Binary format (.pfb)
31 CID-keyed fonts, Adobe convention used primarily for Asian char‐
33 acters (.cid, .otf)
34 POSTSCRIPT Type 0 (.ps)
36 POSTSCRIPT Type 3 (.ps)
38 Scaleable vector graphics fonts (.svg)
40 TeX bitmap (.pk)
42 TrueType (.ttf, .ttc)
44 X11 bitmap (.pcf)
46 If the argument list contains a font file name (or several), fontforge
48 opens a fontview window for each font displaying the characters of the
49 that font. In the absence of options or arguments, the program opens a
50 file-picker window, allowing you to browse your disk to find a font
51 file, or create a new one.
52 This manual page is intended only as a rudimentary overview; see the
54 HTML Users Manual for more complete information.
55
57 -cstring
58 Must be the first argument. Executes "string" as a set of
59 scripting commands. Any additional arguments will be passed to
60 the script.
61 -cmapmaptype
63 Employ the specified method to control 8-bit colormaps, where
64 maptype assumes one of these three values:
65 current
67 Attempt to allocate colors in the current (shared) col‐
68 ormap. The program will likely not find everything it
69 requires.
70 copy Allocate what can be allocated, then copy the current
72 colormap; it can thus make use of cells other programs
73 are using.
74 private
76 Create a new colormap and fill it with the required col‐
77 ors.
78 -depth pixeld
80 Attempt to employ a visual that matches the specified pixel
81 depth, pixeld.
82 -display str
84 Employ the X display specified by the string str (for example:
85 localhost:0).
86 -help Display the usage description and start a web client displaying
88 the online documentation.
89 -keyboard ktype
91 Alter the displayed menus to employ modifier keys appropriate to
92 the specified keyboard type, where ktype assumes one of the fol‐
93 lowing four values:
94 ibm IBM PC type keyboard.
96 mac Apple Macintosh keyboard.
98 sun Sun workstation keyboard.
100 ppc Macintosh keyboard, but on a system running SuSe linux
102 (the mappings differ from those used under MacOS X).
103 -last Opens whatever font you last edited with fontforge. If you
105 specify n -last fontforge will open the last n fonts.
106 -new Create a new font with the ISO 8859-1 encoding (the interna‐
108 tional encoding standard for western Europe, and the standard
109 for most X fonts).
110 -nosplash
112 Suppress display of the splash screen.
113 -recover mode
115 Control the crash recovery mechanism (helpful if crash recovery
116 causes problems), where mode takes on one of three allowed set‐
117 tings:
118 auto perform automatic recovery (default) if the program
120 crashed before saving changes.
121 clean Delete recovery information.
123 none Suppress crash recovery.
125 -script file
127 Execute the script named file. Does not open the X display.
128 This must be the first argument passed to fontforge. Any other
129 arguments are handled by the scriptfile itself. Any other com‐
130 mand line arguments will be passed to the script. The program
131 contains a command interpreter which allows access to most but
132 not all of its interactive features. If a scriptfile is exe‐
133 cutable, and if its first line contains the string "fontforge",
134 then the argument -script may be omitted. This means that font‐
135 forge can be used as an interpreter.
136 -sync Make X synchronous. Used primarily for debugging, this option
138 slows X down.
139 -usage Display the usage description.
141 -vc vclass
143 Attempt to use a visual that matches the class, vclass, speci‐
144 fied as either the name of a visual class or an integer enumer‐
145 ating a visual class.
146 -version
148 Display the current version (a six digit string containing the
149 date stamp of the source files).
150
152 If any of the following environment variables exist, they are used:
153 BROWSER
155 Specifies the name of a browser program for examining documenta‐
156 tion.
157 AUTOTRACE
159 Specifies the location of the autotrace program (usually Font‐
160 Forge can figure this out without help, but not always).
161 MF Specifies the location of the metafont program.
163 FONTFORGE_VERBOSE
165 Turns on verbose mode in scripting. Each statement is printed as
166 it is executed.
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169 ~/.PfaEdit/autosave/
170 crash recovery directory
171 /usr/local/share/fontforge/*.ui
173 translations for the user interface
174 /usr/local/share/doc/fontforge/*.html
176 optional location for online documentation.
177 /usr/local/share/fontforge/*.cidmap
179 "encoding" files for Adobe's cid formats from http://font‐
180 forge.sourceforge.net/cidmaps.tgz
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183 sfddiff(1)
184 The HTML version of the fontforge manual, available online at:
186 http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
188
190 fontforge used to be called pfaedit.
191
193 Copyright (C) 2000-2004 by George Williams (gww@silcom.com). Original
194 manual page by Tom Harvey, subsequently modified by George Williams.
195 Heavily rewritten and modified to use standard -man(5)macros‐
196 byR.P.C.Rodgers(rodgers@nlm.nih.gov),23October2002.
197
199 Undoubtedly many, but unknown and ever changing. See
200 http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/#known-bugs for a current list.
202 2 March 2004 FONTFORGE(1)