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 [-lang=ff] [-lang=py] [-last] [-library-status] [-help] [-keyboard
11 ktype] [-new] [-nosplash] [-recover mode] [-script file] [-sync]
12 [-usage] [-vc vclass] [-version] fontfile ...
13
15 The program fontforge allows you to create and modify font files,
16 accepting input in the following formats (with associated file exten‐
17 sions appearing in parentheses):
18 Glyph Bitmap Distribution (.bdf)
20 Macintosh resource fonts (.dfont, .bin, .hqx)
22 OpenType (.otf)
24 fontforge spline font database (.sfd)
26 POSTSCRIPT, which includes:
28 ASCII format (.pfa)
30 Binary format (.pfb)
32 CID-keyed fonts, Adobe convention used primarily for Asian char‐
34 acters (.cid, .otf)
35 POSTSCRIPT Type 0 (.ps)
37 POSTSCRIPT Type 3 (.ps)
39 Scaleable vector graphics fonts (.svg)
41 TeX bitmap (.pk)
43 TrueType (.ttf, .ttc)
45 X11 bitmap (.pcf)
47 If the argument list contains a font file name (or several), fontforge
49 opens a fontview window for each font displaying the characters of the
50 that font. In the absence of options or arguments, the program opens a
51 file-picker window, allowing you to browse your disk to find a font
52 file, or create a new one.
53 This manual page is intended only as a rudimentary overview; see the
55 HTML Users Manual for more complete information.
56
58 -c string
59 Must be the first argument. Executes "string" as a set of
60 scripting commands. Any additional arguments will be passed to
61 the script.
62 -cmap maptype
64 Employ the specified method to control 8-bit colormaps, where
65 maptype assumes one of these three values:
66 current
68 Attempt to allocate colors in the current (shared) col‐
69 ormap. The program will likely not find everything it
70 requires.
71 copy Allocate what can be allocated, then copy the current
73 colormap; it can thus make use of cells other programs
74 are using.
75 private
77 Create a new colormap and fill it with the required col‐
78 ors.
79 -depth pixeld
81 Attempt to employ a visual that matches the specified pixel
82 depth, pixeld.
83 -display str
85 Employ the X display specified by the string str (for example:
86 localhost:0).
87 -help Display the usage description and start a web client displaying
89 the online documentation.
90 -keyboard ktype
92 Alter the displayed menus to employ modifier keys appropriate to
93 the specified keyboard type, where ktype assumes one of the fol‐
94 lowing four values:
95 ibm IBM PC type keyboard.
97 mac Apple Macintosh keyboard.
99 sun Sun workstation keyboard.
101 ppc Macintosh keyboard, but on a system running SuSe linux
103 (the mappings differ from those used under MacOS X).
104 -last Opens whatever font you last edited with fontforge. If you
106 specify n -last fontforge will open the last n fonts.
107 -lang=ff
109 Interpret the script with the fontforge interpreter.
110 -lang=py
112 Interpret the script with the python interpreter.
113 -library-status
115 Prints information about optional libraries.
116 -new Create a new font with the ISO 8859-1 encoding (the interna‐
118 tional encoding standard for western Europe, and the standard
119 for most X fonts).
120 -nosplash
122 Suppress display of the splash screen.
123 -recover mode
125 Control the crash recovery mechanism (helpful if crash recovery
126 causes problems), where mode takes on one of three allowed set‐
127 tings:
128 auto perform automatic recovery (default) if the program
130 crashed before saving changes.
131 clean Delete recovery information.
133 none Suppress crash recovery.
135 -script file
137 Execute the script named file. Does not open the X display.
138 This must be the first argument passed to fontforge. Any other
139 arguments are handled by the scriptfile itself. Any other com‐
140 mand line arguments will be passed to the script. The program
141 contains a command interpreter which allows access to most but
142 not all of its interactive features. If a scriptfile is exe‐
143 cutable, and if its first line contains the string "fontforge",
144 then the argument -script may be omitted. This means that font‐
145 forge can be used as an interpreter.
146 -sync Make X synchronous. Used primarily for debugging, this option
148 slows X down.
149 -usage Display the usage description.
151 -vc vclass
153 Attempt to use a visual that matches the class, vclass, speci‐
154 fied as either the name of a visual class or an integer enumer‐
155 ating a visual class.
156 -version
158 Display the current version (a six digit string containing the
159 date stamp of the source files).
160
162 If any of the following environment variables exist, they are used:
163 BROWSER
165 Specifies the name of a browser program for examining documenta‐
166 tion.
167 AUTOTRACE
169 Specifies the location of the autotrace program (usually Font‐
170 Forge can figure this out without help, but not always).
171 MF Specifies the location of the metafont program.
173 FONTFORGE_VERBOSE
175 Turns on verbose mode in scripting. Each statement is printed as
176 it is executed.
177
179 ~/.FontForge/autosave/
180 crash recovery directory
181 /usr/local/share/fontforge/*.ui
183 translations for the user interface
184 /usr/local/share/doc/fontforge/*.html
186 optional location for online documentation.
187 /usr/local/share/fontforge/*.cidmap
189 "encoding" files for Adobe's cid formats from http://font‐
190 forge.sourceforge.net/cidmaps.tgz
191
193 sfddiff(1)
194 The HTML version of the fontforge manual, available online at:
196 http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
198
200 fontforge used to be called pfaedit.
201
203 Copyright (C) 2000-2007 by George Williams (gww@silcom.com). Original
204 manual page by Tom Harvey, subsequently modified by George Williams.
205 Heavily rewritten and modified to use standard -man (5) macros by
206 R.P.C. Rodgers (rodgers@nlm.nih.gov), 23 October 2002.
207
209 Undoubtedly many, but unknown and ever changing. See
210 http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/#known-bugs for a current list.
212 2 March 2004 FONTFORGE(1)