FontForge

Infobox_Software
name = FontForge


caption = FontForge
developer = George Williams
latest_release_version = 20080828
latest_release_date = release date and age|2008|08|28
programming language = C
operating_system = Mac OS X, POSIX, Windows (using Cygwin)
status = Active
genre = Font editor
license = BSD license
website = http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/

FontForge (formerly known as PfaEdit [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/ff-history.html] ) is a typeface (font) editor program developed by George Williams. Fontforge is free software and is distributed under the BSD license [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/#license] . FontForge is available for several operating systems and is localized in several languages.

Fontforge supports several font formats like TrueType, PostScript, OpenType, CID-keyed, multi-master, CFF, SVG, BDF, Datafork TrueType, etc. Fontforge can convert fonts from one format to another. FontForge can also store fonts in its native format called “spline font database files” using the .sfd extension, which has the advantage that is text-based [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/sfdformat.html] . This format facilitates designer collaboration because it allows diffs to be easily created and reviewed; the two users usually need to use the same Fontforge version, otherwise the .sfd text representation can differ too much to be useful for diff reviewing.

To facilitate automated format conversions and other transformations, Fontforge implements two scripting languages: its own legacy language, and more recently Python [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/scripting.html] . Support for one or both scripting languages can be selected at compile time.

Fontforge supports Adobe's OpenType feature file specification (with it own extensions to the syntax) [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/featurefile.html] . It also supports the unofficial Microsoft mathematical typesetting extensions (MATH table) [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/math.html] introduced for Cambria Math and supported by Office 2007 and XeTeX. At least one free OpenType mathematical font has been developed in FontForge (see below).

FontForge uses FreeType for rendering fonts on screen [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/source-build.html#Dependencies] .

Free Fonts developed with FontForge

* Free UCS Outline Fonts (freefont)
* Linux Libertine
* DejaVu Fonts
* Asana-Math

External links

* [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/ FontForge homepage]
* [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/scripting-tutorial.html FontForge scripting tutorial]
* [http://www.openfontlibrary.org Open Font Library] , a library of free (as in freedom) fonts
* [http://scripts.sil.org/OFL Open Font License] , a license designed for free (as in freedom) fonts

See also

* METAFONT a font specification language and compiler.

References