Command Line Arguments
$ fontforge [-options] [filenames]
$ fontforge [-script] scriptfile [arguments]
$ fontforge -c script-string [arguments]
The filenames may specify any number of files in one of the
font formats that FontForge recognizes (various postscript
formats, truetype, opentype, mac resource, bitmap, svg,
etc.).
Some files (.ttc or mac resource) may contain more than one
outline font. You may pick which font you want by following the
filename with the fontname in parentheses, thus:
$ fontforge "gulim.ttc(GulimChe)"
will select the font GulimChe out of the font file
gulim.ttc.
FontForge recognizes the following options:
- -allglyphs
- Load all glyphs from the 'glyf' table of a ttc file,
rather than the subset used in the selected font. (Note that
if a ttc file contains multiple 'glyf' tables, only one will
be loaded, but that one will be completely loaded).
- -c script-string
-
If FontForge's first (or second, if the first is -lang)
argument is "-c" then the argument that follows will be
treated as a string containing scripting commands, and
those commands will be executed. All remaining arguments
will be passed to the script.
$ fontforge -c 'Open($1); Generate($2)' foo.sfd foo.ttf
Will read a font from "foo.sfd" and then generate a
truetype font from it called "foo.ttf"
- -cmap type
- Where type may be
Current | Copy | Private
Gives the user some control over colormap handling on 8bit
screens.
- -depth val
- Specifies that FontForge should search for a visual with
the given depth
- -display name
- Specifies the name of the display on which FontForge will
open its windows
- -dontopenxdevices
- Various people have complained that when FontForge
attempts to open the devices of the wacom graphics tablet,
the X server gives a BadDevice error. I can't duplicate this,
the open works fine on my system, but this argument allows
them to tell fontforge not to try to use the tablet.
- -help
- Bring up a browser looking at
this documentation.
- -lang={py|ff}
-lang {py|ff}
- Specifies whether the script should be interpretted as a
python script or a fontforge script.
- -version
- Prints out the source version and exits.
- -keyboard type
-
Where type may be
ibm | mac | sun | ppc | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3
Allows you to specify the type of keyboard. Currently this
is only relevent when generating menus. The modifier keys
are in different locations on different keyboards (under
different operating systems) and if FontForge knows what
keyboard you are using it can make the hot-keys have better
labels.
- ibm | 0
Uses the Control and Alt keys
- mac | 1
Uses the Control and Option keys (Mac OS/X, Mac
keyboard)
- ppc | 3
Uses the Control and Command keys (Suse ppc linux, Mac
keyboard)
- sun | 2
Uses the Control and Meta keys
- -last
- Opens the last sfd file closed. If used more than once
will open the last several sfd files.
- -new
- Creates a new font.
- -nosplash
- FontForge will not display its splash screen on startup
(for slow connections)
- -open
- Bring up an open font dialog
- -quit
- Exit fontforge (only useful if -unique is passed as well,
in which case the master fontforge will be asked to
exit)
- -recover type
-
Where type may be:
- none
- Do not attempt any automatic file recovery
- clean
- Clean out the directory containing files to be
recovered
- auto
- recover any files which have been changed but which
fontforge crashed on before saving.
- -script script-file
- If FontForge's first argument is "-script" then the
argument that follows will be treated as a script file and all the remaining
arguments will be passed as arguments to that file. (The
"-script" argument may be omitted, and if the first argument
is an executable file which whose first line starts with "#!"
and contains "fontforge". This means that fontforge may be
used as an interpreter. Ie. you can create a fontforge script
file and type its name to your shell and fontforge will be
invoked to process that file as a script file (passing any
arguments to it)).
- -sync
- Do synchronous screen drawing. Slows things down, makes
some things easier to debug.
- -unique
- If there is already a fontforge running on this screen,
then the current version will pass its arguments to the
already existing one for it to open, and then the current
version will exit. So it looks more like a Mac/Windows
app.
- -usage
- Display a brief description of the options
- -vc type
- Where type may be:
StaticGray GrayScale StaticColor PsuedoColor TrueColor
DirectColor
(See the X manuals for a description of what these mean).
FontForge will search through the visuals in an attempt to
find one with the desired VisualClass (given here) and depth
(given with the -depth option).
FontForge examines the following environment variables:
BROWSER
- Specifies the name of a browser program for examining
documentation (must be able to read a local or remote html
file and display it reasonably). On CygWin systems browsers
that work in the windows world (as opposed to the cygwin
sub-system) must be specified by a full path spec.
AUTOTRACE
- Specifies the name and location of the autotrace program.
(if not specified FontForge will try to find it in the user's
path)
POTRACE
- Specifies the name and location of the potrace
program.
MF
- Specifies the name and location of the metafont program.
(if not specified FontForge will try to find it in the user's
path)
FONTFORGE_VERBOSE
- Turns on verbose mode in script execution (the script
will be printed to stdout as it is executed).
FONTFORGE_LOADPREFS
- Controls loading of preference items. If set to "Always"
then preferences will be loaded even for scripts. If set to
"Never" then preferences will not be loaded unless explicitly
requested. If unset (or if set to any other value) then
preferences will be loaded when ff starts up with a user
interface, and will not be loaded if ff starts up executing a
script.
FONTFORGE_LANGUAGE
- Provides a default interpreter to use when executing a
script. Must be either "py" or "ff"/"pe".
LANG, LC_ALL,
etc.
- To determine the current locale, etc.
PATH
- Used when looking for Autotrace or mf programs
TMPDIR
- Temporary directory. Used for temporary files for which I
need a filename (ie. to pass to autotrace, etc.)
HOME
- Used to figure out where to put the .FontForge directory
which includes user preferences and the recovery files.
USER
- Used to create comments in new fonts about who created
the font, or who saved it.
-- Prev -- TOC -- Next --