What is Fontist?

Fontist is a simple library to find and download fonts for Windows, Linux and Mac.

It uses a formula repository to find where to download a requested font. The main formula repository contains a lot of fonts, including Google Fonts, SIL Fonts, and macOS add-on fonts.

Why use Fontist when there are other ways to install fonts?

In general, fonts can be downloaded manually and placed in a system folder. Some fonts are even pre-installed with an OS. But fontist allows to install fonts programmatically and consistently on all platforms (Windows, macOS, and Linux): missing fonts would be installed, existing ones would be found and their paths returned.

Install font

E.g., the following command would find where to download and install the Arial font:

fontist install "arial"

Install a bunch of fonts

It also allows to install several fonts with a single command.

Image you have a file:

# manifest.yml
---
Times New Roman:
Arial:
Courier New:

Then running:

fontist manifest-install manifest.yml

Would install or find all 3 fonts, and return its paths.

Use Ruby to install fonts

Also Fontist allows to use its Ruby interface. The former tasks can be done with:

Fontist::Font.install("arial")

Fontist::Manifest::Install.from_file("manifest.yml")