CLI Reference

Fontisan provides a comprehensive command-line interface for font processing tasks.

Font License Considerations

Commercial fonts often come with restrictive licenses that may prohibit:

• Subsetting — Reducing the character set
• Format conversion — Converting between TTF, OTF, WOFF, etc.
• Variable font instancing — Generating static instances
• Glyph modification — Altering or extracting individual glyphs
• Redistribution — Sharing converted or modified fonts

Always check your font's End User License Agreement (EULA) before processing. Many foundries require additional licenses for web embedding, subsetting, or format conversion. Fontisan provides the tools — you are responsible for ensuring you have the rights to use them.

Quick Reference

Font Information Commands

Command	Description	Example
info	Get comprehensive font information	fontisan info font.ttf
ls	List fonts in a collection	fontisan ls fonts.ttc
tables	Show font table information	fontisan tables font.ttf
glyphs	List glyphs with names and IDs	fontisan glyphs font.ttf
unicode	Show Unicode coverage	fontisan unicode font.ttf
scripts	List supported scripts	fontisan scripts font.ttf
features	List OpenType features	fontisan features font.ttf
variable	Show variable font axes	fontisan variable font.ttf
optical-size	Show optical size info	fontisan optical-size font.ttf

Font Operations

Command	Description	Example
convert	Convert between formats	fontisan convert input.ttf --to otf
subset	Subset fonts	fontisan subset font.ttf --chars "ABC"
validate	Validate fonts	fontisan validate font.ttf
instance	Generate variable font instances	fontisan instance var.ttf --wght 700
dump-table	Extract raw table data	fontisan dump-table font.ttf head

Collection Operations

Command	Description	Example
pack	Create font collections	fontisan pack *.ttf -o fonts.ttc
unpack	Extract from collections	fontisan unpack fonts.ttc -d ./out

Export Operations

Command	Description	Example
export	Export to TTX, SVG, JSON	fontisan export font.ttf --format ttx

Global Options

fontisan [options] <command>

Options:
  --format FORMAT    Output format (text, yaml, json)
  --verbose          Verbose output
  --quiet            Suppress non-error output
  --help             Show help
  --version          Show version

Getting Help

# General help
fontisan --help

# Command-specific help
fontisan convert --help
fontisan validate --help
fontisan instance --help

Output Formats

Most commands support multiple output formats:

# Text (default)
fontisan info font.ttf

# YAML
fontisan info font.ttf --format yaml

# JSON
fontisan info font.ttf --format json

Common Workflows

Inspect a Font

# Basic information
fontisan info font.ttf

# Detailed table listing
fontisan tables font.ttf

# See all glyphs
fontisan glyphs font.ttf

# Check Unicode coverage
fontisan unicode font.ttf

Convert for Web

# Convert single font to WOFF2
fontisan convert font.ttf --to woff2 --output font.woff2

Work with Variable Fonts

# Inspect variable font axes
fontisan variable VariableFont.ttf

# Generate a specific instance
fontisan instance VariableFont.ttf --wght 700 --output Bold.ttf

# Generate multiple instances
fontisan instance VariableFont.ttf --wght 400 --output Regular.ttf
fontisan instance VariableFont.ttf --wght 700 --output Bold.ttf

Work with Collections

# List fonts in collection
fontisan ls fonts.ttc

# Extract all fonts
fontisan unpack fonts.ttc --output-dir ./extracted

# Extract and convert to web formats
fontisan unpack fonts.ttc --output-dir ./web --format woff2

# Create a collection
fontisan pack Regular.ttf Bold.ttf --output Family.ttc

Validate Fonts

# Quick validation
fontisan validate font.ttf

# Validate for Google Fonts
fontisan validate font.ttf --profile google_fonts

# Strict validation
fontisan validate font.ttf --profile production

Export Font Data

# Export to TTX (XML format)
fontisan export font.ttf --format ttx --output font.ttx

# Export to JSON
fontisan export font.ttf --format json --output font.json

# Export specific tables
fontisan export font.ttf --format ttx --tables head,name,cmap

Command Documentation

Detailed documentation for each command:

• convert — Format conversion for individual fonts
• info — Extract font metadata and properties
• validate — Validate fonts against profiles
• subset — Create font subsets
• pack/unpack — Work with font collections
• export — Export to TTX, SVG, and other formats
• instance — Generate variable font instances
• glyphs — List and inspect glyphs
• tables — Inspect font tables