Getting Started

Fontisan is a font processing library for Ruby that provides tools for font conversion, validation, and manipulation.

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.

Features

Fontisan provides comprehensive font processing capabilities:

• 🔄 Font Conversion — Convert between TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, Type 1, and SVG formats
• ✅ Font Validation — Validate fonts with 5 profiles and 56 helpers
• 📦 Type 1 Support — Adobe Type 1 fonts (PFB/PFA) with eexec decryption
• 🎨 Color Fonts — COLR/CPAL, sbix, and SVG color fonts
• ⚡ Variable Fonts — Instance generation, format conversion, named instances
• 🔧 Font Hinting — Bidirectional TrueType ↔ PostScript hint conversion
• 📚 Collections — TTC/OTC/dfont pack, unpack, and deduplication
• 💎 Pure Ruby — No Python, no C++, no C# dependencies

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'fontisan'

And then execute:

bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

gem install fontisan

Quick Start

Load a Font

require 'fontisan'

# Automatic format detection
font = Fontisan::FontLoader.load('font.ttf')

# Works with any format
font = Fontisan::FontLoader.load('font.otf')    # OpenType
font = Fontisan::FontLoader.load('font.woff2')  # WOFF2
font = Fontisan::FontLoader.load('font.pfb')    # Type 1
font = Fontisan::FontLoader.load('fonts.ttc')   # Collection

Get Font Information

# Get basic info
info = Fontisan::Commands::InfoCommand.new(font: font).run
puts info.family_name
puts info.style
puts info.version

# Get table information
tables = font.tables
puts tables.keys

Convert Fonts

# Simple conversion
Fontisan.convert('input.ttf', output_format: :woff2)

# With custom options
options = Fontisan::ConversionOptions.new(
  from: :ttf,
  to: :otf,
  opening: { autohint: true, convert_curves: true }
)
Fontisan.convert('input.ttf', output_format: :otf, options: options)

Validate Fonts

# Validate with a profile
result = Fontisan::FontValidator.validate('font.ttf', profile: :google_fonts)

# Check results
if result.passed?
  puts "Font is valid!"
else
  result.errors.each do |error|
    puts "#{error.code}: #{error.message}"
  end
end

CLI Usage

Fontisan includes a comprehensive CLI:

# Get font information
fontisan info font.ttf

# List fonts in a collection
fontisan ls fonts.ttc

# Convert fonts
fontisan convert input.ttf --to otf --output output.otf

# Validate fonts
fontisan validate font.ttf --profile google_fonts

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

# Pack fonts into collection
fontisan pack font1.ttf font2.ttf --output fonts.ttc

# Export to TTX
fontisan export font.ttf --format ttx

# Subset fonts
fontisan subset font.ttf --chars "ABC123"

Next Steps

• Installation Details — Detailed installation options
• Quick Start Guide — Common workflows
• CLI Reference — Command-line documentation
• Font Formats — Supported format details
• Conversion Guide — Conversion options and best practices