Fontisan vs Font-Validator

Compare Fontisan with Microsoft's Font-Validator.

Overview

Font-Validator is Microsoft's C# tool for comprehensive font validation.

	Font-Validator	Fontisan
Language	C#	Ruby
Runtime	.NET required	None
Platform	Windows focus	Cross-platform
Features	Validation only	Full suite

Profile Equivalents

Font-Validator	Fontisan
Auto	fontisan validate -t indexability
Full	fontisan validate -t production
Web	fontisan validate -t web
Custom	fontisan validate -t spec_compliance

Feature Comparison

Validation

Feature	Font-Validator	Fontisan
Profiles	3+	5
Helpers	~50	56
Coverage reports	✅	✅
Custom rules	❌	✅
Severity levels	✅	✅
Output formats	XML	YAML, JSON, Text

Font Operations

Feature	Font-Validator	Fontisan
Validation	✅	✅
Conversion	❌	✅
Subsetting	❌	✅
Information	Limited	✅
Collections	Limited	✅

Format Support

Format	Font-Validator	Fontisan
TrueType	✅	✅
OpenType	✅	✅
WOFF	✅	✅
WOFF2	✅	✅
Type 1	❌	✅
TTC/OTC	Limited	✅

Variable Fonts

Feature	Font-Validator	Fontisan
fvar validation	✅	✅
gvar validation	✅	✅
Instance generation	❌	✅
Format conversion	❌	✅

Validation Profiles

Fontisan Profiles

Profile	Checks	Focus
indexability	8	Fast discovery
usability	26	Installation
production	37	Full quality
web	18	Web fonts
spec_compliance	Full	Spec audit

Font-Validator Profiles

Profile	Focus
Auto	Quick check
Full	Comprehensive
Web	Web fonts

Unique Features

Fontisan Unique

• Pure Ruby — No .NET runtime
• Font conversion — TTF ↔ OTF ↔ WOFF
• Subsetting — Create font subsets
• Collections — Full TTC/OTC support
• Custom validators — DSL for rules
• Variable fonts — Instance generation
• Type 1 support — Legacy format

Font-Validator Unique

• Microsoft official — From the source
• Deep Windows integration — Windows-specific checks
• Mature — Long development history

Installation Comparison

Font-Validator

# Requires .NET runtime
# Windows: Download MSI
# Linux: Requires Mono or .NET Core
# macOS: Requires .NET Core

dotnet tool install --global FontValidator

Fontisan

# All platforms, no runtime
gem install fontisan

Use Case Recommendations

Use Fontisan When:

• You're not on Windows
• You need conversion features
• You need subsetting
• You want custom validators
• You need Type 1 support

Use Font-Validator When:

• You need Microsoft official validation
• You need Windows-specific checks
• You're in a .NET environment

Code Comparison

Basic Validation

# Font-Validator
FontValidator.exe font.ttf

# Fontisan
fontisan validate font.ttf

With Profile

# Font-Validator
FontValidator.exe -Profile Full font.ttf

# Fontisan
fontisan validate font.ttf -t production

Output Format

# Font-Validator
FontValidator.exe -Output report.xml font.ttf

# Fontisan
fontisan validate font.ttf --format json

Custom Validators

Fontisan allows custom validation rules (not available in Font-Validator):

class MyValidator < Fontisan::Validators::Validator
  def define_checks
    check_table :name_check, 'name', severity: :error do |table|
      table.family_name_present? &&
        table.postscript_name_valid?
    end
  end
end

CI/CD Integration

Font-Validator

# Requires .NET runtime
- uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
- run: FontValidator.exe fonts/*.ttf

Fontisan

# Uses Ruby (already available on most runners)
- uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
- run: gem install fontisan
- run: fontisan validate fonts/*.ttf

Conclusion

Need	Recommendation
Ruby environment	Fontisan
Cross-platform	Fontisan
Conversion features	Fontisan
Custom validation	Fontisan
Microsoft official	Font-Validator
Windows-specific	Font-Validator
.NET environment	Font-Validator