CI/CD & Servers

Fontist is designed for reproducible font installation in automated environments.

GitHub Actions

Official Action

- name: Install fonts
  uses: fontist/setup-fontist@v2
  with:
    fonts: Open Sans, Roboto, Source Sans Pro

Manual Installation

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Ruby
        uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
        with:
          ruby-version: '3.2'

      - name: Install Fontist
        run: gem install fontist

      - name: Install fonts
        run: fontist install "open_sans" "roboto"

      - name: Generate documents
        run: pandoc input.md -o output.pdf

Caching

- name: Cache fonts
  uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.fontist
    key: fonts-${{ hashFiles('Fontfile') }}

GitLab CI

generate-docs:
  image: ruby:3.2
  cache:
    paths:
      - ~/.fontist/
  script:
    - gem install fontist
    - fontist install "open_sans"
    - pandoc input.md -o output.pdf
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - output.pdf

Docker

Dockerfile

FROM ruby:3.2

# Install Fontist
RUN gem install fontist

# Install fonts during build
RUN fontist install "open_sans" "roboto"

# Or copy a Fontfile and install
COPY Fontfile .
RUN xargs -a Fontfile fontist install

Multi-stage Build

# Build stage
FROM ruby:3.2 AS builder
RUN gem install fontist
COPY Fontfile .
RUN xargs -a Fontfile fontist install

# Runtime stage
FROM debian:bookworm-slim
COPY --from=builder /root/.fontist /root/.fontist

Server Deployment

systemd Service

[Unit]
Description=Document Generator

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/fontist install "open_sans"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ruby /app/server.rb

Environment Variables

# Custom font directory
export FONTIST_PATH=/var/lib/fonts
fontist install "open_sans"

License Considerations for Servers

License Type	Server Use	Notes
OFL 1.1	✅ Allowed	Best choice for CI/CD
Apache/MIT	✅ Allowed	Fully permissive
Platform Restricted	⚠️ Check	macOS fonts only on macOS runners
Bundled Software	❌ Usually no	Cannot extract from software

Platform-Specific Runners

• macOS runners: Can use Apple-only fonts
• Windows runners: Can use Microsoft fonts
• Linux runners: Use open source or freely distributable fonts

See Also

• Docker & Containers
• Cloud VMs
• GitHub Actions Integration