- glyphs 1.2 [1] (2-Jul-2018)
- Added support for OpenTypeCollections (*.ttc)
- Added support for CFF font-files (Postscript outlines) (*.otf)
- nameinfo method is now deprecated ; use the new name.info method
- WARNING: nameinfo returns a triplet {id idstring value} ;
- name.info returns just the value.
- glyphs 1.1.2 [2] (9-May-2018)
- bug-fix: on error during the initial parsing of a tff, file-handle is not closed (FIXED)
- fixed some properties names (Ascender Descender LineGap ...); they become 'camelCase' (ascender descender lineGap ...) . Old names are still supported although deprecated
- glyphs 1.1.1 [3]
- bug-fix: wrong SVG countours for glyphs having no control-points on-the-curve (FIXED)
- bug-fix: wrong glyph selection for "notdef" glyphes or empty glyphes (like "space") (FIXED)
- glyphs 1.1 [4]
- added methods for getting glyph's advancewidth, leftsidebearing, chars
- added methods for kerning
- updated test-suite
- glyphs 1.0.1 [5]
- FIX for TclTk 8.6.1 BUG (Itcl incompatibility). Changes now works with TclTk 8.6.1 as well with previous versions.
- glyphs 1.0 [6] (BUG)
- glyphs 0.9 [7] (OLD)
Opening and closing edit
This is a first quick trip; just open a .ttf, look inside and close> package require Glyphs > set fObj [Glyphs::new "arial.ttf"] > set ng [$fObj get numGlyphs] > puts "found $ng glyphs" > $fObj destroy
Inspecting font file's properties edit
Reopen the .ttf file> set fObj [Glyphs::new "arial.ttf"]we already know how to get the number-of-glyphs
> set res1 [$fObj get numGlyphs] 1674and we can also get the overall-bounding box, or where the descender-line is placed
> set res2 [$fObj get bbox] -1361 -665 4096 2060 >set res3 [$fObj get descender] -434but there're a lot of properties and the better way to know which properties are set is:
> set props [$fObj get] fontPath numGlyphs bbox unitsPerEm fontRevision ascender descender .....Other font properties can be retrieved from the internal 'name' table:
> foreach {id name} [$fObj nameinfo] {
> lassign [$fObj nameinfo $id] id name value
> puts "$id - $name\n$value\n"
> }
1 - Font Family name
Arial
2 - Font Subfamily name
Regular
3 - Unique font identifier
Monotype:Arial Regular:Version 3.00 (Microsoft)
4 - Full font name
Arial
....Working with OpenType Collections edit
An OpenTypeCollection (*.ttc) contains more than one font. If you dont' specify any, the first font is selected> set mfObj [Glyphs::new "AmericanTypewriter.ttc"] > set ng [$mfObj get numGlyphs] > puts "found $ng glyphs"You can also get the list of included fonts
> foreach subFont [$mfObj get subFonts] {
> puts $subFont"
> }If you want to work with a specific subFont, then specify its index ( 0..n ) when opening the fontfile> $mfObj close > set mfObj [Glyphs::new "AmericanTypewriter.ttc" 3] > ...
Locating a single glyph edit
The quickest way to locate a single glyph is through its glyph-index. We know that "arial.ttf" has 1674 glyphs, therefore we can get all glyphs from 0 to 1674.Now let's take the 144th glyph>set g144 [$fObj glyph 144]As with fObj's properties, we can get some specific glyph's property:
>$g144 get index 144 >$g144 get bbox 1 0 1936 1466In order to list all the available properties
> $g144 get index bbox points instructions pathLengths paths ...Forget about the "instructions" property it's a binary string that "Glyphs" is not currently able to decode. (Probably it will removed in the next revision.)The most important properties are points and pathsLet's take a glyph simpler than 144
>set g103 [$fObj glyph 103]
>set L [$g103 get points]
{99 714 1 99 1079 0 ...} {299 711 1 299 446 0 ...} {516 1556 1 516 1761 1 ...} {889 1556 1 ...}Result looks like a list of 4 lists (4 contours).Each contour is made of a sequence of triples: x y flag.Flag "1" means that point (x,y) is on-curve, Flag "0" means point (x,y) is the control point of a Quadratic Bezier curve.But, how to translate these "points" in a parametric curve?>set L [$g103 get paths]
{{M 99 714} {Q 99 1079 295.0 1285.5} ...}
{{M 299 711} {Q 299 446 441.5 293.5} ... }
{{M 516 1556} {L 516 1761} ... }
{{M 889 1556} {L 889 1761} ...}Result is a list of (4) contours.Each contour is made of a sequence of simple abstract commands:- M x y -- set (x,y) as the current point
- L x y -- draw a line from current point to (x,y). (x,y) then becomes the current point
- Q x1 y1 x2 y2 -- draw a quadratic bezier from current point, to (x1,y1) (control point) and to (x2,y2) (end-point). (x2,y2) then becomes the current point.
- C x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3 -- draw a cubic bezier from current point, to (x1,y1) (control point), (x2,y2) (control point) and to (x3,y3) (end-point). (x3,y3) then becomes the current point
proc Paths2Canvas { cvs paths } {
foreach path $paths {
# first command should be M (MOVETO)
foreach pCmd $path {
set points [lassign $pCmd cmd]
switch -- $cmd {
M {
;
}
L {
$cvs create line $lastX $lastY {*}$points
}
Q {
$cvs create line $lastX $lastY {*}$points -smooth true
}
C { ;# CUBICTO
$cvs create line $lastX $lastY {*}$points -smooth raw
}
default { error "unrecognized path command \"$cmd\"" }
}
set lastX [lindex $points end-1]
set lastY [lindex $points end]
}
}
}A better implementation should take care to join consecutive segments in a single polyline .... Look at glyphs-demo code for a more complete example.Converting a glyph in a polyline, tangents, normals and more .. edit
The "onUniformDistance" method is the last, more powerful method acting on a glyph.We can 'split' the whole glyphs in a series of 2D points equally spaced.> $g103 onUniformDistance 100.0 "at"returns N (long) lists (one list for each glyph's countour) made of x y pairs; each (x,y) is a point on the glyph, and all these points are equally spaced (with some arrangements for dealing with the curves extremities ...)We can also get the tangent or normal *versors* for these points.
> $g103 onUniformDistance 100.0 "tangent_at" > $g103 onUniformDistance 100.0 "normal_at"and finally we can get the tangent or normal *vectors* (i.e., a segment starting from point "at" having the tangent/normal direction).
> $g103 onUniformDistance 100.0 "vtangent_at" > $g103 onUniformDistance 100.0 "vnormal_at"We suggest to do some experiment with the glyphs-demo app.
Getting more glyph metrics edit
Getting the AdvanceWidth, LeftSideBearing, chars (list of all characters (unicode) sharing a glyph)> $g103 get advanceWidth 1593 > $g103 get leftSideBearing 99 > $g103 get chars 214The above commands are equivalent to:
> $fObj gget 103 advanceWidth > $fObj gget 103 leftSideBearing > $fObj gget 103 charsGetting the horizontal kerning value for the "A" "V" letters
> $fObj getKerning [$fObj unicode2glyphIndex "A"] [$fObj unicode2glyphIndex "V"] "H" -152
There's not much more to do with a single-glyph. Since it's a dynamic object, you can free space when it's no more useful,
>$g103 destroybut, you are not required to do it. In fact, when the 'font-file' is destroyed
>$fObj destroyall space used for its allocated glyphs is freed.
More on accessing glyphs edit
We've seen the standard way to access a glyph by-index. The major part of TrueType Fonts holds a table for converting a "character" (unicode) to index.>$fObj unicode2glyphIndex "A" >$fObj unicode2glyphIndex "ß" ; # unicode char \u03B2 (greek letter "Beta") >$fObj unicode2glyphIndex \u03B2 ; # unicode char \u03B2 (greek letter "Beta") >$fObj numcode2glyphIndex 946 ; # it's always the greek letter "Beta" !For your convenience, you can access a glyph, with two new methods
>$fObj glyphByUnicode "ß" ; # glyph by Unicode >$fObj glyphByCharCode 946 ; # glyph by CharCode
