https://github.com/tigger04/font-variants
Generate variants (bold, italic, bold-italic) of fonts with a CLI script
https://github.com/tigger04/font-variants
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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Generate variants (bold, italic, bold-italic) of fonts with a CLI script
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/tigger04/font-variants
- Owner: tigger04
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-01-14T23:12:46.000Z (3 months ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2025-01-20T13:10:38.000Z (3 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-06T12:11:24.354Z (about 2 months ago)
- Language: Python
- Size: 33.2 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.org
- License: LICENSE
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README
#+TITLE: Font Variant Generator
#+AUTHOR: Taḋg O'Brien
#+DATE: [2024-01-24 Wed]
Generate bold variants of font files using FontForge. This tool creates bold versions
of fonts while maintaining their core characteristics and allowing customization of
the bold weight.
* Rationale
Near impossibility of generating bold font variants in the GUI version of FontForge
without crashing these days. This script tries to catch and workaround some of the
issues. YMMV.
* Installation
Clone or download this repository.
** Prerequisites
- *FontForge*
Note: On MacOS make sure you install FontForge as a *cask* and not just the
CLI formula, as the latter doesn't include the Python interpreter needed for
this script.
- FontForge libraries (MacOS execution described here uses FontForge's Python interpreter)
- pipenv: [[https://pypi.org/project/pipenv/][pipenv]]
Note the Pipfile in this repo references the MacOS FontForge Python interpreter,
as it's near impossible to pull in the FontForge package via PyPI and get it
running on this platform. I hear it's running more flexibly on other platforms,
be my guest, YMMV.
*** MacOS pipenv install
#+begin_src sh
brew install --cask fontforge # if you don't already have it
brew install pipenv
#+end_src
** Virtual Environment
*** Set up virtual environment
#+begin_src sh
pipenv install
# optional, load virtual env in to your shell
pipenv shell
#+end_src
* Usage
** Basic usage:
#+begin_src sh
pipenv run gen-font-variants.py tigger.sfd
#+end_src
** With options:
#+begin_src sh
pipenv run gen-font-variants.py tigger.sfd --weight 20 --output-dir /path/to/output --force
#+end_src
*** Command Line Arguments
| Argument | Description | Default |
|-------------------+----------------------------------------------------+-------------------|
| input_file | Path to the input font file (supports SFD format) | Required |
| -w, --weight | Bold weight value to apply | 15 |
| -o, --output-dir | Output directory for generated files | Input file's dir |
| -f, --force | Force overwrite of existing output files | False |
| -h, --help | Show help message and exit | N/A |
** Output
The script generates:
- An SFD file with "-bold" suffix
- (Optionally) a TTF file with "-bold" suffix
** Features
- Customizable bold weight
- Output directory specification
- Overwrite protection
- Automatic metadata updates for bold variant
- Glyph-by-glyph processing
- Validation and repair of font data
** Error Handling
The script includes comprehensive error handling:
- Checks for existing output files
- Validates input file existence
- Creates output directory if needed
- Reports processing errors for individual glyphs
** Roadmap
*** TODO Generate italic variants
*** TODO Generate bold-italic variants
** License
*** This code
MIT
*** Referenced fonts at [[https://github.com/tigger04/tigger-fonts][tigger04/tigger-fonts]]
SIL Open Font License v1.1
** Contributing
Feel free to contribute to this project by submitting issues or pull requests.