Keith Packard HP Cambridge Research Lab KRP Fontconfig &version; Copyright © 2002 Keith Packard Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of the author(s) not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. The authors make no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. THE AUTHOR(S) DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR(S) BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. Fontconfig is a library designed to provide system-wide font configuration, customization and application access. Fontconfig contains two essential modules, the configuration module which builds an internal configuration from XML files and the matching module which accepts font patterns and returns the nearest matching font. The configuration module consists of the FcConfig datatype, libexpat and FcConfigParse which walks over an XML tree and amends a configuration with data found within. From an external perspective, configuration of the library consists of generating a valid XML tree and feeding that to FcConfigParse. The only other mechanism provided to applications for changing the running configuration is to add fonts and directories to the list of application-provided font files. The intent is to make font configurations relatively static, and shared by as many applications as possible. It is hoped that this will lead to more stable font selection when passing names from one application to another. XML was chosen as a configuration file format because it provides a format which is easy for external agents to edit while retaining the correct structure and syntax. Font configuration is separate from font matching; applications needing to do their own matching can access the available fonts from the library and perform private matching. The intent is to permit applications to pick and choose appropriate functionality from the library instead of forcing them to choose between this library and a private configuration mechanism. The hope is that this will ensure that configuration of fonts for all applications can be centralized in one place. Centralizing font configuration will simplify and regularize font installation and customization. While font patterns may contain essentially any properties, there are some well known properties with associated types. Fontconfig uses some of these properties for font matching and font completion. Others are provided as a convenience for the application's rendering mechanism. Property Definitions Property C Preprocessor Symbol Type Description ---------------------------------------------------- family FC_FAMILY String Font family names familylang FC_FAMILYLANG String Language corresponding to each family name style FC_STYLE String Font style. Overrides weight and slant stylelang FC_STYLELANG String Language corresponding to each style name fullname FC_FULLNAME String Font face full name where different from family and family + style fullnamelang FC_FULLNAMELANG String Language corresponding to each fullname slant FC_SLANT Int Italic, oblique or roman weight FC_WEIGHT Int Light, medium, demibold, bold or black width FC_WIDTH Int Condensed, normal or expanded size FC_SIZE Double Point size aspect FC_ASPECT Double Stretches glyphs horizontally before hinting pixelsize FC_PIXEL_SIZE Double Pixel size spacing FC_SPACING Int Proportional, dual-width, monospace or charcell foundry FC_FOUNDRY String Font foundry name antialias FC_ANTIALIAS Bool Whether glyphs can be antialiased hintstyle FC_HINT_STYLE Int Automatic hinting style hinting FC_HINTING Bool Whether the rasterizer should use hinting verticallayout FC_VERTICAL_LAYOUT Bool Use vertical layout autohint FC_AUTOHINT Bool Use autohinter instead of normal hinter globaladvance FC_GLOBAL_ADVANCE Bool Use font global advance data (deprecated) file FC_FILE String The filename holding the font relative to the config's sysroot index FC_INDEX Int The index of the font within the file ftface FC_FT_FACE FT_Face Use the specified FreeType face object rasterizer FC_RASTERIZER String Which rasterizer is in use (deprecated) outline FC_OUTLINE Bool Whether the glyphs are outlines scalable FC_SCALABLE Bool Whether the glyphs are outlines or have color dpi FC_DPI Double Target dots per inch rgba FC_RGBA Int unknown, rgb, bgr, vrgb, vbgr, none - subpixel geometry scale FC_SCALE Double Scale factor for point->pixel conversions (deprecated) minspace FC_MINSPACE Bool Eliminate leading from line spacing matrix FC_MATRIX Matrix Hold an affine transformation charset FC_CHARSET CharSet Unicode chars encoded by the font lang FC_LANG LangSet Set of RFC-3066-style languages this font supports fontversion FC_FONTVERSION Int Version number of the font capability FC_CAPABILITY String List of layout capabilities in the font fontformat FC_FONTFORMAT String String name of the font format embolden FC_EMBOLDEN Bool Rasterizer should synthetically embolden the font embeddedbitmap FC_EMBEDDED_BITMAP Bool Use the embedded bitmap instead of the outline decorative FC_DECORATIVE Bool Whether the style is a decorative variant lcdfilter FC_LCD_FILTER Int Type of LCD filter namelang FC_NAMELANG String Language name to be used for the default value of familylang, stylelang and fullnamelang fontfeatures FC_FONT_FEATURES String List of extra feature tags in OpenType to be enabled prgname FC_PRGNAME String Name of the running program hash FC_HASH String SHA256 hash value of the font data with "sha256:" prefix (deprecated) postscriptname FC_POSTSCRIPT_NAME String Font name in PostScript color FC_COLOR Bool Whether any glyphs have color symbol FC_SYMBOL Bool Whether font uses MS symbol-font encoding fontvariations FC_FONT_VARIATIONS String comma-separated string of axes in variable font variable FC_VARIABLE Bool Whether font is Variable Font fonthashint FC_FONT_HAS_HINT Bool Whether font has hinting order FC_ORDER Int Order number of the font desktop FC_DESKTOP_NAME String Current desktop name namedinstance FC_NAMED_INSTANCE Bool Whether font is a named instance Fontconfig uses abstract data types to hide internal implementation details for most data structures. A few structures are exposed where appropriate. These are primitive data types; the FcChar* types hold precisely the number of bits stated (if supported by the C implementation). FcBool holds one of two C preprocessor symbols: FcFalse or FcTrue. An FcMatrix holds an affine transformation, usually used to reshape glyphs. A small set of matrix operations are provided to manipulate these. typedef struct _FcMatrix { double xx, xy, yx, yy; } FcMatrix; An FcCharSet is an abstract type that holds the set of encoded Unicode chars in a font. Operations to build and compare these sets are provided. An FcLangSet is an abstract type that holds the set of languages supported by a font. Operations to build and compare these sets are provided. These are computed for a font based on orthographic information built into the fontconfig library. Fontconfig has orthographies for all of the ISO 639-1 languages except for MS, NA, PA, PS, QU, RN, RW, SD, SG, SN, SU and ZA. If you have orthographic information for any of these languages, please submit them. An FcLangResult is an enumeration used to return the results of comparing two language strings or FcLangSet objects. FcLangEqual means the objects match language and territory. FcLangDifferentTerritory means the objects match in language but differ in territory. FcLangDifferentLang means the objects differ in language. Tags the kind of data stored in an FcValue. An FcValue object holds a single value with one of a number of different types. The 'type' tag indicates which member is valid. typedef struct _FcValue { FcType type; union { const FcChar8 *s; int i; FcBool b; double d; const FcMatrix *m; const FcCharSet *c; void *f; const FcLangSet *l; const FcRange *r; } u; } FcValue; FcValue Members Type Union member Datatype -------------------------------- FcTypeVoid (none) (none) FcTypeInteger i int FcTypeDouble d double FcTypeString s FcChar8 * FcTypeBool b b FcTypeMatrix m FcMatrix * FcTypeCharSet c FcCharSet * FcTypeFTFace f void * (FT_Face) FcTypeLangSet l FcLangSet * FcTypeRange r FcRange * An FcPattern holds a set of names with associated value lists; each name refers to a property of a font. FcPatterns are used as inputs to the matching code as well as holding information about specific fonts. Each property can hold one or more values; conventionally all of the same type, although the interface doesn't demand that. An FcPatternIter is used during iteration to access properties in FcPattern. typedef struct _FcFontSet { int nfont; int sfont; FcPattern **fonts; } FcFontSet; An FcFontSet contains a list of FcPatterns. Internally fontconfig uses this data structure to hold sets of fonts. Externally, fontconfig returns the results of listing fonts in this format. 'nfont' holds the number of patterns in the 'fonts' array; 'sfont' is used to indicate the size of that array. FcStrSet holds a list of strings that can be appended to and enumerated. Its unique characteristic is that the enumeration works even while strings are appended during enumeration. FcStrList is used during enumeration to safely and correctly walk the list of strings even while that list is edited in the middle of enumeration. typedef struct _FcObjectSet { int nobject; int sobject; const char **objects; } FcObjectSet; holds a set of names and is used to specify which fields from fonts are placed in the the list of returned patterns when listing fonts. typedef struct _FcObjectType { const char *object; FcType type; } FcObjectType; marks the type of a pattern element generated when parsing font names. Applications can add new object types so that font names may contain the new elements. typedef struct _FcConstant { const FcChar8 *name; const char *object; int value; } FcConstant; Provides for symbolic constants for new pattern elements. When 'name' is seen in a font name, an 'object' element is created with value 'value'. holds a list of Unicode chars which are expected to be blank; unexpectedly blank chars are assumed to be invalid and are elided from the charset associated with the font. FcBlanks is deprecated and should not be used in newly written code. It is still accepted by some functions for compatibility with older code but will be removed in the future. holds the per-user cache information for use while loading the font database. This is built automatically for the current configuration when that is loaded. Applications must always pass '0' when one is requested. holds a complete configuration of the library; there is one default configuration, other can be constructed from XML data structures. All public entry points that need global data can take an optional FcConfig* argument; passing 0 uses the default configuration. FcConfig objects hold two sets of fonts, the first contains those specified by the configuration, the second set holds those added by the application at run-time. Interfaces that need to reference a particular set use one of the FcSetName enumerated values. Specifies one of the two sets of fonts available in a configuration; FcSetSystem for those fonts specified in the configuration and FcSetApplication which holds fonts provided by the application. Used as a return type for functions manipulating FcPattern objects. FcResult Values Result Code Meaning ----------------------------------------------------------- FcResultMatch Object exists with the specified ID FcResultNoMatch Object doesn't exist at all FcResultTypeMismatch Object exists, but the type doesn't match FcResultNoId Object exists, but has fewer values than specified FcResultOutOfMemory malloc failed Used for locking access to configuration files. Provides a safe way to update configuration files. Holds information about the fonts contained in a single directory. Normal applications need not worry about this as caches for font access are automatically managed by the library. Applications dealing with cache management may want to use some of these objects in their work, however the included 'fc-cache' program generally suffices for all of that. These are grouped by functionality, often using the main data type being manipulated. These functions provide some control over how the library is initialized. &fcinit; An FcPattern is an opaque type that holds both patterns to match against the available fonts, as well as the information about each font. &fcpattern; &fcformat; An FcFontSet simply holds a list of patterns; these are used to return the results of listing available fonts. &fcfontset; An FcObjectSet holds a list of pattern property names; it is used to indicate which properties are to be returned in the patterns from FcFontList. &fcobjectset; While the fontconfig library doesn't insist that FreeType be used as the rasterization mechanism for fonts, it does provide some convenience functions. &fcfreetype; FcValue is a structure containing a type tag and a union of all possible datatypes. The tag is an enum of type FcType and is intended to provide a measure of run-time typechecking, although that depends on careful programming. &fcvalue; An FcCharSet is a boolean array indicating a set of Unicode chars. Those associated with a font are marked constant and cannot be edited. FcCharSets may be reference counted internally to reduce memory consumption; this may be visible to applications as the result of FcCharSetCopy may return it's argument, and that CharSet may remain unmodifiable. &fccharset; An FcLangSet is a set of language names (each of which include language and an optional territory). They are used when selecting fonts to indicate which languages the fonts need to support. Each font is marked, using language orthography information built into fontconfig, with the set of supported languages. &fclangset; FcMatrix structures hold an affine transformation in matrix form. &fcmatrix; An FcRange holds two variables to indicate a range in between. &fcrange; An FcConfig object holds the internal representation of a configuration. There is a default configuration which applications may use by passing 0 to any function using the data within an FcConfig. &fcconfig; Provides for application-specified font name object types so that new pattern elements can be generated from font names. &fcobjecttype; Provides for application-specified symbolic constants for font names. &fcconstant; Maps weights to and from OpenType weights. &fcweight; An FcBlanks object holds a list of Unicode chars which are expected to be blank when drawn. When scanning new fonts, any glyphs which are empty and not in this list will be assumed to be broken and not placed in the FcCharSet associated with the font. This provides a significantly more accurate CharSet for applications. FcBlanks is deprecated and should not be used in newly written code. It is still accepted by some functions for compatibility with older code but will be removed in the future. &fcblanks; These functions provide a safe way to update configuration files, allowing ongoing reading of the old configuration file while locked for writing and ensuring that a consistent and complete version of the configuration file is always available. &fcatomic; These routines work with font files and directories, including font directory cache files. &fcfile; &fcdircache; These routines work with font directory caches, accessing their contents in limited ways. It is not expected that normal applications will need to use these functions. &fccache; A data structure for enumerating strings, used to list directories while scanning the configuration as directories are added while scanning. &fcstrset; Fontconfig manipulates many UTF-8 strings represented with the FcChar8 type. These functions are exposed to help applications deal with these UTF-8 strings in a locale-insensitive manner. &fcstring;