ttf2png - True Type Font to PNG converter
-Copyright (c) 2004-2007 Mikko Rasa, Mikkosoft Productions
+Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Mikko Rasa, Mikkosoft Productions
Software requirements
C compiler (preferably GCC)
-Changes
+Command-line options
+
+ -r <low>,<high>
+ Range of characters to convert, specified as unicode code points. The
+ default is 0,255, matching the ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) character set.
+
+ -s <pixels>
+ Font size to use. The default is 10 pixels.
+
+ -l <num>
+ Number of characters to put in one line. Defaults to autodetect. Ignored
+ if -p is used.
+
+ -c <pixels>
+ Character cell size. The special values auto and autorect may be used to
+ choose an autodetected square or rectangle cell, respectively. Defaults to
+ autodetected square. Ignored if -p is used.
+
+ -o <filename>
+ Output file name. Use - for stdout; the output is a png image, so it's
+ best to pipe it somewhere. The default is font.png.
+
+ -a
+ Force autohinter. By default native hinting is used if present in the
+ font.
+
+ -t
+ Render glyphs to alpha channel, with grey channel filled with white. By
+ default only the grey channel is used.
+
+ -i
+ Invert colors of the glyphs. When rendering to alpha channel, only the
+ alpha channel is inverted.
+
+ -v
+ Increase the level of verbosity.
+
+ -e
+ Use cells in sequence, without leaving gaps. By default the position of
+ each glyph is determined by its code point. Ignored if -p is used.
+
+ -p
+ Pack the glyphs tightly in the image. One-pixel gaps are left between
+ glyphs. By default glyphs are rendered in a regular grid. Creating a
+ definition file is recommended, as the resulting image can seem rather
+ messy.
+
+ -d
+ File name to write glyph definitions. See the section below for details.
+
+ -h
+ Print a help message with option summary.
+
+
+Glyph definition files
+
+Rendering a proportional font correctly requires some positioning and spacing
+information, called font metrics. To that end, ttf2png can write a definition
+file alongside the image.
+
+The basic format is line-based. Empty lines, or those starting with a hash
+sign (#), should be ignored. Data lines consist of fields separated with
+spaces.
+
+The first data line contains five fields with overall information about the
+image and the font:
+
+ Fields 1-2: width and height of the image
+ Field 3: nominal size of the font
+ Fields 4-5: ascent and descent of the font
+
+Subsequent data lines each describe a single glyph and contain eight fields:
+
+ Field 1: the code point of the glyph
+ Fields 2-3: x and y position of the glyph in the image
+ Fields 4-5: width and height of the glyph
+ Fields 6-7: x and y offset of the glyph from its base point
+ Field 8: advance from this glyph to the next
+
+The following ASCII art image illustrates most of these metrics. Note that in
+some fonts, not all of the glyphs fit completely inside the character box.
+
+ - - - - - - - - ^
+ | character box | |
+ |
+ | | |
+ o-------o | ascent
+ | | | | |
+ | glyph | |
+ | | | | |
+ base point | | |
+ \ | | | | |
+ \ | | |
+ _ __x___|_______|___|____|__ baseline
+ y_offset | | | |
+ v | o-------o | | descent
+ - - - - - - - - v
+
+ |--->
+ x_offset
+
+ |--------------->
+ advance
+
+
+Changelog
+
+next
+- Improve the packing algorithm
+- Non-square cells for grid mode
+- Option to invert colors
+
+0.3
+- Restructure the code
+- Add tight packing mode
+- Autodetect cell size and chars-per-line in grid mode
0.2.2
- Write both X and Y offsets of glyphs to the definition file