Nfont packages

Nfonts packages

The Arts backend manages fonts using so-called nfonts.

Nfonts are hand-crafted directories with a plist file and the font files, where the backend can find additional information to the fonts.

System-wide available Nfont directories are usually installed to $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Library/Fonts/.

Creating a nfont is mainly a trivial task, so there are tools to help you creating them. One of them is alexm's mknfonts package.

Example

A typical nfont folder - in this case Arial.nfont packaged by Jeff Teunissen (Deek) - looks like this:

Arial.nfont/
Arial.nfont/ariali.ttf
Arial.nfont/arial.ttf
Arial.nfont/arialbi.ttf
Arial.nfont/arialbd.ttf
Arial.nfont/FontInfo.plist
Arial.nfont/arialblk.ttf

This is the FontInfo.plist file in that directory:

{
    Description = "Monotype Arial, WGL4 Character Set";
    Faces = (
	{
	    Files = (
		arial.ttf
	    );
	    LocalizedNames = {
		Basque = Arrunta;
		Catalan = Normal;
		Danish = normal;
		Dutch = Standaard;
		English = Regular;
		Finnish = Normaali;
		French = Normal;
		Germany = Standard;
		Hungarian = "Norm\u00e1l";
		Italian = Normale;
		Norwegian = Normal;
		Polish = Normalne;
		Portuguese = Normal;
		Slovak = "Norm\u00e1lne";
		Slovene = Navadno;
		Spanish = Normal;
		Swedish = Normal;
		Turkish = Normal;
	    };
	    Name = Regular;
	    PostScriptName = ArialMT;
	    RenderHints_hack = 0x0002;
	    Traits = 0;
	    Weight = 5;
	},
	{
	    Files = (
		ariali.ttf
	    );
	    LocalizedNames = {
		English = Italic;
	    };
	    Name = Italic;
	    PostScriptName = "Arial-ItalicMT";
	    RenderHints_hack = 0x0002;
	    Traits = 1;
	    Weight = 5;
	},
	{
	    Files = (
		arialbd.ttf
	    );
	    LocalizedNames = {
		English = Bold;
	    };
	    Name = Bold;
	    PostScriptName = "Arial-BoldMT";
	    RenderHints_hack = 0x0002;
	    Traits = 2;
	    Weight = 9;
	},
	{
	    Files = (
		arialbi.ttf
	    );
	    LocalizedNames = {
		English = "Bold Italic";
	    };
	    Name = "Bold Italic";
	    PostScriptName = "Arial-BoldItalicMT";
	    RenderHints_hack = 0x0002;
	    Traits = 3;
	    Weight = 9;
	},
	{
	    Files = (
		arialblk.ttf
	    );
	    LocalizedNames = {
		English = Black;
	    };
	    Name = Black;
	    PostScriptName = "Arial-Black";
	    RenderHints_hack = 0x0002;
	    Traits = 2;
	    Weight = 12;
	}
    );
    FontCopyright = "Typeface \u00a9 The Monotype Corporation plc.\nData \u00a9 The Monotype Corporation plc/Type Solutions Inc. 1990-1992.\nAll Rights Reserved";
    Foundry = "Monotype Typography";
    Packager = "Jeff Teunissen <deek@d2dc.net>";
    Version = 2.82;
}

Rendering Hints

There's a hack for encoding rendering hints into Nfonts packages. You provide them using the RenderHints_hack value. It's a 24-bit value (usually given in hexadecimal form), where the highest-order byte contains information on if we want to use antialiasing by default and the two following bytes contain hinting information for antialiased displays and non-antialiased displays.

<-- high-order bits                       low-order bits -->
[  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 D  |  0 0 0 0 0 0 A A  | 0 0 0 0 0 0 N N  ]
                 |                 \ /                \ /
      antialiasing switch           |                  |
                            hinting type           hinting type
                     on antialiased displays    on non-antialiased displays

The rendering hint types are as follows:

• '0' - unhinted, use only the font geometry
• '1' - use FreeType's auto-hinter
• '2' - use instructions in the font, if present
• '3' - force automatic hinting

Rendering Hint example

Let's say we have a RenderHints-hack-value of 0x010203. This would then mean "use antialiasing, on antialiased displays use instructions in the font and on unantialiased displays force automatic hinting.