fonttools

Python toolkit for manipulating font files

TLDR

Show top-level fonttools help and subcommands

$ fonttools --help

Subset a TTF to the Basic Latin Unicode range

$ fonttools subset [path/to/font.ttf] --unicodes=U+0000-007F

SYNOPSIS

fonttools [subcommand] [options] [file]

fonttools is a Python library and command-line toolkit for manipulating font files. It provides tools for converting, subsetting, merging, and inspecting TrueType (TTF), OpenType (OTF), and other font formats.The most common use cases include subsetting fonts for web optimization (reducing file size by including only needed glyphs), converting between binary and XML representations for inspection or editing, and merging font families.Requires Python 3.10 or later. Install via pip with pip install fonttools.

PARAMETERS

subset

Subset font files to include only specific glyphs or Unicode ranges

ttx

Convert font binaries to/from XML format

merge

Merge multiple font files into one

help

Display help for fonttools or a specific subcommand

--unicodes=RANGE

Specify Unicode ranges to include (e.g., U+0000-007F)

--output-file=FILE

Specify output file path

--help

Display help message

INSTALL

sudo dnf install fonttools

sudo apk add py3-fonttools

brew install fonttools

CAVEATS

Some features require optional dependencies like brotli for WOFF2 compression or zopfli for optimized WOFF compression. Complex font operations may require deep understanding of font table structures.

HISTORY

fonttools originated in the late 1990s, created by Just van Rossum. It became one of the earliest tools for programmatic font manipulation in Python. The project has evolved significantly and is now maintained by the open-source community on GitHub, becoming a foundational tool in the font development ecosystem.