FTBENCH(1)

🎀 ftbench(1) — General Commands Manual 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to the ftbench page. This is the General Commands Manual entry for it, and it's giving benchmark era 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ftbench — benchmark some common FreeType paths, no cap ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ftbench [options] fontname

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

The ftbench tool measures performance of some common FreeType operations. It's literally here to run the vibe check on speed, bestie 🏃‍♀️💨

This program is part of the FreeType demos package. Proud demo-package member, periodt 🎀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -a axis1,axis2,... — For Multiple Master, GX, or OpenType variation fonts, specify design coordinates for each axis at start-up. Ignored for all other font formats. So if your font has axes, this is your moment; otherwise it's just gonna sit there looking cute 🙈
• -b tests — Perform chosen tests. Here's the menu, bestie:
  • a — load glyphs (FT_Load_Glyph)
  • b — load advance widths (FT_Get_Advances)
  • c — render glyphs (FT_Render_Glyph)
  • d — load glyphs (FT_Get_Glyph)
  • e — get glyph indices (FT_Get_Char_Index)
  • f — iterate CMap (FT_Get_{First,Next}_Char)
  • g — open a new face (FT_New_Face or FT_New_Memory_Face)
  • h — embolden glyphs (FT_GlyphSlot_Embolden)
  • i — stroke glyphs (FT_Glyph_Stroke)
  • j — get glyph bboxes (FT_Outline_Get_BBox)
  • k — get glyph cboxes (FT_Glyph_Get_CBox)
  • l — open a new face and load glyphs

The default is abcdefghijkl — that's literally all the tests, iykyk 👑

The number of used glyphs per test (within a single iteration) is given by option -i.

• -C — Compare with cached version if available. Cute lil comparison moment 🫶
• -c N — Use at most N iterations for each test (0 means time limited). So 0 isn't "zero work", it's "let the clock decide", bestie ⏳
• -e E — Use charmap with index E instead of the default unicode. Charmap selection, but make it fashion 💅
• -f L — Use hexadecimal (not decimal) number L as load flags (see the FT_LOAD_XXX macros in the FreeType reference). Hex, not decimal — don't play yourself 🙈
• -H name — Using CFF hinting engine name. Available versions are depending on compilation options of FreeType; call ftbench without an argument to get the actual list. Built different depending on your FreeType build, fr fr 🔥
• -I ver — Using TT interpreter version ver. Available versions are depending on compilation options of FreeType; call ftbench without an argument to get the actual list. Same energy: check the list by running with no argument 🧚
• -i I-J — Forward or reverse range of glyph indices to use (default is from 0 to the number of glyphs minus one). Range supremacy 💖
• -m M — Set maximum cache size to M KiByte (default is 1024). Cache got a max, and it's 1024 KiByte by default ✨
• -p — Preload font file in memory (this is, testing FT_New_Memory_Face instead of FT_New_Face). Memory-face behavior, slay 🧠💅
• -r R — Set render mode to R:
  • 0 — normal
  • 1 — light
  • 2 — mono
  • 3 — horizontal LCD
  • 4 — vertical LCD

(default is 0). This corresponds to the values of the FT_RENDER_MODE_XXX flags. Render mode selection is main character energy 🌈

• -s S — Use S ppem as face size (default is 10ppem). If set to zero, don't call FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes. Use value 0 with option -f 1 or something similar to load the glyphs unscaled, otherwise errors will show up.

fr fr, zero has caveats: use 0 with something like -f 1 to load unscaled, or errors will show up 😭

• -t T — Use at most T seconds per test (default is 2). Timeout but make it cozy ⏰
• -v — Show version. The classic "what version are we on" check 🎀

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This page is from FreeType 2.15.0, dated October 2026 — that's the source/version and date, bestie. go benchmark and slay, byeee 💜🦋