TTFAUTOHINT(1)

✨ NAME ✨

ttfautohint — bestie, it slaps brand-new, auto-generated hints onto a TrueType font 💅

(also hi, this is from the User Commands part of the manual, in case you were wondering where you wandered into 🫶)

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ttfautohint [OPTION]... [IN-FILE [OUT-FILE]]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so here's the whole vibe: this thing takes the hints in a TrueType font called IN-FILE, throws them out, and writes the result to OUT-FILE. no cap.

and if OUT-FILE isn't there? standard output gets it instead, periodt. and if IN-FILE isn't there either? then it's standard input AND standard output, both, together, iconic behavior honestly.

the new hints are based on FreeType's auto-hinter. that's the whole secret sauce.

this program is basically a simple front-end to the ttfautohint library. like, the library does the heavy lifting, this is the little outfit it wears to go out ✨

oh and speaking of outfits — long options can be given with one OR two dashes, and with OR without the equal sign between the option and its argument. so all of these forms are acceptable: -foo=bar, --foo=bar, -foo bar, --foo bar. it's giving flexible 🌈

also: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. no shortcuts on the shortcuts, sorry bestie 😭

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --debug — prints out debugging information, for when you need to see the behind-the-scenes drama 🎬
• -a, --stem-width-mode=S — picks the stem width mode for grayscale, GDI ClearType, and DW ClearType. here S is a string of three letters, and the possible values are n for natural, q for quantized, and s for strong (default: qsq)
• -c, --composites — hints glyph composites too, not just the regular ones 🧚
• -d, --dehint — removes all hints. all of them. gone. bye 💀
• -D, --default-script=S — sets the default OpenType script (default: latn)
• -f, --fallback-script=S — sets the fallback script (default: none)
• -F, --family-suffix=S — appends a suffix to the family name string(s) in the name table
• -G, --hinting-limit=N — switches hinting off above this PPEM value (default: 200); a value of 0 means no limit at all, go wild
• -h, --help — displays this help and exits, the classic
• -H, --fallback-stem-width=N — sets the fallback stem width (default: 50 font units at 2048 UPEM)
• -i, --ignore-restrictions — overrides font license restrictions ⚠️ (read the notes below before you even think about it)
• -I, --detailed-info — adds detailed ttfautohint info to the version string(s) in the name table
• -l, --hinting-range-min=N — the minimum PPEM value for hint sets (default: 8)
• -m, --control-file=FILE — gets control instructions from FILE
• -n, --no-info — does NOT add ttfautohint info to the version string(s) in the name table
• -p, --adjust-subglyphs — handles subglyph adjustments in exotic fonts 🦋
• -r, --hinting-range-max=N — the maximum PPEM value for hint sets (default: 50)
• -R, --reference=FILE — derives blue zones from the reference font FILE
• -s, --symbol — the input is a symbol font
• -S, --fallback-scaling — uses fallback scaling, not hinting
• -t, --ttfa-table — adds a TTFA information table
• -T, --ttfa-info — displays the TTFA table in IN-FILE and exits
• -v, --verbose — shows progress information, so you're not just staring at a silent cursor 🫶
• -V, --version — prints version information and exits
• -W, --windows-compatibility — adds blue zones for usWinAscent and usWinDescent so nothing gets clipped ✂️
• -x, --increase-x-height=N — increases x height for sizes in the range 6<=PPEM<=N; a value of 0 switches this feature off (default: 14)
• -X, --x-height-snapping-exceptions=STRING — specifies a comma-separated list of x-height snapping exceptions, for example "-9, 13-17, 19" (default: "")
• -Z, --reference-index=N — face index of the reference font (default: 0)

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the program accepts both TTF and TTC files as input. use option -i only if you have a legal permission to modify the font, fr fr. the PPEM value used for option -p is FUnits per em, normally 2048. and with option -s, use default values for standard stem width and height — otherwise they get derived from script-specific characters that resemble the shape of the character o. cute, right?

a hint set contains the optimal hinting for a certain PPEM value; the larger the hint set range (as given by options -l and -r), the more hint sets get computed, which usually increases the output font size. the gasp table of the output file always enables grayscale hinting for all sizes (limited by option -G, which is handled in the bytecode). and increasing the value of -G does NOT increase the output font size — so that one's free, bestie 💅

🎀 the scripts situation 🎀

options -f and -D take a four-letter string that identifies a script. option -f sets the script used as a fallback for glyphs that can't be associated with a known script. by default, those glyphs get hinted; but if option -S is set, they're scaled only instead. option -D sets the default script for handling OpenType features.

possible four-letter string values are:

• adlm (Adlam)
• arab (Arabic)
• armn (Armenian)
• avst (Avestan)
• bamu (Bamum)
• beng (Bengali)
• buhd (Buhid)
• cakm (Chakma)
• cans (Canadian Syllabics)
• cari (Carian)
• cher (Cherokee)
• copt (Coptic)
• cprt (Cypriot)
• cyrl (Cyrillic)
• deva (Devanagari)
• dsrt (Deseret)
• ethi (Ethiopic)
• geor (Georgian (Mkhedruli))
• geok (Georgian (Khutsuri))
• glag (Glagolitic)
• goth (Gothic)
• grek (Greek)
• gujr (Gujarati)
• guru (Gurmukhi)
• hebr (Hebrew)
• hmnp (Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong)
• kali (Kayah Li)
• khmr (Khmer)
• khms (Khmer Symbols)
• knda (Kannada)
• lao (Lao)
• latn (Latin)
• latb (Latin Subscript Fallback)
• latp (Latin Superscript Fallback)
• lisu (Lisu)
• mlym (Malayalam)
• medf (Medefaidrin)
• mong (Mongolian)
• mymr (Myanmar)
• nkoo (N'Ko)
• olck (Ol Chiki)
• orkh (Old Turkic)
• osge (Osage)
• osma (Osmanya)
• rohg (Hanifi Rohingya)
• saur (Saurashtra)
• shaw (Shavian)
• sinh (Sinhala)
• sund (Sundanese)
• taml (Tamil)
• tavt (Tai Viet)
• telu (Telugu)
• tfng (Tifinagh)
• thai (Thai)
• vaii (Vai)
• yezi (Yezidi)
• none (no script)

🧚 the control instructions file 🧚

a control instructions file contains entries of the form:

[<font idx>] <script> <feature> @ <glyph ids>

[<font idx>] <script> <feature> w <stem widths>

[<font idx>] <glyph id> l|r <points> [(<left offset>,<right offset>)]

[<font idx>] <glyph id> n <points>

[<font idx>] <glyph id> t|p <points> [x <shift>] [y <shift>] @ <ppems>

<font idx> is the current subfont, <glyph id> is a glyph name or index, <glyph ids> is a set of <glyph id>s, <stem widths> is an unordered set of integer stem widths in font units, <shift> is a real number in px, and <points> and <ppems> are integer ranges as with option -X.

<script> and <feature> are four-letter tags that define a style the <glyph ids> are assigned to; possible values for <script> are the same as with option -D, and possible values for <feature> are:

• c2cp (petite capitals from capitals)
• c2sc (small capitals from capitals)
• ordn (ordinals)
• pcap (petite capitals)
• ruby (ruby)
• sinf (scientific inferiors)
• smcp (small capitals)
• subs (subscript)
• sups (superscript)
• titl (titling)

w assigns stem widths to a style; the first value sets the default. l (r) creates one-point segments with direction left (right). <left offset> and <right offset> specify offsets (in font units) relative to the corresponding points, to give the segments a length. n removes points from horizontal segments, making them weak points. t (p) applies delta exceptions to the given points before (after) IUP.

# starts a line comment, which gets ignored. empty lines are ignored too. (so you can vibe-format your file however you want 🫶)

key letters l, r, n, p, t, w, x, and y have the verbose aliases left, right, nodir, point, touch, width, xshift, and yshift, respectively.

oh also — there's a GUI version of this program and it's called ttfautohintGUI 🎀

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🫶 REPORTING BUGS 🫶

found a bug? tell the devs, they wanna know:

report bugs to: freetype-devel@nongnu.org

ttfautohint home page: https://www.freetype.org/ttfautohint

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 2011-2021 Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>. License: FreeType License (FTL) or GNU GPLv2.

this is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. there is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 💀

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okay bestie that's the whole page, you're officially a ttfautohint girlie now 💖✨

this was ttfautohint 1.8.4, from August 2021 — mwah, go hint something gorgeous 👑🌸