Changing FontForge’s UI Appearance¶

FontForge has an extensive appearance editor that evolved out of the X resource system but now bears little relation to it beyond its file format. As of 2021 every parameter is represented in the editor and almost all have a tooltip similar to the explanations below. The editor is therefore the primary source of information about the parameters and this document is mostly useful for its explanation of the new font specification system.

Fonts¶

A font specification consists of a size directive, one or more style directives a weight directive, an explicit or implicit family list, and/or a reference font name.

Explicit Size Directives¶

An explicit size directive is either an integer followed by “pt” for a point size (as in “10pt”) or an integer followed by “px” for a pixel size (as in “12px”).

Style Directives¶

A style directive is one or more of “italic”, “oblique”, “small-caps”, “extended”, and “condensed”.

Weight Directives¶

A weight directive is either one of the strings “normal”, “light”, or “bold” or an integer multiple of 100, where 400 is equivalent to “normal” and 700 is equivalent to “bold”.

Family Lists¶

A family list is a comma-separated list of families, where a given family name can contain spaces. When present a family list must come last in the specification, whereas other directives can occur in any order.

The directive “bold italic 10pt dejavu sans,helvetica,sans” therefore specifies 10 point bold italic DejaVu Sans as the font, with Helvetica and Sans possibly used as fallbacks for missing glyphs.

Reference Font Names¶

Instead of specifying a font from scratch you can do so in relation to a reference font, given by the name of the resource preceded by a caret. The primary fonts to reference are “View.DefaultFont”, “View.LabelFont”, “View.MonoFont”, and “View.SerifFont”. These are (or should be) specified with appropriate family lists for a sans-serif, “unicode”, monospace, and serif font respectively. They also specify a reference font size, which is 12 points by default. The label “unicode” font is typically used in cases where extended or obscure unicode characters are directly displayed (most often as glyph slot labels in the FontView window).

To copy the exact specification of a different font you can just include the reference name, as in “^View.DefaultFont”. To override the size, weight or style just include one of those directives, as in “10pt bold ^View.MonoFont”. Note that style directives are not cumulative, so if “FontInfo.Font” is bold then “italic ^FontInfo.Font” will just be italic, not bold italic.

Finally, and most usefully, you can specify a size as a percentage rather than an absolute size, with an integer followed by a percent sign. “83% bold ^View.DefaultFont” therefore specifies whatever size (in points or pixels) would be 83% of that font.

The default resource file now has these relative font settings, so that changing the point size of View.DefaultFont scales the whole UI. There are some glitches but for the most part it works at lower point sizes (less than 17).

Other Info¶

By default FontForge loads the system configuration file. You can change this behavior by adding a custom file in your preferences, which happens automatically when you choose Save As” in the File->Appearance Editor and keep the button checked. Also see File->Preference->Generic->ResourceFile.

When editing resources some will take effect immediately, some when a new window is opened, and some on the next restart of the program. It is therefore best to restart after each significant change.

The Directives¶

View¶

fontforge.View.DefaultFont: Specifies the main font family used throughout the program, which is usually sans-serif, along with a reference size (12 points by default).

fontforge.View.MonoFont: Specifies the monospace font family used in various fields and tables along with a reference size (copied from View.DefaultFont by default).

fontforge.View.SerifFont: Specifies the serif font family used in a few contexts along with a reference size (copied from View.DefaultFont by default).

fontforge.View.Background: Sets the background color for the drawing areas of the fontview, glyph view, bitmap view and metrics view.

Font View¶

fontforge.FontView.GlyphFGColor: The color of the glyph image in the FontView when not selected

fontforge.FontView.GlyphInfoColor: Sets the color used to display information about selected glyph, between the FontView menu bar and the glyph array.

fontforge.FontView.SlotOutlineColor: The color of the box around each glyph.

fontforge.FontView.SlotDivisionColor: The color of the line between the glyph label and glyph image

fontforge.FontView.LabelColor: The default color of the label

fontforge.FontView.UnencodedLabelColor: The color of the label when the glyph is not part of the encoding

fontforge.FontView.MissingLabelColor: The color of the substitute label when the proper one is unknown or unavailable.

fontforge.FontView.EmptySlotFgColor: Sets the color of crosses marking empty code points.

fontforge.FontView.SelectedColor: Sets the background color of selected glyphs.

fontforge.FontView.SelectedFgColor: Sets the foreground color of selected glyphs.

fontforge.FontView.ChangedColor: Sets the color used to mark changed glyphs.

fontforge.FontView.MissingBitmapColor: In a font with both outline and bitmaps this marks a slot with an outline but not a bitmap

fontforge.FontView.MissingOutlineColor: In a font with both outline and bitmaps this marks a slot with a bitmap but no outline

fontforge.FontView.HintingNeededColor: Sets the color of markings for glyphs that need hinting or instructing.

fontforge.FontView.MetricsAdvanceAtColor

fontforge.FontView.MetricsAdvanceToColor

fontforge.FontView.MetricsBaselineColor

fontforge.FontView.MetricsOriginColor: The respective colors of these metrics when they are set as visible in the View menu

fontforge.FontView.Font: The font used for the lables, which by default is just ^View.DefaultFont

Outline Points¶

fontforge.CharView.PointColor: Sets the color used to draw curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view.

fontforge.CharView.FirstPointColor: Sets the color of the first point on a contour.

fontforge.CharView.SelectedPointColor: Sets the color used to draw selected curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view.

fontforge.CharView.SelectedPointWidth: Sets the width of the line used to outline selected curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view.

fontforge.CharView.ExtremePointColor: Sets the color of a point which is an extremum.

fontforge.CharView.PointOfInflectionColor: Sets the color of a location which is a point of inflection.

fontforge.CharView.AlmostHVColor: Sets the color used to mark lines and curves which are almost, but not quite horizontal or vertical.

fontforge.CharView.NextCPColor: Sets the color used to draw the “Next” control point.

fontforge.CharView.PrevCPColor: Sets the color used to draw the “Previous” control point.

fontforge.CharView.SelectedCPColor: Sets the color used to draw a control point that has been selected.

fontforge.CharView.AnchorColor: Sets the color used to draw an anchor point

fontforge.CharView.LabelFont: Used for point and contour names, anchor point names, etc.

fontforge.CharView.IconFont: Used to build window decoration icons in some cases

fontforge.CharView.PointNumberFont: Used for point numbers, hints, etc.

Outline Lines/Fills¶

fontforge.CharView.ForegroundOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw foreground outlines.

fontforge.CharView.ForegroundThickOutlineColor: The color of thick outlines in the active layer (when zoomed in)

fontforge.CharView.FillColor: Sets the color used to draw a character’s fill

fontforge.CharView.PreviewFillColor: The color to use when performing a preview fill. If this is not set then FontForge will fallback to using fontforge.CharView.FillColor. Neither of these resources are set then black will be used.

fontforge.CharView.OpenPathColor: The color of the line of an open path. (The “thin” color will be with the alpha removed and the “thick” color will be with the alpha included.)

fontforge.CharView.ClipPathColor: The color of a clip path.

fontforge.CharView.BackgroundOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw background outlines.

fontforge.CharView.BackgroundThickOutlineColor: The color of “thick” background outlines (when zoomed in).

fontforge.CharView.WidthColor: Sets the color used to draw the advance width line.

fontforge.CharView.WidthSelColor: Sets the color used to draw the advance width if it is selected.

fontforge.CharView.LBearingSelColor: The color of the left bearing line wien selected

fontforge.CharView.LigatureCaretColor: Sets the color used to draw ligature caret lines.

fontforge.CharView.AnchoredOutlineColor: The color of another glyph drawn in the current view to show where it would be placed by an anchor lookup.

fontforge.CharView.CoordinateLineColor: Sets the color used to draw the baseline and x=0 line.

fontforge.CharView.AscentDescentColor: Sets the color used to draw the ascent and descent lines.

fontforge.CharView.ItalicCoordColor: Sets the color used to draw various horizontal metrics lines when they have been skewed appropriately for an italic font.

fontforge.CharView.MetricsLabelColor: Sets the color used to label metrics lines

fontforge.CharView.TemplateOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw a template outline. (not currently used)

fontforge.CharView.RulerBigTickColor: Sets the color of coarse-grained ruler ticks.

fontforge.CharView.RulerCurrentTickColor: Sets the color used to draw a vertical and a horizontal tick corresponding to the mouse position.

fontforge.CharView.RulerFont: Font uesd for ruler numbers and other ruler notations.

fontforge.CharView.GuideOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw outlines in the Guide layer.

fontforge.CharView.GuideDragColor: The color used to display a new guide line dragged from the ruler.

Outline Tools¶

fontforge.CharView.TraceColor: Sets the color used to draw the trace of the freehand tool.

fontforge.CharView.OldOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw the original outline of a set of splines being transformed with one of the transform tools (flip, rotate, scale, etc.)

fontforge.CharView.TransformOriginColor: Sets the color used to draw the origin of the current transformation.

fontforge.CharView.DraggingComparisonOutlineColor: The color used to draw the outline of the old spline when you are interactively modifying a glyph

fontforge.CharView.DraggingComparisonAlphaChannelColor: Only the alpha value of this parameter is used. If non zero it will set the alpha channel for the control points, bezier information and other non spline indicators for the Dragging Comparison Outline spline

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolLineColor: The color used to draw the measure tool line.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolPointColor: The color used to draw the measure tool points.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolPointSnappedColor: The color used to draw the measure tool points when snapped.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolCanvasNumbersColor: The color used to draw the measure tool numbers on the canvas.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolCanvasNumbersSnappedColor: The color used to draw the measure tool numbers on the canvas when snapped.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolWindowForeground: The measure tool “window” foreground color.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolWindowBackground: The measure tool “window” background color.

fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolFont: The font used to display the information in the measure tool “window”.

Outline Hints¶

fontforge.CharView.BlueValuesStippledCol: Sets the color used to draw the BlueValues and OtherBlues zones.

fontforge.CharView.FamilyBlueStippledColor: Sets the color used to draw the FamilyBlueValues and FamilyOtherBlues zones.

fontforge.CharView.MDHintColor: Sets the color used to draw minimum distance hints

fontforge.CharView.HintLabelColor: Sets the color used to label hint lines (and blue value lines)

fontforge.CharView.DHintColor: Sets the color used to draw diagonal hints

fontforge.CharView.HHintColor: Sets the color used to draw horizontal stem hints

fontforge.CharView.VHintColor: Sets the color used to draw vertical stem hints

fontforge.CharView.HFlexHintColor: Sets the color used to draw the halo around horizontal flex hints

fontforge.CharView.VFlexHintColor: Sets the color used to draw the halo around vertical flex hints.

fontforge.CharView.ConflictHintColor: Sets the color used to draw hints when they conflict

fontforge.CharView.HHintActiveColor: Sets the color used to draw a horizontal stem hint when it is active in the review hints dlg.

fontforge.CharView.VHintActiveColor: Sets the color used to draw a vertical stem hint when it is active in the review hints dlg.

fontforge.CharView.DeltaGridColor: Indicates a notable grid pixel when suggesting deltas.

Outline Raster¶

fontforge.CharView.GridFitOutlineColor: Sets the color used to draw outlines which have been gridfit (this should probably be the same as BackgroundOutlineColor as both are in the background layer).

fontforge.CharView.GridFitWidthColor: Sets the color used to draw the advance width once it has been grid fit (if View ‣ Show Grid Fit is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterColor: Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap (if View ‣ Show Grid Fit or Hints ‣ Debug is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterNewColor: Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap if they have recently been turned on (if Hints ‣ Debug is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterOldColor: Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap f they have recently been turned off (if Hints ‣ Debug is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterGridColor: Sets the color used to draw the pixel grid used by the rasterizer (if View ‣ Show Grid Fit or Hints ‣ Debug is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterDarkColor: When doing anti-aliased debugging, sets the color used for the darkest pixel. Other pixels will be interpolated between this and the background.

fontforge.CharView.BackgroundImageColor: Sets the color used to draw background images.

Palettes¶

fontforge.CharView.CVPaletteForegroundColor: The foreground color of the tools and layers palettes.

fontforge.CharView.CVPaletteBackgroundColor: The background color of the tools and layers palettes.

fontforge.CharView.Button3DEdgeLightColor: The color of the light edge of palette buttons when Button3d is True.

fontforge.CharView.Button3DEdgeDarkColor: The color of the dark edge of palette buttons when Button3d is True.

fontforge.CharView.Button3D: When True palette buttons are displayed with a 3D effect.

fontforge.LayersPalette.Font: The font used in the layers palettes dialog.

fontforge.ToolsPalette.Font: The font used in the Tools Palette dialog for labelling tool options.

Bitmap View¶

fontforge.BitmapView.BitmapColor: The color of the large bitmap.

fontforge.BitmapView.OverviewColor: The color of the small bitmap view.

fontforge.BitmapView.GuideColor: The color of the guide lines for glyph metrics.

fontforge.BitmapView.WidthGuideColor: The color of the guide line for the advance width.

fontforge.BitmapView.GridColor: The color of the guide lines for the bitmap grid.

fontforge.BitmapView.OutlineColor: The color of the outline.

fontforge.BitmapView.ActiveToolColor: The color of the preview for drawing lines, rectangles, and ellipses.

fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedRegionColor: The color of the selected region.

fontforge.BitmapView.ReferenceColor: The color of a reference.

fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedReferenceColor: The color of the selected reference.

fontforge.BitmapView.ReferenceBorderColor: The color used to outline a reference.

fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedReferenceBorderColor: The color used to outline the selected reference.

Metrics View¶

fontforge.MetricsView.Font: The font used to display labels in the metrics view.

fontforge.MetricsView.GlyphColor: The foreground color of the glyph display area.

fontforge.MetricsView.SelectedGlyphColor: The color for the currently selected glyph.

fontforge.MetricsView.AdvanceWidthColor: The color of field divider lines.

fontforge.MetricsView.AdvanceWidthColor: Sets the color for the grid lines in the metrics view when nothing special is happening to them.

fontforge.MetricsView.ItalicAdvanceColor: In an italic font, this will be the color used to draw the line at the italicAngle which corresponds to the italic advance width.

fontforge.MetricsView.KernLineColor: Sets the color for the grid line in the metrics view which currently may be moved to change a glyph’s kerning.

fontforge.MetricsView.SideBearingLneColor: Sets the color for the grid line in the metrics view which currently may be moved to change a glyph’s right side bearing (or bottom side bearing).

Misc Windows¶

fontforge.BDFProperties.Font: Sets the font used in the BDF Properties dialog for stand alone text

fontforge.Combinations.Font: Sets the font used in the kern and anchor combinations dialog for labelling the combinations

fontforge.CVT.Font: Sets the font used in the ‘cvt ‘ table dialog

fontforge.DebugView.Background: The background of the TTF debugging window.

fontforge.DebugView.Font: The font used to display the truetype instructions being debugged.

fontforge.FontInfo.OriginLineColor: The color used for the baseline and x=0 line in kerning dialogs.

fontforge.FontInfo.Font: The font used for Font Info dialog scrolling lists.

fontforge.GlyphInfo.Font: Sets the font used in the glyph info dialog for stand alone text

fontforge.Groups.Font: Sets the font used in the Groups dialog

fontforge.Histogram.Font: Sets the font used in the Histogram dialog

fontforge.KernClass.TextColor: Color for kerning class names.

fontforge.KernClass.Font: Sets the font used in the kern class and pair dialogs

fontforge.KernFormat.Font: The normal font used in the kernig format dialog.

fontforge.KernFormat.BoldFont: The bold font used in the kernig format dialog.

fontforge.Math.Font: The normal font used in the Math dialog.

fontforge.Math.BoldFont: The bold font used in the Math dialog.

Misc Windows 2¶

fontforge.Prefs.MonoFont: The monospace font used in the preferences dialog.

fontforge.SearchView.Font: Sets the font used in the find and replace dialog

fontforge.SearchView.BoldFont: Sets the bold font used in the find and replace dialog

fontforge.ShowATT.SelectColor: Color used for currently selected entry in the Show ATT dialog.

fontforge.ShowATT.GlyphNameColor: Color used for (some) glyph names in the Show ATT dialog.

fontforge.ShowATT.Font: Sets the font used in the Show ATT dialog

fontforge.ShowATT.MonoFont: Sets the monospaced font used in the Show ATT dialog

fontforge.StateMachine.Font: Sets the font used in the Apple state machine dialog

fontforge.TilePath.Font: Sets the font used in the Tile Path dialog

fontforge.TilePath.BoldFont: Sets the bold font used in the Tile Path dialog

fontforge.TTInstruction.Font: Sets the font used in the various dialogs which edit truetype instructions (‘fpgm’ table, glyph instructions, etc.)

fontforge.Validate.Font: Sets the font used in the Validate dialog

fontforge.Warnings.Font: Sets the font used in the Warnings dialog

Splash Screen¶

fontforge.Splash.Foreground: The foreground color of the About dialog.

fontforge.Splash.Background: The background color of the About… dialog.

fontforge.Splash.Font: Sets the font used in the splash screen and About FontForge dialog.

fontforge.Splash.ItalicFont: Sets the italic font used in the About… dialog.

fontforge.Splash.MonoFont: The monospace font used in the About… dialog.

fontforge.Splash.Image: The image used on the splash screen and About… dialog.

SFTextArea¶

fontforge.SFTextArea.Box.ActiveInner

fontforge.SFTextArea.Box.Padding: See the GGadget Box section.

fontforge.SFTextArea.Font: Sets the font used in the Print dialog and its variants dialog – except I don’t think this ever gets used.

GDraw¶

Gdraw.Background: The default background color in contexts other than View windows and GGadgets.

Gdraw.Foreground: The default foreground color in contexts other than View windows and GGadgets.

Gdraw.WarningForeground: A color appropriate for displaying warning and error messages relative to GDraw.Background and other background colors.

Gdraw.ScreenResolution: The resolution of the screen in dots per inch. (Don’t set this or set it to zero for the system default resolution.)

Gdraw.MultiClickTime

An integer (milliseconds)

The maximum amount of time allowed between two clicks for them to be considered a double (triple, etc.) click.

Gdraw.MultiClickWiggle

An integer (pixels)

The maximum number of pixels the mouse is allowed to move between two clicks and have them still be considered a double click.

Gdraw.SelectionNotifyTimeout

An integer (seconds)

Gdraw will wait this many seconds after making a request for a selection (ie. when doing a Paste). If it gets no responce after that period it reports a failure.

Gdraw.TwoButtonFixup

A boolean

On a windows keyboard use the modifier key with the flag on it to simulate mouse button 2 (middle button). If this key is depressed when a mouse button is pressed or released then pretend it was button 2 that was pressed or release.

Gdraw.MacOSXCmd

A boolean

On Mac OS X the user will probably expect to use the Command (apple, cloverleaf) key to control the menu (rather than the Control key). If this is set then the command key will be mapped to the control key internally.

Gdraw.Synchronize

A boolean

Whether to synchronize the display before raising the first window.

GDraw (X backend only)¶

These are not included in the appearance editor and need to be set some other way, perhaps through the normal X Resources system.

Gdraw.Depth

An integer (1, 8, 16, 32)

You can use this to request a different depth than the default one. Not all servers will support all depths. If FontForge can’t find a visual with the desired depth it will use the default depth.

Gdraw.VisualClass

A string (“StaticGray”, “GrayScale”, “StaticColor”, “PseudoColor”, “TrueColor”, “DirectColor”)

FontForge will search for a visual with the given class (and possibly depth if the depth argument is specified too).

Gdraw.Colormap

An string (“Current”, “Copy”, “Private”)

You can use this to control what FontForge does about the colormap on an 8bit screen

Current – FontForge will attempt to allocate its colors in the current colormap.
Copy – FontForge will allocate what colors it can and then copy the current color map into a private copy. This means FontForge has access to a much wider range of colors, and (as long as the shared colormap doesn’t change) FontForge’s colormap will match that of the rest of the screen.
Private – FontForge will allocate a private colormap and set the colors just as it wants them. It will almost certainly not match the shared colormap.

Gdraw.Keyboard

ibm | mac | sun | ppc | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3

Allows you to specify the type of keyboard. Currently this is only relevant when generating menus. The modifier keys are in different locations on different keyboards (under different operating systems) and if FontForge knows what keyboard you are using it can make the hot-keys have better labels.

ibm | 0

Uses the Control and Alt keys
mac | 1

Uses the Command and Option keys (Mac OS/X, Mac keyboard)
ppc | 3

Uses the Control and Command keys (Suse ppc linux, Mac keyboard)
sun | 2

Uses the Control and Meta keys

Progress¶

Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Font

A font

Specifies the font to use in a progress window.

Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Background

A color

Specifies the background color of progress window.

Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Foreground

A color

Specifies the foreground color of progress window.

Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.FillCol

A color

Specifies the color of the progress bar in the progress window.

GGadget¶

Gdraw.GGadget...

Every ggadget in enclosed in a box. No gadget is actually a GGadget, but every other gadget inherits (potentially with modification) from this abstract class. The following information may be supplied for any box:

...Box.BorderType

one of “none”, “box”, “raised”, “lowered”, “engraved”, “embossed”, “double”

For a description of these see the css manual.

...Box.BorderShape

one of “rect”, “roundrect”, “ellipse”, “diamond”

Describes the basic shape of the box. (some ggadgets must be in rectangles).

...Box.BorderWidth

An integer (points)

Specifies the width of the box’s border in points (NOT pixels)

...Box.Padding

An integer (points)

Specifies the padding between the interior of the box and the border

...Box.Radius

An integer (points)

Specifies the radius of a roundrect. Ignored for everything else.

...Box.BorderInner