GNU/Linux |
RedHat 9.0(Shrike) |
|
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fontconfig(3) |
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fontconfig − Font configuration and customization library
#include
<fontconfig/fontconfig.h>
#include <fontconfig/fcfreetype.h>
Fontconfig is a library designed to provide system-wide font configuration, customization and application access.
Fontconfig contains two essential modules, the configuration module which builds an internal configuration from XML files and the matching module which accepts font patterns and returns the nearest matching font.
FONT
CONFIGURATION
The configuration module consists of the FcConfig datatype,
libexpat and FcConfigParse which walks over an XML tree and
ammends a configuration with data found within. From an
external perspective, configuration of the library consists
of generating a valid XML tree and feeding that to
FcConfigParse. The only other mechanism provided to
applications for changing the running configuration is to
add fonts and directories to the list of
application-provided font files.
The intent is to make font configurations relatively static, and shared by as many applications as possible. It is hoped that this will lead to more stable font selection when passing names from one application to another. XML was chosen as a configuration file format because it provides a format which is easy for external agents to edit while retaining the correct structure and syntax.
Font configuration is separate from font matching; applications needing to do their own matching can access the available fonts from the library and perform private matching. The intent is to permit applications to pick and choose appropriate functionality from the library instead of forcing them to choose between this library and a private configuration mechanism. The hope is that this will ensure that configuration of fonts for all applications can be centralized in one place. Centralizing font configuration will make simplify and regularize font installation and customization.
FONT
PROPERTIES
While font patterns may contain essentially any properties,
there are some well known properties with associated types.
Fontconfig uses some of these properties for font matching
and font completion. Others are provided as a convenience
for the applications rendering mechanism.
Property |
CPP symbol |
Type |
Description |
||
—————————— |
————————————————— |
———————— |
———————————————————— | ||
family |
FC_FAMILY |
String |
Font family name |
||
style |
FC_STYLE |
String |
Font style. Overrides weight and slant |
||
slant |
FC_SLANT |
Int |
Italic, oblique or roman |
||
weight |
FC_WEIGHT |
Int |
Light, medium, demibold, bold or black |
||
size |
FC_SIZE |
Double |
Point size |
||
aspect |
FC_ASPECT |
Double |
Stretches glyphs horizontally before hinting |
||
pixelsize |
FC_PIXEL_SIZE |
Double |
Pixel size |
||
spacing |
FC_SPACING |
Int |
Proportional, monospace or charcell |
||
foundry |
FC_FOUNDRY |
String |
Font foundry name |
||
antialias |
FC_ANTIALIAS |
Bool |
Whether glyphs can be antialiased |
||
hinting |
FC_HINTING |
Bool |
Whether the rasterizer should use hinting |
||
verticallayout |
FC_VERTICAL_LAYOUT |
BoolUse vertical layout | |||
autohint |
FC_AUTOHINT |
Bool |
Use autohinter instead of normal hinter |
||
globaladvance |
FC_GLOBAL_ADVANCE |
BoolUse font global advance data | |||
file |
FC_FILE |
String |
The filename holding the font |
||
index |
FC_INDEX |
Int |
The index of the font within the file |
||
ftface |
FC_FT_FACE |
FT_Face |
Use the specified FreeType face object |
||
rasterizer |
FC_RASTERIZER |
StringWhich rasterizer is in use | |||
outline |
FC_OUTLINE |
Bool |
Whether the glyphs are outlines |
||
scalable |
FC_SCALABLE |
Bool |
Whether glyphs can be scaled |
||
scale |
FC_SCALE |
Double |
Scale factor for point->pixel conversions |
||
dpi |
FC_DPI |
Double |
Target dots per inch |
||
rgba |
FC_RGBA |
Int |
unknown, rgb, bgr, vrgb, vbgr, none - subpixel geometry |
||
minspace |
FC_MINSPACE |
Bool |
Eliminate leading from line spacing |
||
charset |
FC_CHARSET |
CharSet |
Unicode chars encoded by the font |
||
lang |
FC_LANG |
String |
List of RFC-3066-style languages this font supports |
FONT
MATCHING
Fontconfig performs matching by measuring the distance from
a provided pattern to all of the available fonts in the
system. The closest matching font is selected. This ensures
that a font will always be returned, but doesn’t
ensure that it is anything like the requested pattern.
Font matching starts with an application constructed pattern. The desired attributes of the resulting font are collected together in an FcPattern object. Each property of the pattern can contain one or more values; these are listed in priority order; matches earlier in the list are considered "closer" than matches later in the list.
The initial pattern is modified by applying the list of editing instructions specific to patterns found in the configuration; each consists of a match predicate and a set of editing operations. They are executed in the order they appeared in the configuration. Each match causes the associated sequence of editing operations to be applied.
After the pattern has been edited, a sequence of default substitutions are performed to canonicalize the set of available properties; this avoids the need for the lower layers to constantly provide default values for various font properties during rendering.
The canonical font pattern is finally matched against all available fonts. The distance from the pattern to the font is measured for each of several properties: foundry, charset, family, lang, spacing, pixelsize, style, slant, weight, antialias, rasterizer and outline. This list is in priority order -- results of comparing earlier elements of this list weigh more heavily than later elements.
There is one special case to this rule; family names are split into two bindings; strong and weak. Strong family names are given greater precedence in the match than lang elements while weak family names are given lower precedence than lang elements. This permits the document language to drive font selection when any document specified font is unavailable.
The pattern representing that font is augmented to include any properties found in the pattern but not found in the font itself; this permits the application to pass rendering instructions or any other data through the matching system. Finally, the list of editing instructions specific to fonts found in the configuration are applied to the pattern. This modified pattern is returned to the application.
The return value contains sufficient information to locate and rasterize the font, including the file name, pixel size and other rendering data. As none of the information involved pertains to the FreeType library, applications are free to use any rasterization engine or even to take the identified font file and access it directly.
The match/edit sequences in the configuration are performed in two passes because there are essentially two different operations necessary -- the first is to modify how fonts are selected; aliasing families and adding suitable defaults. The second is to modify how the selected fonts are rasterized. Those must apply to the selected font, not the original pattern as false matches will often occur.
FONT LIST
MATCHING
While many applications want to locate a single font best
matching their search criteria, other applications need to
build a set of fonts which can be used to present any
Unicode data. Fontconfig provides an API to generate a list
sorted by the nearness of each font to the pattern. Every
font in the system is considered, the best matching fonts
are placed first. The application then can select whether
the remaining fonts are unconditionally included in the
list, or whether they are included only if they cover
portions of Unicode not covered by any of the preceeding
fonts.
The list resulting from this match is represented by references to the original font patterns and so consumes very little memory. Using a list entry involves creating a pattern which combines the information from the font with the information from the original pattern and executing the font substitutions.
FONT
NAMES
Fontconfig provides a textual representation for patterns
that the library can both accept and generate. The
representation is in three parts, first a list of family
names, second a list of point sizes and finally a list of
additional properties:
<families>-<point sizes>:<name1>=<values1>:<name2>=<values2>... |
Values in a list are separated with commas. The name needn’t include either families or point sizes; they can be elided. In addition, there are symbolic constants that simultaneously indicate both a name and a value. Here are some examples:
Times-12 |
12 point Times Roman | |
Times-12:bold |
12 point Times Bold | |
Courier:italic |
Courier Italic in the default size | |
Monospace:matrix=1 .1 0 1The users preferred monospace font |
||
with artificial obliquing |
Each font in the database contains a list of languages it supports. This is computed by comparing the Unicode coverage of the font with the orthography of each language. Languages are tagged using an RFC-3066 compatible naming and occur in two parts -- the ISO639 language tag followed a hyphen and then by the ISO 3166 country code. The hyphen and country code may be elided.
Fontconfig has orthographies for several languages built into the library. No provision has been made for adding new ones aside from rebuilding the library. It currently supports 122 of the 139 languages named in ISO 639-1, 141 of the languages with two-letter codes from ISO 639-2 and another 30 languages with only three-letter codes.
FcChar8
FcChar16
FcChar32
FcBool |
These are primitive datatypes; the FcChar* types hold precisely the number of bits stated (if supported by the C implementation). FcBool holds one of two CPP symbols: FcFalse or FcTrue. |
FcMatrix
An FcMatrix holds an affine transformation, usually used to reshape glyphs. A small set of matrix operations are provided to manipulate these.
typedef struct _FcMatrix {
double xx, xy, yx, yy; | |||
} FcMatrix; |
FcCharSet
An FcCharSet is an abstract type that holds the set of encoded unicode chars in a font. Operations to build and compare these sets are provided.
FcType |
Tags the kind of data stored in an FcValue. |
FcValue
An FcValue object holds a single value with one of a number of different types. The ’type’ tag indicates which member is valid.
typedef struct _FcValue {
FcType type; | ||||
union { | ||||
const FcChar8 *s; | ||||
int i; | ||||
FcBool b; | ||||
double d; | ||||
const FcMatrix *m; | ||||
const FcCharSet *c; | ||||
} u; | ||||
} FcValue; |
type |
Union member |
Datatype | ||
—————————— |
—————————— |
—————————— | ||
FcTypeVoid |
(none) |
(none) | ||
FcTypeInteger |
i |
int | ||
FcTypeDouble |
d |
double | ||
FcTypeString |
s |
char * | ||
FcTypeBool |
b |
b | ||
FcTypeMatrix |
m |
FcMatrix * | ||
FcTypeCharSet |
c |
FcCharSet * |
FcPattern
holds a set of names with associated value lists; each name refers to a property of a font. FcPatterns are used as inputs to the matching code as well as holding information about specific fonts. Each property can hold one or more values; conventionally all of the same type, although the interface doesn’t demand that.
FcFontSet
typedef struct _FcFontSet { | |||
int nfont; | |||
int sfont; | |||
FcPattern **fonts; | |||
} FcFontSet; |
An FcFontSet contains a list of FcPatterns. Internally fontconfig uses this data structure to hold sets of fonts. Externally, fontconfig returns the results of listing fonts in this format. ’nfont’ holds the number of patterns in the ’fonts’ array; ’sfont’ is used to indicate the size of that array.
FcStrSet
FcStrList FcStrSet holds a list of strings that can be appended to and enumerated. Its unique characteristic is that the enumeration works even while strings are appended during enumeration. FcStrList is used during enumeration to safely and correctly walk the list of strings even while that list is edited in the middle of enumeration.
FcObjectSet
typedef struct _FcObjectSet { | |||
int nobject; | |||
int sobject; | |||
const char **objects; | |||
} FcObjectSet; |
holds a set of names and is used to specify which fields from fonts are placed in the the list of returned patterns when listing fonts.
FcObjectType
typedef struct _FcObjectType { | |||
const char *object; | |||
FcType type; | |||
} FcObjectType; |
marks the type of a pattern element generated when parsing font names. Applications can add new object types so that font names may contain the new elements.
FcConstant
typedef struct _FcConstant { | ||
const FcChar8 *name; | ||
const char *object; | ||
int value; | ||
} FcConstant; |
Provides for symbolic constants for new pattern elements. When ’name’ is seen in a font name, an ’object’ element is created with value ’value’.
FcBlanks
holds a list of Unicode chars which are expected to be blank; unexpectedly blank chars are assumed to be invalid and are elided from the charset associated with the font.
FcFileCache
holds the per-user cache information for use while loading the font database. This is built automatically for the current configuration when that is loaded. Applications must always pass ’0’ when one is requested.
FcConfig
holds a complete configuration of the library; there is one default configuration, other can be constructed from XML data structures. All public entry points that need global data can take an optional FcConfig* argument; passing 0 uses the default configuration. FcConfig objects hold two sets of fonts, the first contains those specified by the configuration, the second set holds those added by the application at run-time. Interfaces that need to reference a particulat set use one of the FcSetName enumerated values.
FcSetName
Specifies one of the two sets of fonts available in a configuration; FcSetSystem for those fonts specified in the configuration and FcSetApplication which holds fonts provided by the application.
FcResult
Used as a return type for functions manipulating FcPattern objects.
Result code |
Meaning |
||
———————————————————— |
—————————— | ||
FcResultMatch |
Object exists with the specified ID |
||
FcResultNoMatch |
Object doesn’t exist at all |
||
FcResultTypeMismatch |
Object exists, but the type doesn’t match | ||
FcResultNoId |
Object exists, but has fewer values than specified |
FcAtomic
Used for locking access to config files. Provides a safe way to update configuration files.
FcMatrix
FcMatrix structures hold an affine transformation in matrix
form.
#define FcMatrixInit(m) |
((m)->xx = (m)->yy = 1, (m)->xy = (m)->yx = 0) |
Initializes a matrix to the identify transformation.
FcMatrix *FcMatrixCopy (const FcMatrix *mat)
Allocates a new FcMatrix and copies ’mat’ into it.
FcBool FcMatrixEqual (const FcMatrix *mat1, const FcMatrix *mat2)
Returns FcTrue if ’mat1’ and ’mat2’ are equal, else FcFalse.
void FcMatrixMultiply (FcMatrix
*result, const FcMatrix *a, const
FcMatrix *b)
Multiplies ’a’ and ’b’ together, placing the result in ’result’. ’result’ may refer to the sam matrix as either ’a’ or ’b’.
void FcMatrixRotate (FcMatrix *m, double c, double s)
If ’c’ is cos(angle) and ’s’ is sin(angle), FcMatrixRotate rotates the matrix by ’angle’.
void FcMatrixScale (FcMatrix *m, double sx, double sy)
Scales ’m’ by ’sx’ in the horizontal dimension and ’sy’ in the vertical dimension.
void FcMatrixShear (FcMatrix *m, double sh, double sv)
Shears ’m’ by ’sh’ in the horizontal direction and ’sv’ in the vertical direction.
FcCharSet
An FcCharSet is a boolean array indicating a set of unicode
chars. Those associated with a font are marked constant and
cannot be edited. FcCharSets may be reference counted
internally to reduce memory consumption; this may be visible
to applications as the result of FcCharSetCopy may return
it’s argument, and that CharSet may remain
unmodifiable.
FcCharSet *FcCharSetCreate (void)
Creates an empty FcCharSet object.
void FcCharSetDestroy (FcCharSet *fcs)
Frees an FcCharSet object.
FcBool FcCharSetAddChar (FcCharSet *fcs, FcChar32 ucs4)
Adds a single unicode char to the set, returning FcFalse on failure, either as a result of a constant set or from running out of memory.
FcCharSet *FcCharSetCopy (FcCharSet *src)
Makes a copy of ’src’; note that this may not actually do anything more than increment the reference count on ’src’.
FcBool FcCharSetEqual (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet *b)
Returns whether ’a’ and ’b’ contain the same set of unicode chars.
FcCharSet *FcCharSetIntersect (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet *b)
Returns a set including only those chars found in both ’a’ and ’b’.
FcCharSet *FcCharSetUnion (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet *b);
Returns a set including only those chars found in either ’a’ or ’b’.
FcCharSet *FcCharSetSubtract (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet *b)
Returns a set including only those chars found in ’a’ but not ’b’.
FcBool FcCharSetHasChar (const FcCharSet *fcs, FcChar32 ucs4)
Returns whether ’fcs’ contains the char ’ucs4’.
FcChar32 FcCharSetCount (const FcCharSet *a)
Returns the total number of unicode chars in ’a’.
FcChar32
FcCharSetIntersectCount (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet
*b)
Returns the number of chars that are in both ’a’ and ’b’.
FcChar32 FcCharSetSubtractCount
(const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet
*b)
Returns the number of chars that are in ’a’ but not in ’b’.
FcBool FcCharSetIsSubset (const FcCharSet *a, const FcCharSet *b)
Returns whether ’a’ is a subset of ’b’.
FcChar32 FcCharSetFirstPage
(const FcCharSet *a, FcChar32
[FC_CHARSET_MAP_SIZE], FcChar32 *next)
Builds an array of bits marking the first page of Unicode coverage of ’a’. Returns the base of the array. ’next’ contains the next page in the font.
FcChar32 FcCharSetNextPage
(const FcCharSet *a, FcChar32
[FC_CHARSET_MAP_SIZE], FcChar32 *next)
Builds an array of bits marking the Unicode coverage of ’a’ for page ’*next’. Returns the base of the array. ’next’ contains the next page in the font.
FcValue
FcValue is a structure containing a type tag and a union of
all possible datatypes. The tag is an enum of type
FcType and is intended to provide a measure of
run-time typechecking, although that depends on careful
programming.
void FcValueDestroy (FcValue v)
Frees any memory referenced by ’v’. Values of type FcTypeString, FcTypeMatrix and FcTypeCharSet reference memory, the other types do not.
FcValue FcValueSave (FcValue v)
Returns a copy of ’v’ duplicating any object referenced by it so that ’v’ may be safely destroyed without harming the new value.
FcPattern
An FcPattern is an opaque type that holds both patterns to
match against the available fonts, as well as the
information about each font.
FcPattern *FcPatternCreate (void)
Creates a pattern with no properties; used to build patterns from scratch.
void FcPatternDestroy (FcPattern *p)
Destroys a pattern, in the process destroying all related values.
FcBool FcPatternEqual (const FcPattern *pa, const FcPattern *pb);
Returns whether ’pa’ and ’pb’ are exactly alike.
FcBool FcPatternEqualSubset
(const FcPattern *pa, const FcPattern *pb,
const FcObjectSet *os)
Returns whether ’pa’ and ’pb’ have exactly the same values for all of the objects in ’os’.
FcChar32 FcPatternHash (const FcPattern *p)
Returns a 32-bit number which is the same for any two patterns which are exactly alike.
FcBool FcPatternAdd (FcPattern
*p, const char *object, FcValue value,
FcBool append)
Adds a single value to the list of values associated with the property named ’object’. If ’append’ is FcTrue, the value is added at the end of any existing list, otherwise it is inserted at the begining. ’value’ is saved (with FcValueSave) when inserted into the pattern so that the library retains no reference to any application-supplied data structure.
FcBool FcPatternAddWeak
(FcPattern *p, const char *object, FcValue
value, FcBool append)
FcPatternAddWeak is essentially the same as FcPatternAdd except that any values added to the list have binding ’weak’ instead of ’strong’.
FcBool FcPatternAddInteger
(FcPattern *p, const char *object, int i)
FcBool FcPatternAddDouble (FcPattern *p, const char *object,
double d)
FcBool FcPatternAddString (FcPattern *p, const char *object,
const char
*s)
FcBool FcPatternAddMatrix (FcPattern *p, const char *object,
const
FcMatrix *s)
FcBool FcPatternAddCharSet (FcPattern *p, const char
*object, const
FcCharSet *c)
FcBool FcPatternAddBool (FcPattern *p, const char *object,
FcBool b)
These are all convenience functions that insert objects of the specified type into the pattern. Use these in preference to FcPatternAdd as they will provide compile-time typechecking. These all append values to any existing list of values.
FcResult FcPatternGet
(FcPattern *p, const char *object, int id,
FcValue *v)
Returns in ’v’ the ’id’th value associated with the property ’object’. The value returned is not a copy, but rather refers to the data stored within the pattern directly. Applications must not free this value.
FcResult FcPatternGetInteger
(FcPattern *p, const char *object, int n,
int *i);
FcResult FcPatternGetDouble (FcPattern *p, const char
*object, int n,
double *d);
FcResult FcPatternGetString (FcPattern *p, const char
*object, int n,
char **const s);
FcResult FcPatternGetMatrix (FcPattern *p, const char
*object, int n,
FcMatrix **s);
FcResult FcPatternGetCharSet (FcPattern *p, const char
*object, int n,
FcCharSet **c);
FcResult FcPatternGetBool (FcPattern *p, const char *object,
int n,
FcBool *b);
These are convenience functions that call FcPatternGet and verify that the returned data is of the expected type. They return FcResultTypeMismatch if this is not the case. Note that these (like FcPatternGet) do not make a copy of any data structure referenced by the return value. Use these in preference to FcPatternGet to provide compile-time typechecking.
FcPattern *FcPatternBuild
(FcPattern *orig, ...);
FcPattern *FcPatternVaBuild (FcPattern *orig, va_list
va)
Builds a pattern using a list of objects, types and values. Each value to be entered in the pattern is specified with three arguments:
1. Object name, a string describing the property to be added.
2. Object type, one of the FcType enumerated values
3. Value, not an FcValue, but the raw type as passed to any of the FcPatternAdd<type> functions. Must match the type of the second argument.
The argument list is terminated by a null object name, no object type nor value need be passed for this. The values are added to ’pattern’, if ’pattern’ is null, a new pattern is created. In either case, the pattern is returned. Example:
pattern = FcPatternBuild (0, FC_FAMILY, FtTypeString, "Times", (char *) 0);
FcPatternVaBuild is used when the arguments are already in the form of a varargs value.
FcBool FcPatternDel (FcPattern *p, const char *object)
Deletes all values associated with the property ’object’, returning whether the property existed or not.
void FcPatternPrint (const FcPattern *p)
Prints an easily readable version of the pattern to stdout. There is no provision for reparsing data in this format, it’s just for diagnostics and debugging.
void FcDefaultSubstitute (FcPattern *pattern)
Supplies default values for underspecified font patterns:
• |
Patterns without a specified style or weight are set to Medium | ||
• |
Patterns without a specified style or slant are set to Roman | ||
• |
Patterns without a specified pixel size are given one computed from any specified point size (default 12), dpi (default 75) and scale (default 1). |
FcPattern *FcNameParse (const char *name)
Converts ’name’ from the standard text format described above into a pattern.
FcChar8 *FcNameUnparse (FcPattern *pat)
Converts the given pattern into the standard text format described above. The return value is not static, but instead refers to newly allocated memory which should be freed by the caller.
FcFontSet
An FcFontSet simply holds a list of patterns; these are used
to return the results of listing available fonts.
FcFontSet *FcFontSetCreate (void)
Creates an empty font set.
void FcFontSetDestroy (FcFontSet *s);
Destroys a font set. Note that this destroys any referenced patterns as well.
FcBool FcFontSetAdd (FcFontSet *s, FcPattern *font)
Adds a pattern to a font set. Note that the pattern is not copied before being inserted into the set.
FcObjectSet
An FcObjectSet holds a list of pattern property names; it is
used to indiciate which properties are to be returned in the
patterns from FcFontList.
FcObjectSet *FcObjectSetCreate (void)
Creates an empty set.
FcBool FcObjectSetAdd (FcObjectSet *os, const char *object)
Adds a proprety name to the set.
void FcObjectSetDestroy (FcObjectSet *os)
Destroys an object set.
FcObjectSet *FcObjectSetBuild
(const char *first, ...)
FcObjectSet *FcObjectSetVaBuild (const char *first, va_list
va)
These build an object set from a null-terminated list of property names.
FcObjectType
Provides for applcation-specified font name object types so
that new pattern elements can be generated from font names.
FcBool FcNameRegisterObjectTypes (const FcObjectType *types,
int ntype)
Register ’ntype’ new object types.
FcBool
FcNameUnregisterObjectTypes (const FcObjectType *types, int
ntype)
Unregister ’ntype’ object types.
const FcObjectType *FcNameGetObjectType (const char *object)
Return the object type for the pattern element named ’object’.
FcConstant
Provides for application-specified symbolic constants for
font names.
FcBool FcNameRegisterConstants (const FcConstant *consts,
int nconsts)
Register ’nconsts’ new symbolic constants.
FcBool
FcNameUnregisterConstants (const FcConstant *consts, int
nconsts)
Unregister ’nconsts’ symbolic constants.
const FcConstant *FcNameGetConstant (FcChar8 *string)
Return the FcConstant structure related to symbolic constant ’string’.
FcBool FcNameConstant (FcChar8 *string, int *result);
Returns whether a symbolic constant with name ’string’ is registered, placing the value of the constant in ’result’ if present.
FcBlanks
An FcBlanks object holds a list of Unicode chars which are
expected to be blank when drawn. When scanning new fonts,
any glyphs which are empty and not in this list will be
assumed to be broken and not placed in the FcCharSet
associated with the font. This provides a significantly more
accurate CharSet for applications.
FcBlanks *FcBlanksCreate (void)
Creates an empty FcBlanks object.
void FcBlanksDestroy (FcBlanks *b)
Destroys an FcBlanks object, freeing any associated memory.
FcBool FcBlanksAdd (FcBlanks *b, FcChar32 ucs4)
Adds a single character to an FcBlanks object, returning FcFalse if this process ran out of memory.
FcBool FcBlanksIsMember (FcBlanks *b, FcChar32 ucs4)
Returns whether the specified FcBlanks object contains the indicated Unicode value.
FcConfig
An FcConfig object holds the internal representation of a
configuration. There is a default configuration which
applications may use by passing 0 to any function using the
data within an FcConfig.
FcConfig *FcConfigCreate (void)
Creates an empty configuration.
void FcConfigDestroy (FcConfig *config)
Destroys a configuration and any data associated with it. Note that calling this function with the return from FcConfigGetCurrent will place the library in an indeterminate state.
FcBool FcConfigSetCurrent (FcConfig *config)
Sets the current default configuration to ’config’. Implicitly calls FcConfigBuildFonts if necessary, returning FcFalse if that call fails.
FcConfig *FcConfigGetCurrent (void)
Returns the current default configuration.
FcBool FcConfigUptoDate (FcConfig *config)
Checks all of the files related to ’config’ and returns whether the in-memory version is in sync with the disk version.
FcBool FcConfigBuildFonts (FcConfig *config)
Builds the set of available fonts for the given configuration. Note that any changes to the configuration after this call have indeterminate effects. Returns FcFalse if this operation runs out of memory.
FcStrList *FcConfigGetConfigDirs (FcConfig *config)
Returns the list of font directories specified in the configuration files for ’config’. Does not include any subdirectories.
FcStrList *FcConfigGetFontDirs (FcConfig *config)
Returns the list of font directories in ’config’. This includes the configured font directories along with any directories below those in the filesystem.
FcStrList *FcConfigGetConfigFiles (FcConfig *config)
Returns the list of known configuration files used to generate ’config’. Note that this will not include any configuration done with FcConfigParse.
char *FcConfigGetCache (FcConfig *config)
Returns the name of the file used to store per-user font information.
FcFontSet *FcConfigGetFonts (FcConfig *config, FcSetName set)
Returns one of the two sets of fonts from the configuration as specified by ’set’.
FcBlanks *FcConfigGetBlanks (FcConfig *config)
Returns the FcBlanks object associated with the given configuration, if no blanks were present in the configuration, this function will return 0.
int FcConfigGetRescanInverval (FcConfig *config)
Returns the interval between automatic checks of the configuration (in seconds) specified in ’config’. The configuration is checked during a call to FcFontList when this interval has passed since the last check.
FcBool FcConfigSetRescanInverval (FcConfig *config, int rescanInterval)
Sets the rescan interval; returns FcFalse if an error occurred.
FcBool FcConfigAppFontAddFile (FcConfig *config, const char *file)
Adds an application-specific font to the configuration.
FcBool FcConfigAppFontAddDir (FcConfig *config, const char *dir)
Scans the specified directory for fonts, adding each one found to the application-specific set of fonts.
void FcConfigAppFontClear (FcConfig *config)
Clears the set of application-specific fonts.
FcBool
FcConfigSubstituteWithPat (FcConfig *config, FcPattern *p,
FcPattern *p_pat FcMatchKind kind)
Performs the sequence of pattern modification operations, if ’kind’ is FcMatchPattern, then those tagged as pattern operations are applied, else if ’kind’ is FcMatchFont, those tagged as font operations are applied and p_pat is used for <test> elements with target=pattern.
FcBool FcConfigSubstitute
(FcConfig *config, FcPattern *p, FcMatchKind
kind)
Calls FcConfigSubstituteWithPat setting p_pat to NULL.
FcPattern *FcFontMatch
(FcConfig *config, FcPattern *p, FcResult
*result)
Returns the font in ’config’ most close matching ’p’. This function should be called only after FcConfigSubstitute and FcDefaultSubstitute have been called for ’p’; otherwise the results will not be correct.
FcFontSet *FcFontSort (FcConfig
*config, FcPattern *p, FcBool trim,
FcCharSet **csp, FcResult *result) Returns the list of fonts
sorted by
closeness to ’p’. If ’trim’ is FcTrue, elements in the list which don’t include Unicode coverage not provided by earlier elements in the list are elided. The union of Unicode coverage of all of the fonts is returned in ’csp’, if ’csp’ is not NULL. This function should be called only after FcConfigSubstitute and FcDefaultSubstitute have been called for ’p’; otherwise the results will not be correct.
The returned FcFontSet references FcPattern structures which may be shared by the return value from multiple FcFontSort calls, applications must not modify these patterns. Instead, they should be passed, along with ’p’ to FcFontRenderPrepare which combines them into a complete pattern.
The FcFontSet
returned by FcFontSort is destroyed by caling
FcFontSetDestroy.
FcPattern *FcFontRenderPrepare (FcConfig *config, FcPattern
*pat,
FcPattern *font)
Creates a new pattern consisting of elements of ’font’ not appearing in ’pat’, elements of ’pat’ not appearing in ’font’ and the best matching value from ’pat’ for elements appearing in both. The result is passed to FcConfigSubstitute with ’kind’ FcMatchFont and then returned.
FcFontSet *FcFontList (FcConfig *config, FcPattern *p, FcObjectSet *os)
Selects fonts matching ’p’, creates patterns from those fonts containing only the objects in ’os’ and returns the set of unique such patterns.
char *FcConfigFilename (const char *name)
Given the specified external entity name, return the associated filename. This provides applications a way to convert various configuration file references into filename form.
A null or empty ’name’ indicates that the default configuration file should be used; which file this references can be overridden with the FC_CONFIG_FILE environment variable. Next, if the name starts with ’~’, it refers to a file in the current users home directory. Otherwise if the name doesn’t start with ’/’, it refers to a file in the default configuration directory; the built-in default directory can be overridden with the FC_CONFIG_DIR environment variable.
Initialization
These functions provide some control over how the library is
initialized.
FcConfig *FcInitLoadConfig (void)
Loads the default configuration file and returns the resulting configuration. Does not load any font information.
FcConfig *FcInitLoadConfigAndFonts (void)
Loads the default configuration file and builds information about the available fonts. Returns the resulting configuration.
FcBool FcInit (void)
Loads the default configuration file and the fonts referenced therein and sets the default configuration to that result. Returns whether this process succeeded or not. If the default configuration has already been loaded, this routine does nothing and returns FcTrue.
int FcGetVersion (void)
Returns the version number of the library.
FcBool FcInitReinitialize (void)
Forces the default configuration file to be reloaded and resets the default configuration.
FcBool FcInitBringUptoDate (void)
Checks the rescan interval in the default configuration, checking the configuration if the interval has passed and reloading the configuration if when any changes are detected.
FcAtomic
These functions provide a safe way to update config files,
allowing ongoing reading of the old config file while locked
for writing and ensuring that a consistent and complete
version of the config file is always available.
FcAtomic * FcAtomicCreate (const FcChar8 *file)
Creates a data structure containing data needed to control access to ’file’. Writing is done to a separate file. Once that file is complete, the original configuration file is atomically replaced so that reading process always see a consistent and complete file without the need to lock for reading.
FcBool FcAtomicLock (FcAtomic *atomic)
Attempts to lock the file referenced by ’atomic’. Returns FcFalse if the file is locked by another process, else returns FcTrue and leaves the file locked.
FcChar8 *FcAtomicNewFile (FcAtomic *atomic)
Returns the filename for writing a new version of the file referenced by ’atomic’.
FcChar8 *FcAtomicOrigFile (FcAtomic *atomic)
Returns the file refernced by ’atomic’.
FcBool FcAtomicReplaceOrig (FcAtomic *atomic)
Replaces the original file referenced by ’atomic’ with the new file.
void FcAtomicDeleteNew (FcAtomic *atomic)
Deletes the new file.
void FcAtomicUnlock (FcAtomic *atomic)
Unlocks the file.
void FcAtomicDestroy (FcAtomic *atomic)
Destroys ’atomic’.
FreeType
specific functions
#include <fontconfig/fcfreetype.h>
While the fontconfig library doesn’t insist that
FreeType be used as the rasterization mechanism for fonts,
it does provide some convenience functions.
FT_UInt FcFreeTypeCharIndex (FT_Face face, FcChar32
ucs4)
Maps a Unicode char to a glyph index. This function uses information from several possible underlying encoding tables to work around broken fonts. As a result, this function isn’t designed to be used in performance sensitive areas; results from this function are intended to be cached by higher level functions.
FcCharSet *FcFreeTypeCharSet (FT_Face face, FcBlanks *blanks) Scans a
FreeType face and returns the set of encoded Unicode chars. This scans several encoding tables to build as complete a list as possible. If ’blanks’ is not 0, the glyphs in the font are examined and any blank glyphs not in ’blanks’ are not placed in the returned FcCharSet.
FcPattern *FcFreeTypeQuery
(const char *file, int id, FcBlanks *blanks,
int *count)
Constructs a pattern representing the ’id’th font in ’file’. The number of fonts in ’file’ is returned in ’count’.
XML specific
functions
FcBool FcConfigParseAndLoad (FcConfig *config, const FcChar8
*file,
FcBool complain)
Walks the configuration in ’file’ and constructs the internal representation in ’config’. Any include files referenced from within ’file’ will be loaded with FcConfigLoad and also parsed. If ’complain’ is FcFalse, no warning will be displayed if ’file’ does not exist.
File and
Directory routines
FcBool FcFileScan (FcFontSet *set, FcStrSet *dirs,
FcFileCache *cache,
FcBlanks *blanks, const char *file, FcBool force)
Scans a single file and adds all fonts found to ’set’. If ’force’ is FcTrue, then the file is scanned even if associated information is found in ’cache’. If ’file’ is a directory, it is added to ’dirs’.
FcBool FcDirScan (FcFontSet
*set, FcStrSet *dirs, FcFileCache *cache,
FcBlanks *blanks, const char *dir, FcBool force)
Scans an entire directory and adds all fonts found to ’set’. If ’force’ is FcTrue, then the directory and all files within it are scanned even if information is present in the per-directory cache file or ’cache’. Any subdirectories found are added to ’dirs’.
FcBool FcDirSave (FcFontSet *set, FcStrSet *dirs, const char *dir)
Creates the per-directory cache file for ’dir’ and populates it with the fonts in ’set’ and subdirectories in ’dirs’.
FcBool FcDirCacheValid (const FcChar8 *cache_file)
Returns FcTrue if ’cache_file’ is no older than the directory containing it, else FcFalse.
FcStrSet and
FcStrList
A data structure for enumerating strings, used to list
directories while scanning the configuration as directories
are added while scanning.
FcStrSet *FcStrSetCreate (void)
Create an empty set.
FcBool FcStrSetMember (FcStrSet *set, const FcChar8 *s)
Returns whether ’s’ is a member of ’set’.
FcBool FcStrSetAdd (FcStrSet *set, const FcChar8 *s)
Adds a copy of ’s’ to ’set’.
FcBool FcStrSetAddFilename (FcStrSet *set, const FcChar8 *s)
Adds a copy ’s’ to ’set’, The copy is created with FcStrCopyFilename so that leading ’~’ values are replaced with the value of the HOME environment variable.
FcBool FcStrSetDel (FcStrSet *set, const FcChar8 *s)
Removes ’s’ from ’set’, returning FcTrue if ’s’ was a member else FcFalse.
void FcStrSetDestroy (FcStrSet *set)
Destroys ’set’.
FcStrList *FcStrListCreate (FcStrSet *set)
Creates an enumerator to list the strings in ’set’.
FcChar8 *FcStrListNext (FcStrList *list)
Returns the next string in ’set’.
void FcStrListDone (FcStrList *list)
Destroys the enumerator ’list’.
String
utilities
int FcUtf8ToUcs4 (FcChar8 *src, FcChar32 *dst, int len)
Converts the next Unicode char from ’src’ into ’dst’ and returns the number of bytes containing the char. ’src’ nust be at least ’len’ bytes long.
int FcUcs4ToUtf8 (FcChar32 src, FcChar8 dst[FC_UTF8_MAX_LEN])
Converts the Unicode char from ’src’ into ’dst’ and returns the number of bytes needed to encode the char.
FcBool FcUtf8Len (FcChar8 *src, int len, int *nchar, int *wchar)
Counts the number of Unicode chars in ’len’ bytes of ’src’. Places that count in ’nchar’. ’wchar’ contains 1, 2 or 4 depending on the number of bytes needed to hold the largest unicode char counted. The return value indicates whether ’src’ is a well-formed UTF8 string.
int FcUtf16ToUcs4 (FcChar8
*src, FcEndian endian, FcChar32 *dst, int
len)
Converts the next Unicode char from ’src’ into ’dst’ and returns the number of bytes containing the char. ’src’ must be at least ’len’ bytes long. Bytes of ’src’ are combined into 16-bit units according to ’endian’.
FcBool FcUtf16Len (FcChar8
*src, FcEndian endian, int len, int *nchar,
int *wchar)
Counts the number of Unicode chars in ’len’ bytes of ’src’. Bytes of ’src’ are combined into 16-bit units according to ’endian’. Places that count in ’nchar’. ’wchar’ contains 1, 2 or 4 depending on the number of bytes needed to hold the largest unicode char counted. The return value indicates whether ’string’ is a well-formed UTF16 string.
FcChar8 *FcStrCopy (const FcChar8 *s)
Allocates memory, copies ’s’ and returns the resulting buffer. Yes, this is ’strdup’, but that function isn’t available on every platform.
FcChar8 *FcStrCopyFilename (const FcChar8 *s)
Just like FcStrCopy except that it converts any leading ’~’ characters in ’s’ to the value of the HOME environment variable.
int FcStrCmpIgnoreCase (const char *s1, const char *s2)
Returns the usual <0, 0, >0 result of comparing ’s1’ and ’s2’. This test is case-insensitive in the ASCII range and will operate properly with UTF8 encoded strings, although it does not check for well formed strings.
FcChar8 *FcStrDirname (const FcChar8 *file)
Returns the directory containing ’file’.
FcChar8 *FcStrBasename (const FcChar8 *file)
Returns the filename of ’file’ stripped of any leading directory names.
Configuration files for fontconfig are stored in XML format; this format makes external configuration tools easier to write and ensures that they will generate syntactically correct configuration files. As XML files are plain text, they can also be manipulated by the expert user using a text editor.
The fontconfig document type definition resides in the external entity "fonts.dtd"; this is normally stored in the default font configuration directory (/etc/fonts). Each configuration file should contain the following structure:
<?xml version="1.0"?> | ||
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> | ||
<fontconfig> | ||
... | ||
</fontconfig> |
<fontconfig>
This is the top level element for a font configuration and
can contain <dir>, <cache>, <include>,
<match> and <alias> elements in any order.
<dir>
This element contains a directory name which will be scanned
for font files to include in the set of available fonts.
<cache>
This element contains a file name for the per-user cache of
font information. If it starts with ’~’, it
refers to a file in the users home directory. This file is
used to hold information about fonts that isn’t
present in the per-directory cache files. It is
automatically maintained by the fontconfig library. The
default for this file is
’’~/.fonts.cache-<version>’’,
where <version> is the font configuration file version
number (currently 1).
<include
ignore_missing="no">
This element contains the name of an additional
configuration file. When the XML datatype is traversed by
FcConfigParse, the contents of the file will also be
incorporated into the configuration by passing the filename
to FcConfigLoadAndParse. If ’ignore_missing’ is
set to "yes" instead of the default
"no", a missing file will elicit no warning
message from the library.
<config>
This element provides a place to consolodate additional
configuration information. <config> can contain
<blank> and <rescan> elements in any order.
<blank>
Fonts often include "broken" glyphs which appear
in the encoding but are drawn as blanks on the screen.
Within the <blank> element, place each Unicode
characters which is supposed to be blank in an <int>
element. Characters outside of this set which are drawn as
blank will be elided from the set of characters supported by
the font. <b
<rescan>
The <rescan> element holds an <int> element
which indicates the default interval between automatic
checks for font configuration changes. Fontconfig will
validate all of the configuration files and directories and
automatically rebuild the internal datastructures when this
interval passes.
<match
target="pattern">
This element holds first a (possibly empty) list of
<test> elements and then a (possibly empty) list of
<edit> elements. Patterns which match all of the tests
are subjected to all the edits. If ’target’ is
set to "font" instead of the default
"pattern", then this element applies to the font
name resulting from a match rather than a font pattern to be
matched.
<test
qual="any" name="property"
compare="eq">
This element contains a single value which is compared with
the pattern property "property" (substitute any of
the property names seen above). ’compare’ can be
one of "eq", "not_eq", "less",
"less_eq", "more", or
"more_eq". ’qual’ may either be the
default, "any", in which case the match succeeds
if any value associated with the property matches the test
value, or "all", in which case all of the values
associated with the property must match the test value.
<edit
name="property" mode="assign"
binding="weak">
This element contains a list of expression elements (any of
the value or operator elements). The expression elements are
evaluated at run-time and modify the property
"property". The modification depends on whether
"property" was matched by one of the associated
<test> elements, if so, the modification may affect
the first matched value. Any values inserted into the
property are given the indicated binding. ’mode’
is one of:
Mode |
||||
Operation with match |
Operation without match | |||
—————————— |
———————————————————— |
———————————————————— | ||
"assign" |
||||
Replace matching value |
Replace all values | |||
"assign_replace" |
Replace all values |
Replace all values | ||
"prepend" |
||||
Insert before matching value |
Insert at head of list | |||
"prepend_first" |
Insert at head of listInsert at head of list |
|||
"append" |
||||
Append after matching value |
Append at end of list | |||
"append_last" |
Append at end of listAppend at end of list |
<int>
<double>
<string>
<bool>
These elements hold a single value of the indicated type.
<bool> elements hold either true or false.
<matrix>
This element holds the four <double> elements of an
affine transformation.
<name>
Holds a property name. Evaluates to the first value from the
property of the font, not the pattern.
<const>
Holds the name of a constant; these are always integers and
serve as symbolic names for common font values:
Constant |
Property |
CPP symbol | ||
—————————— |
—————————— | |||
—————————— | ||||
light |
weight |
FC_WEIGHT_LIGHT | ||
medium |
weight |
FC_WEIGHT_MEDIUM | ||
demibold |
weight |
FC_WEIGHT_DEMIBOLD | ||
bold |
weight |
FC_WEIGHT_BOLD | ||
black |
weight |
FC_WEIGHT_BLACK | ||
roman |
slant |
FC_SLANT_ROMAN | ||
italic |
slant |
FC_SLANT_ITALIC | ||
oblique |
slant |
FC_SLANT_OBLIQUE | ||
proportional |
spacing | |||
FC_PROPORTIONAL | ||||
mono |
spacing |
FC_MONO | ||
charcell |
spacing |
FC_CHARCELL | ||
unknown |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_UNKNOWN | ||
rgb |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_RGB | ||
bgr |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_BGR | ||
vrgb |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_VRGB | ||
vbgr |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_VBGR | ||
none |
rgba |
FC_RGBA_NONE |
<or>
<and>
<plus>
<minus>
<times>
<divide>
These elements perform the specified operation on a list of
expression elements. <or> and <and> are boolean,
not bitwise.
<eq>
<not_eq>
<less>
<less_eq>
<more>
<more_eq>
These elements compare two values, producing a boolean
result.
<not>
Inverts the boolean sense of its one expression element
<if>
This element takes three expression elements; if the value
of the first is true, it produces the value of the second,
otherwise it produces the value of the third.
<alias>
Alias elements provide a shorthand notation for the set of
common match operations needed to substitute one font family
for another. They contain a <family> element followed
by optional <prefer>, <accept> and
<default> elements. Fonts matching the <family>
element are edited to prepend the list of <prefer>ed
families before the matching <family>, append the
<accept>able familys after the matching <family>
and append the <default> families to the end of the
family list.
<family>
Holds a single font family name
<prefer>
<accept>
<default>
These hold a list of <family> elements to be used by
the <alias> element.
System
configuration file
This is an example of a system-wide configuration file
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font
access -->
<fontconfig>
<!--
Find fonts in these directories |
-->
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype</dir>
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1</dir>
<!--
Accept deprecated ’mono’ alias, replacing it with ’monospace’ |
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family"><string>mono</string></test> | |
<edit name="family" mode="assign"><string>monospace</string></edit> |
</match>
<!--
Names not including any well known alias are given ’sans’ |
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">sans</test> | |
<test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">serif</test> | |
<test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">monospace</test> | |
<edit name="family" mode="append_last"><string>sans</string></edit> |
</match>
<!--
Load per-user customization file, but don’t complain | |
if it doesn’t exist |
-->
<include
ignore_missing="yes">~/.fonts.conf</include>
<!--
Alias well known font names to available TrueType fonts. | |
These substitute TrueType faces for similar Type1 | |
faces to improve screen appearance. |
-->
<alias>
<family>Times</family> | |
<prefer><family>Times New Roman</family></prefer> | |
<default><family>serif</family></default> |
</alias>
<alias>
<family>Helvetica</family> | |
<prefer><family>Verdana</family></prefer> | |
<default><family>sans</family></default> |
</alias>
<alias>
<family>Courier</family> | |
<prefer><family>Courier New</family></prefer> | |
<default><family>monospace</family></default> |
</alias>
<!--
Provide required aliases for standard names | |
Do these after the users configuration file so that | |
any aliases there are used preferentially |
-->
<alias>
<family>serif</family> | |
<prefer><family>Times New Roman</family></prefer> |
</alias>
<alias>
<family>sans</family> | |
<prefer><family>Verdana</family></prefer> |
</alias>
<alias>
<family>monospace</family> | |
<prefer><family>Andale Mono</family></prefer> |
</alias>
</fontconfig>
User
configuration file
This is an example of a per-user configuration file that
lives in ~/.fonts.conf
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- ~/.fonts.conf for per-user font configuration -->
<fontconfig>
<!--
Private font directory |
-->
<dir>~/misc/fonts</dir>
<!--
use rgb sub-pixel ordering to improve glyph appearance on | |
LCD screens. Changes affecting rendering, but not matching | |
should always use target="font". |
-->
<match target="font">
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit> |
</match>
</fontconfig>
fonts.conf contains configuration information for the fontconfig library consisting of directories to look at for font information as well as instructions on editing program specified font patterns before attempting to match the available fonts. It is in xml format.
fonts.dtd is a DTD that describes the format of the configuration files.
~/.fonts.conf is the conventional location for per-user font configuration, although the actual location is specified in the global fonts.conf file.
~/.fonts.cache-* is the conventional repository of font information that isn’t found in the per-directory caches. This file is automatically maintained by fontconfig.
Keith Packard, member of the XFree86 Project, Inc.
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fontconfig(3) | ![]() |