README

Font import, metrics, and stack management utilities for PDF generation.

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Overview

tc-lib-pdf-font provides font import and runtime font-stack services used by PDF composition engines.

It bridges static font assets and runtime document composition by handling metrics, encodings, and font program references in a PDF-friendly way. This modular design lets applications evolve font workflows independently from the rest of the rendering stack.


Namespace	`\Com\Tecnick\Pdf\Font`
Author	Nicola Asuni info@tecnick.com
License	GNU LGPL v3 - see LICENSE
API docs	https://tcpdf.org/docs/srcdoc/tc-lib-pdf-font
Packagist	https://packagist.org/packages/tecnickcom/tc-lib-pdf-font

Features

Font Processing

Import support for core, Type1, and TrueType sources
Font metadata extraction and normalization
Utilities for subset and output dictionary generation

Runtime Font Stack

Font stack insertion and switching
Glyph width/bounding-box helpers
Character replacement and fallback handling

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or later
Extensions: json, pcre, zlib
Composer

Installation

composer require tecnickcom/tc-lib-pdf-font

Quick Start

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$font = new \Com\Tecnick\Pdf\Font\Import('/path/to/font.ttf');
$metrics = $font->getFontMetrics();

var_dump($font->getFontName(), $metrics['type']);

For larger examples, refer to test/OutputTest.php and the conversion tooling in this repository.

Converting Existing Fonts

Use the CLI utilities in util/ to convert existing font files into the JSON/Z format consumed by this library.

Convert One or More Fonts

Run util/convert.php and pass one or more input files with --fonts:

php util/convert.php \
	--outpath=./target/fonts/custom/ \
	--type=TrueTypeUnicode \
	--flags=32 \
	--encoding_id=1 \
	--fonts=/path/to/MyFont-Regular.ttf,/path/to/MyFont-Bold.ttf

The command writes generated font definition files to --outpath.

Common options:

--type: Explicit font type (TrueTypeUnicode, TrueType, Type1, CID0JP, CID0KR, CID0CS, CID0CT). Leave empty for autodetect.
--encoding: Encoding table (for example cp1252 for many non-Unicode Type1/Core cases). Omit for Unicode and symbolic fonts.
--flags: PDF descriptor flags. Default is 32 (non-symbolic).
--platform_id and --encoding_id: CMAP selection for TrueType Unicode imports (defaults: 3 and 1).
--linked: Link to system font file instead of embedding/copying it (not transportable).

To see full usage help:

php util/convert.php --help

Bulk Conversion

For batch generation from the mirrored font set:

cd util
make build

This installs util dependencies and runs bulk_convert.php, which scans the mirror package and writes converted fonts under target/fonts/.

Notes:

bulk_convert.php also attempts OTF conversion via FontForge (fontforge -script otf2ttf.ff ...) before import.
If you run bulk conversion directly, customize destination with php util/bulk_convert.php --outpath=/your/path/.

Development

make deps
make help
make qa

Font generation helpers are also available through Make targets such as fonts.

Packaging

make rpm
make deb

For system packages, bootstrap with:

require_once '/usr/share/php/Com/Tecnick/Pdf/Font/autoload.php';

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please review CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, and SECURITY.md.

tecnickcom / tc-lib-pdf-font

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