bdf2ufo

Converts .bdf pixel fonts to .ufo static and variable vector fonts.

Features

• Automated Font Generation: Creates both static and variable fonts.

• Variable Axes Support: Includes five axes for pixel manipulation:

  • Element Size (ESIZ)
  • Roundness (ROND)
  • Bleed (BLED)
  • Horizontal Element Spacing (XESP)
  • Element Jitter (EJIT)

  These allow you to simulate the visual characteristics of LCD screens, CRT monitors and dot matrix printouts.

• Glyph Composition: Reduces font size by composing pixels from a pixel glyph.

• Glyph Decomposition: Automatically decomposes composed characters for further size reduction.

• Anchor Creation: Adds base-to-mark anchors automatically.

Examples

• Check out Tiny5!

Building a font

1. Convert Source Font

   • If your font is in .ttf or .otf, first convert to .bdf. Use otf2bdf:
     • macOS: Install via Homebrew: brew install otf2bdf
     • Ubuntu: sudo apt install otf2bdf
     • Windows: Download from here.

2. Setup Environment:

   • Ensure Python and pip are installed.

3. Install Dependencies:

   • Run pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Prepare Directory:

   • Create an empty folder to hold your .ufo master files.

5. Run bdf2ufo:

   • For usage help, execute:

     python tools/bdf2ufo.py --help

6. Compile .ufo files:

   • Use gftools:

     gftools builder [masters-path]/[family-name]-config.yaml

Tips

• Verbose Output: Use --verbose for detailed conversion logs.
• Glyph Alignment: Use --glyph-offset-x for precise glyph centering; supports fractional values.
• Jitter Effect: Set EJIT around 0.05 for a subtle jitter using a Gaussian distribution.
• Static Fonts: Omit --variable-axis and --variable-instance; use --static-axes to define axis values.
• Combining Characters: Undefined characters (U+0300 to U+036F) are auto-copied from similar defined glyphs.
• Anchor Positioning: Currently, anchors are placed at the glyph's center-bottom.

Additional Resources

• Bits'N'Picas: A bitmap font editor.
• FontDrop!: An online glyph viewer.
• Oh My Glyph: Copy and paste glyphs online.