Font documentation and test tools

Lontar GmbH provides command line tools that assist in documenting and testing fonts and in preparing script documentation. All tools are open source under the MIT license.

Röntgen

Röntgen creates documentation of a font’s OpenType shaping tables GDEF, GSUB, and GPOS in the form of an HTML document with a visual representation of the glyph classes and the substitution and positioning lookups in the font. The font’s glyphs are represented by SVG images. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository ➜ sample Röntgen image of a version of Noto Sans Devanagari licensed under the Apache license

GlyphPlotter

GlyphPlotter helps in creating font design documentation, script rendering standards documentation, and QA comparison plots, by producing a single SVG image from a font file and drawing instructions in an input text file. The tool is part of the Python package FontDocTools. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository

GlyphShaper, DottedCircleShaper

GlyphShaper and DottedCircleShaper generate input for GlyphPlotter for specific situations. GlyphShaper provides correct selection and positioning of glyphs (“shaping”) from a given font for given text, using CoreText APIs on macOS. DottedCircleShaper provides basic positioning of a glyph attached to a dotted circle, “◌”. The tools are part of the Python package FontDocTools. ➜ GlyphShaper documentation ➜ DottedCircleShaper documentation ➜ repository

GlyphSandwich

GlyphSandwich helps in creating font design documentation, such as a sandwich diagram of all glyphs in a font, by producing a single SVG image from a font file and drawing instructions provided on the command line. The tool is part of the Python package FontDocTools. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository

GlyphDump

GlyphDump creates a PDF document showing the glyphs in a given font. The tool is part of the Python package FontDocTools. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository

ImageCollector

ImageCollector collects font rendering samples from browsers. The application is installed in a web server, accessed from a browser, generates PNG images for a given list of test strings using a given font within the browser, and collects the images in a directory on the server. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository

FontRenderDiff

FontRenderDiff produces font proof images that can be used to verify, document, and track over time the rendering results of a font. The tool uses CoreText APIs on macOS and is provided as an Xcode/Swift project. ➜ tool documentation ➜ repository