font-list

A Node.js package for listing system fonts with support for both CommonJS and ES modules.

Features

• 🖥️ Cross-platform support: Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux
• 📦 Dual module support: Compatible with both CommonJS and ES modules
• 🔍 Two API methods: Basic font listing and detailed font information
• 📝 TypeScript support: Includes TypeScript type definitions
• ⚡ Async/Promise based: Modern asynchronous API

Installation

npm install font-list

Quick Start

CommonJS

const { getFonts } = require('font-list')

getFonts()
  .then(fonts => {
    console.log(fonts)
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(err)
  })

ES Modules

import { getFonts } from 'font-list'

const fonts = await getFonts()
console.log(fonts)

TypeScript

import { getFonts, FontInfo } from 'font-list'

const fonts: string[] = await getFonts()
const detailedFonts: FontInfo[] = await getFonts2()

API Reference

getFonts(options?)

Returns a list of font family names available on the system.

Parameters:

• options (optional): Configuration object
  • disableQuoting (boolean): If true, font names with spaces won't be wrapped in quotes. Default: false

Returns: Promise<string[]>

Example output:

[
  '"Adobe Arabic"',
  '"Adobe Caslon Pro"',
  'Arial',
  'Helvetica',
  ...
]

Usage examples:

// Default behavior (with quotes for names containing spaces)
const fonts = await getFonts()
// Result: ['"Adobe Arabic"', 'Arial', ...]

// Disable quoting
const fonts = await getFonts({ disableQuoting: true })
// Result: ['Adobe Arabic', 'Arial', ...]

getFonts2(options?)

Returns detailed font information including both family names and PostScript names.

Parameters:

• options (optional): Same as getFonts()
  • disableQuoting (boolean): Default: false

Returns: Promise<FontInfo[]>

FontInfo interface:

interface FontInfo {
  name: string           // Original family name
  familyName: string     // Standardized family name
  postScriptName: string // PostScript name
  weight: string         // Font weight (ultralight, light, regular, medium, semibold, bold, heavy)
  style: string          // Font style (normal, italic, oblique)
  width: string          // Font width (condensed, normal, expanded)
  monospace: boolean     // Whether the font is monospaced
}

Example output:

[
  {
    name: 'Adobe Arabic',
    familyName: '"Adobe Arabic"',
    postScriptName: 'AdobeArabic-Regular',
    weight: 'regular',
    style: 'normal',
    width: 'normal',
    monospace: false
  },
  {
    name: 'Arial',
    familyName: 'Arial',
    postScriptName: 'ArialMT',
    weight: 'regular',
    style: 'normal',
    width: 'normal',
    monospace: false
  },
  {
    name: 'Courier New',
    familyName: '"Courier New"',
    postScriptName: 'CourierNewPSMT',
    weight: 'regular',
    style: 'normal',
    width: 'normal',
    monospace: true
  },
  ...
]

Usage examples:

// Get detailed font information
const detailedFonts = await getFonts2()
console.log(detailedFonts[0].familyName)     // "Adobe Arabic"
console.log(detailedFonts[0].postScriptName) // AdobeArabic-Regular
console.log(detailedFonts[0].weight)         // regular
console.log(detailedFonts[0].style)          // normal
console.log(detailedFonts[0].width)          // normal
console.log(detailedFonts[0].monospace)      // false

// With disabled quoting
const detailedFonts = await getFonts2({ disableQuoting: true })
console.log(detailedFonts[0].familyName)     // Adobe Arabic

// Filter monospace fonts
const monospaceFonts = detailedFonts.filter(font => font.monospace)
console.log(monospaceFonts.map(f => f.familyName))

// Filter bold fonts
const boldFonts = detailedFonts.filter(font => font.weight === 'bold')
console.log(boldFonts.map(f => f.familyName))

Platform Support

Platform	Method	Implementation
macOS	system_profiler	Uses system font database
Windows	PowerShell/VBS	Registry and system font queries
Linux	fc-list	Fontconfig library

Module Formats

This package supports both CommonJS and ES modules through dual package exports:

// CommonJS
const { getFonts, getFonts2 } = require('font-list')

// ES Modules
import { getFonts, getFonts2 } from 'font-list'

// Default export (ES Modules)
import fontList from 'font-list'
const fonts = await fontList.getFonts()

Error Handling

try {
  const fonts = await getFonts()
  console.log(`Found ${fonts.length} fonts`)
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to get fonts:', error.message)
}

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Darwin helper binary

The macOS implementation includes a native Objective-C helper binary at libs/darwin/fontlist. The binary is kept in git so macOS users can clone the repository and run it without a local build step. It supports two modes: no arguments prints the simple family-name list, while --detail (or -d) prints a JSON array with weight/style/width/monospace metadata.

If you change libs/darwin/fontlist.m, rebuild the helper binary on macOS before submitting the change:

npm run build:darwin

This command requires macOS and Xcode Command Line Tools. It produces a universal binary with x86_64 and arm64 slices and a default macOS deployment target of 11.0. Set MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET before running the command to override the target for a release build. Windows and Linux contributors do not need to run it for JavaScript, type definition, documentation, or platform-specific changes outside libs/darwin.

Pull requests should include the Darwin binary diff only when the Objective-C source file changed.

Publishing

Releases should be published from macOS. npm publish runs prepublishOnly, which rebuilds the Darwin helper binary before the package is packed and published.

To inspect the package contents before publishing, run:

npm run pack:check

License

MIT © oldj

Repository

https://github.com/oldj/node-font-list