tc-lib-pdf-font

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

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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

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Requirements

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

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Installation

composer require tecnickcom/tc-lib-pdf-font

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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.

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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/.

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Development

make deps
make help
make qa

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

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Packaging

make rpm
make deb

For system packages, bootstrap with:

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

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Contributing

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

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Contact

Nicola Asuni - info@tecnick.com