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Aditya Singh
Aditya Singh

Reputation: 2443

What are contents in a TTF file and how is it placed?

I am trying to create an app that takes all english characters in users own handwriting via a physical scanner and converts it into a .ttf file. I want to do this programmatically without using any font editor like FontForge.

So can anyone tell me what are the contents in a .ttf file? I opened up a .ttf file on my MacBook Pro FontBook.app and saw only characters written in that particular style. But how were they written in that .ttf file? Any idea? please help.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2477

Answers (1)

Lunchbox
Lunchbox

Reputation: 1633

The TTF specification has all of the details regarding how TTF files can be laid out. It is 90 pages long https://www.microsoft.com/typography/tt/ttf_spec/ttch02.doc.

To answer your question: The first three pages of that document give you the basic file structure.

As you work through the specification it may be helpful to open an existing TTF file in a hex editor so you can walk through and see the actual bytes that make up a TTF.

A much more practical approach would be to use an existing library. A quick Google search led me to Fontastic http://code.andreaskoller.com/libraries/fontastic/ which looks (in my opinion) hundreds of times easier than manually creating your own TTF file.

Upvotes: 2

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