bdf2ufo

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

Features

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

• Variable Font Axes Support: Supports 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 printer printouts.

• Element Composition: Composites characters from a pixel glyph to reduce font size.

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

• Anchor Creation: Automatically adds base-to-mark anchors.

Examples

• Tiny5
• DotMatrix

Axes

Axis	Description	Small	Large
ESIZ	Element Size
ROND	Roundness
BLED	Bleed
XESP	Horizontal Element Spacing
EJIT	Element Jitter

Building a font

1. Convert Source Font

   • If your font is in .ttf or .otf, first convert to .bdf. You can 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 Master 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: Adjust glyph centering with --glyph-offset-x; supports fractional values.
• Jitter Effect: Set EJIT to around 0.05 for a subtle jitter with Gaussian distribution.
• Axes Limits: Adjust the axes limits with --axis-limits.
• Bold Effect: Use --double-stroke to enhance boldness by doubling elements with a 0.5 vertical offset.
• Static Fonts: Omit --variable-axis and --variable-instance, and use --static-axes to define axis values.
• Combining Characters: Undefined characters from U+0300 to U+036F are automatically copied from similar defined glyphs.
• Combining Alternatives: bdf2ufo looks for both combining characters and modifiers to decompose composed characters, allowing for alternates in small fonts.
• Anchor Positioning: Anchors are placed at the bottom-center of glyphs.

Additional Resources

• Bits'N'Picas: A bitmap font editor.
• FontDrop!: An online glyph viewer.
• Hyperglot: Glyph database and font language support checker.
• The Font Testing Page: A Drag-and-Drop webpage for testing fonts.
• SYMBL: An online glyph search tool.