fontconfig-devel.sgml revision 6fc018e4
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23]>
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27    Copyright © 2003 Keith Packard
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47<article>
48	<title>Fontconfig Developers Reference, Version &version; </title>
49	<artheader>
50		<author>
51			<firstname>Keith</firstname>
52			<surname>Packard</surname>
53			<affiliation><orgname>
54				HP Cambridge Research Lab
55			</orgname></affiliation>
56		</author>
57		<authorinitials>KRP</authorinitials>
58		<productname>Fontconfig</productname>
59		<productnumber>&version;</productnumber>
60		<LegalNotice>
61			<simpara>		
62Copyright © 2002 Keith Packard
63			</simpara><simpara>
64Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
65documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
66the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
67copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
68documentation, and that the name of the author(s) not be used in
69advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without
70specific, written prior permission.  The authors make no
71representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose.  It
72is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
73			</simpara><simpara>
74THE AUTHOR(S) DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
75INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO
76EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR(S) BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR
77CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE,
78DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
79TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
80PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
81			</simpara>
82		</LegalNotice>
83	</artheader>
84<sect1><title>DESCRIPTION</title>
85  <para>
86Fontconfig is a library designed to provide system-wide font configuration,
87customization and application access.
88  </para>
89</sect1>
90<sect1><title>FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW</title>
91  <para>
92Fontconfig contains two essential modules, the configuration module which
93builds an internal configuration from XML files and the matching module
94which accepts font patterns and returns the nearest matching font.
95  </para>
96  <sect2><title>FONT CONFIGURATION</title>
97    <para>
98The configuration module consists of the FcConfig datatype, libexpat and
99FcConfigParse which walks over an XML tree and amends a configuration with
100data found within.  From an external perspective, configuration of the
101library consists of generating a valid XML tree and feeding that to
102FcConfigParse.  The only other mechanism provided to applications for
103changing the running configuration is to add fonts and directories to the
104list of application-provided font files.  
105    </para><para>
106The intent is to make font configurations relatively static, and shared by
107as many applications as possible.  It is hoped that this will lead to more
108stable font selection when passing names from one application to another.
109XML was chosen as a configuration file format because it provides a format
110which is easy for external agents to edit while retaining the correct
111structure and syntax.
112    </para><para>
113Font configuration is separate from font matching; applications needing to
114do their own matching can access the available fonts from the library and
115perform private matching.  The intent is to permit applications to pick and
116choose appropriate functionality from the library instead of forcing them to
117choose between this library and a private configuration mechanism.  The hope
118is that this will ensure that configuration of fonts for all applications
119can be centralized in one place.  Centralizing font configuration will
120simplify and regularize font installation and customization.
121    </para>
122  </sect2>
123  <sect2>
124    <title>FONT PROPERTIES</title>
125    <para>
126While font patterns may contain essentially any properties, there are some
127well known properties with associated types.  Fontconfig uses some of these
128properties for font matching and font completion.  Others are provided as a
129convenience for the application's rendering mechanism.
130    </para>
131    <programlisting>
132                 Property Definitions
133
134    Property       C Preprocessor Symbol  Type    Description
135    ----------------------------------------------------
136    family         FC_FAMILY              String  Font family names
137    familylang     FC_FAMILYLANG          String  Language corresponding to
138                                                  each family name
139    style          FC_STYLE               String  Font style. Overrides weight
140                                                  and slant
141    stylelang      FC_STYLELANG           String  Language corresponding to
142                                                  each style name
143    fullname       FC_FULLNAME            String  Font face full name where
144                                                  different from family and
145                                                  family + style
146    fullnamelang   FC_FULLNAMELANG        String  Language corresponding to
147                                                  each fullname
148    slant          FC_SLANT               Int     Italic, oblique or roman
149    weight         FC_WEIGHT              Int     Light, medium, demibold,
150                                                  bold or black
151    size           FC_SIZE                Double  Point size
152    width          FC_WIDTH               Int     Condensed, normal or expanded
153    aspect         FC_ASPECT              Double  Stretches glyphs horizontally
154                                                  before hinting
155    pixelsize      FC_PIXEL_SIZE          Double  Pixel size
156    spacing        FC_SPACING             Int     Proportional, dual-width,
157                                                  monospace or charcell
158    foundry        FC_FOUNDRY             String  Font foundry name
159    antialias      FC_ANTIALIAS           Bool    Whether glyphs can be
160                                                  antialiased
161    hinting        FC_HINTING             Bool    Whether the rasterizer should
162                                                  use hinting
163    hintstyle      FC_HINT_STYLE          Int     Automatic hinting style
164    verticallayout FC_VERTICAL_LAYOUT     Bool    Use vertical layout
165    autohint       FC_AUTOHINT            Bool    Use autohinter instead of
166                                                  normal hinter
167    globaladvance  FC_GLOBAL_ADVANCE      Bool    Use font global advance data (deprecated)
168    file           FC_FILE                String  The filename holding the font
169    index          FC_INDEX               Int     The index of the font within
170                                                  the file
171    ftface         FC_FT_FACE             FT_Face Use the specified FreeType
172                                                  face object
173    rasterizer     FC_RASTERIZER          String  Which rasterizer is in use (deprecated)
174    outline        FC_OUTLINE             Bool    Whether the glyphs are outlines
175    scalable       FC_SCALABLE            Bool    Whether glyphs can be scaled
176    scale          FC_SCALE               Double  Scale factor for point->pixel
177                                                  conversions
178    dpi            FC_DPI                 Double  Target dots per inch
179    rgba           FC_RGBA                Int     unknown, rgb, bgr, vrgb,
180                                                  vbgr, none - subpixel geometry
181    lcdfilter      FC_LCD_FILTER          Int     Type of LCD filter
182    minspace       FC_MINSPACE            Bool    Eliminate leading from line
183                                                  spacing
184    charset        FC_CHARSET             CharSet Unicode chars encoded by
185                                                  the font
186    lang           FC_LANG                LangSet Set of RFC-3066-style
187                                                  languages this font supports
188    fontversion    FC_FONTVERSION         Int     Version number of the font
189    capability     FC_CAPABILITY          String  List of layout capabilities in
190                                                  the font
191    embolden       FC_EMBOLDEN            Bool    Rasterizer should
192                                                  synthetically embolden the font
193    fontfeatures   FC_FONT_FEATURES       String  List of extra feature tags in
194                                                  OpenType to be enabled
195    namelang       FC_NAMELANG            String  Language name to be used for the
196                                                  default value of familylang,
197                                                  stylelang and fullnamelang
198    prgname        FC_PRGNAME             String  Name of the running program
199    hash           FC_HASH                String  SHA256 hash value of the font data
200                                                  with "sha256:" prefix.
201    postscriptname FC_POSTSCRIPT_NAME     String  Font name in PostScript
202    </programlisting>
203  </sect2>
204</sect1>
205<sect1><title>Datatypes</title>
206  <para>
207Fontconfig uses abstract data types to hide internal implementation details
208for most data structures.  A few structures are exposed where appropriate.
209  </para>
210  <sect2><title>FcChar8, FcChar16, FcChar32, FcBool</title>
211    <para>
212These are primitive data types; the FcChar* types hold precisely the number
213of bits stated (if supported by the C implementation).  FcBool holds
214one of two C preprocessor symbols: FcFalse or FcTrue.
215    </para>
216  </sect2>
217  <sect2><title>FcMatrix</title>
218    <para>
219An FcMatrix holds an affine transformation, usually used to reshape glyphs.
220A small set of matrix operations are provided to manipulate these.
221    <programlisting>
222        typedef struct _FcMatrix {
223                double xx, xy, yx, yy;
224        } FcMatrix;
225    </programlisting>
226    </para>
227  </sect2>
228  <sect2><title>FcCharSet</title>
229    <para>
230An FcCharSet is an abstract type that holds the set of encoded Unicode chars
231in a font.  Operations to build and compare these sets are provided.
232    </para>
233  </sect2>
234  <sect2><title>FcLangSet</title>
235    <para>
236An FcLangSet is an abstract type that holds the set of languages supported
237by a font.  Operations to build and compare these sets are provided. These
238are computed for a font based on orthographic information built into the
239fontconfig library. Fontconfig has orthographies for all of the ISO 639-1
240languages except for MS, NA, PA, PS, QU, RN, RW, SD, SG, SN, SU and ZA. If
241you have orthographic information for any of these languages, please submit
242them.
243    </para>
244  </sect2>
245  <sect2><title>FcLangResult</title>
246    <para>
247An FcLangResult is an enumeration used to return the results of comparing
248two language strings or FcLangSet objects. FcLangEqual means the
249objects match language and territory. FcLangDifferentTerritory means
250the objects match in language but differ in territory.
251FcLangDifferentLang means the objects differ in language.
252    </para>
253  </sect2>
254  <sect2><title>FcType</title>
255    <para>
256Tags the kind of data stored in an FcValue.
257    </para>
258  </sect2>
259  <sect2><title>FcValue</title>
260    <para>
261An FcValue object holds a single value with one of a number of different
262types.  The 'type' tag indicates which member is valid.
263    <programlisting>
264        typedef struct _FcValue {
265                FcType type;
266                union {
267                        const FcChar8 *s;
268                        int i;
269                        FcBool b;
270                        double d;
271                        const FcMatrix *m;
272                        const FcCharSet *c;
273			void *f;
274			const FcLangSet *l;
275                } u;
276        } FcValue;
277    </programlisting>
278    <programlisting>
279                  FcValue Members
280
281        Type            Union member    Datatype
282        --------------------------------
283        FcTypeVoid      (none)          (none)
284        FcTypeInteger   i               int
285        FcTypeDouble    d               double
286        FcTypeString    s               FcChar8 *
287        FcTypeBool      b               b
288        FcTypeMatrix    m               FcMatrix *
289        FcTypeCharSet   c               FcCharSet *
290	FcTypeFTFace	f		void * (FT_Face)
291	FcTypeLangSet	l		FcLangSet *
292    </programlisting>
293    </para>
294  </sect2>
295  <sect2><title>FcPattern</title>
296    <para>
297holds a set of names with associated value lists; each name refers to a
298property of a font.  FcPatterns are used as inputs to the matching code as
299well as holding information about specific fonts.  Each property can hold
300one or more values; conventionally all of the same type, although the
301interface doesn't demand that.
302    </para>
303  </sect2>
304  <sect2><title>FcFontSet</title>
305    <para>
306    <programlisting>
307        typedef struct _FcFontSet {
308                int nfont;
309                int sfont;
310                FcPattern **fonts;
311        } FcFontSet;
312    </programlisting>
313An FcFontSet contains a list of FcPatterns.  Internally fontconfig uses this
314data structure to hold sets of fonts.  Externally, fontconfig returns the
315results of listing fonts in this format.  'nfont' holds the number of
316patterns in the 'fonts' array; 'sfont' is used to indicate the size of that
317array.
318    </para>
319  </sect2>
320  <sect2><title>FcStrSet, FcStrList</title>
321    <para>
322FcStrSet holds a list of strings that can be appended to and enumerated.
323Its unique characteristic is that the enumeration works even while strings
324are appended during enumeration.  FcStrList is used during enumeration to
325safely and correctly walk the list of strings even while that list is edited
326in the middle of enumeration.
327    </para>
328  </sect2>
329  <sect2><title>FcObjectSet</title>
330    <para>
331      <programlisting>
332        typedef struct _FcObjectSet {
333                int nobject;
334                int sobject;
335                const char **objects;
336        } FcObjectSet;
337      </programlisting>
338holds a set of names and is used to specify which fields from fonts are
339placed in the the list of returned patterns when listing fonts.
340    </para>
341  </sect2>
342  <sect2><title>FcObjectType</title>
343    <para>
344      <programlisting>
345        typedef struct _FcObjectType {
346                const char *object;
347                FcType type;
348        } FcObjectType;
349      </programlisting>
350marks the type of a pattern element generated when parsing font names.
351Applications can add new object types so that font names may contain the new
352elements.
353    </para>
354  </sect2>
355  <sect2><title>FcConstant</title>
356    <para>
357      <programlisting>
358        typedef struct _FcConstant {
359            const FcChar8 *name;
360            const char *object;
361            int value;
362        } FcConstant;
363      </programlisting>
364Provides for symbolic constants for new pattern elements.  When 'name' is
365seen in a font name, an 'object' element is created with value 'value'.
366    </para>
367  </sect2>
368  <sect2><title>FcBlanks</title>
369    <para>
370holds a list of Unicode chars which are expected to be blank; unexpectedly
371blank chars are assumed to be invalid and are elided from the charset
372associated with the font.
373    </para>
374  </sect2>
375  <sect2><title>FcFileCache</title>
376    <para>
377holds the per-user cache information for use while loading the font
378database. This is built automatically for the current configuration when
379that is loaded.  Applications must always pass '0' when one is requested.
380    </para>
381  </sect2>
382  <sect2><title>FcConfig</title>
383    <para>
384holds a complete configuration of the library; there is one default
385configuration, other can be constructed from XML data structures.  All
386public entry points that need global data can take an optional FcConfig*
387argument; passing 0 uses the default configuration.  FcConfig objects hold two
388sets of fonts, the first contains those specified by the configuration, the
389second set holds those added by the application at run-time.  Interfaces
390that need to reference a particular set use one of the FcSetName enumerated
391values.
392    </para>
393  </sect2>
394  <sect2><title>FcSetName</title>
395    <para>
396Specifies one of the two sets of fonts available in a configuration;
397FcSetSystem for those fonts specified in the configuration and
398FcSetApplication which holds fonts provided by the application.
399    </para>
400  </sect2>
401  <sect2><title>FcResult</title>
402    <para>
403Used as a return type for functions manipulating FcPattern objects.
404    <programlisting>
405      FcResult Values
406        Result Code             Meaning
407        -----------------------------------------------------------
408        FcResultMatch           Object exists with the specified ID
409        FcResultNoMatch         Object doesn't exist at all
410        FcResultTypeMismatch    Object exists, but the type doesn't match
411        FcResultNoId            Object exists, but has fewer values
412                                than specified
413        FcResultOutOfMemory     malloc failed
414    </programlisting>
415    </para>
416  </sect2>
417  <sect2><title>FcAtomic</title>
418    <para>
419Used for locking access to configuration files.  Provides a safe way to update
420configuration files.
421    </para>
422  </sect2>
423  <sect2><title>FcCache</title>
424    <para>
425Holds information about the fonts contained in a single directory. Normal
426applications need not worry about this as caches for font access are
427automatically managed by the library. Applications dealing with cache
428management may want to use some of these objects in their work, however the
429included 'fc-cache' program generally suffices for all of that.
430    </para>
431  </sect2>
432</sect1>
433<sect1><title>FUNCTIONS</title>
434  <para>
435These are grouped by functionality, often using the main data type being
436manipulated.
437  </para>
438  <sect2><title>Initialization</title>
439    <para>
440These functions provide some control over how the library is initialized.
441    </para>
442    &fcinit;
443  </sect2>
444  <sect2><title>FcPattern</title>
445    <para>
446An FcPattern is an opaque type that holds both patterns to match against the
447available fonts, as well as the information about each font.
448    </para>
449    &fcpattern;
450    &fcformat;
451  </sect2>
452  <sect2><title>FcFontSet</title>
453    <para>
454An FcFontSet simply holds a list of patterns; these are used to return the
455results of listing available fonts.
456    </para>
457    &fcfontset;
458  </sect2>
459  <sect2><title>FcObjectSet</title>
460    <para>
461An FcObjectSet holds a list of pattern property names; it is used to
462indicate which properties are to be returned in the patterns from
463FcFontList.
464    </para>
465    &fcobjectset;
466  </sect2>
467  <sect2><title>FreeType specific functions</title>
468    <para>
469While the fontconfig library doesn't insist that FreeType be used as the
470rasterization mechanism for fonts, it does provide some convenience
471functions.
472    </para>
473    &fcfreetype;
474  </sect2>
475  <sect2><title>FcValue</title>
476    <para>
477FcValue is a structure containing a type tag and a union of all possible
478datatypes.  The tag is an enum of type 
479<emphasis>FcType</emphasis>
480and is intended to provide a measure of run-time
481typechecking, although that depends on careful programming.
482    </para>
483    &fcvalue;
484  </sect2>
485  <sect2><title>FcCharSet</title>
486    <para>
487An FcCharSet is a boolean array indicating a set of Unicode chars.  Those
488associated with a font are marked constant and cannot be edited.
489FcCharSets may be reference counted internally to reduce memory consumption;
490this may be visible to applications as the result of FcCharSetCopy may
491return it's argument, and that CharSet may remain unmodifiable.
492    </para>
493    &fccharset;
494  </sect2>
495  <sect2><title>FcLangSet</title>
496    <para>
497An FcLangSet is a set of language names (each of which include language and
498an optional territory). They are used when selecting fonts to indicate which
499languages the fonts need to support. Each font is marked, using language
500orthography information built into fontconfig, with the set of supported
501languages.
502    </para>
503    &fclangset;
504  </sect2>
505  <sect2><title>FcMatrix</title>
506    <para>
507FcMatrix structures hold an affine transformation in matrix form.
508    </para>
509    &fcmatrix;
510  </sect2>
511  <sect2><title>FcConfig</title>
512    <para>
513An FcConfig object holds the internal representation of a configuration.
514There is a default configuration which applications may use by passing 0 to
515any function using the data within an FcConfig.
516    </para>
517    &fcconfig;
518  </sect2>
519  <sect2><title>FcObjectType</title>
520    <para>
521Provides for application-specified font name object types so that new
522pattern elements can be generated from font names.
523    </para>
524    &fcobjecttype;
525  </sect2>
526  <sect2><title>FcConstant</title>
527    <para>
528Provides for application-specified symbolic constants for font names.
529    </para>
530    &fcconstant;
531  </sect2>
532  <sect2><title>FcBlanks</title>
533    <para>
534An FcBlanks object holds a list of Unicode chars which are expected to
535be blank when drawn.  When scanning new fonts, any glyphs which are
536empty and not in this list will be assumed to be broken and not placed in
537the FcCharSet associated with the font.  This provides a significantly more
538accurate CharSet for applications.
539    </para>
540    &fcblanks;
541  </sect2>
542  <sect2><title>FcAtomic</title>
543    <para>
544These functions provide a safe way to update configuration files, allowing ongoing
545reading of the old configuration file while locked for writing and ensuring that a
546consistent and complete version of the configuration file is always available.
547    </para>
548    &fcatomic;
549  </sect2>
550  <sect2><title>File and Directory routines</title>
551    <para>
552These routines work with font files and directories, including font
553directory cache files.
554    </para>
555    &fcfile;
556    &fcdircache;
557  </sect2>
558  <sect2><title>FcCache routines</title>
559    <para>
560These routines work with font directory caches, accessing their contents in
561limited ways. It is not expected that normal applications will need to use
562these functions.
563    </para>
564    &fccache;
565  </sect2>
566  <sect2><title>FcStrSet and FcStrList</title>
567    <para>
568A data structure for enumerating strings, used to list directories while
569scanning the configuration as directories are added while scanning.
570    </para>
571    &fcstrset;
572  </sect2>
573  <sect2><title>String utilities</title>
574    <para>
575Fontconfig manipulates many UTF-8 strings represented with the FcChar8 type.
576These functions are exposed to help applications deal with these UTF-8
577strings in a locale-insensitive manner.
578    </para>
579    &fcstring;
580  </sect2>
581</sect1>
582</article>
583