psmay/svg-to-fontforge-python.md

## svg-to-fontforge-python.md

      
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              svg-to-fontforge-python.md
            
          
    Notes on dumping SVG outlines into a FontForge file

Sources I've looked at:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12713444/inverted-glyph-bitmap-svg-via-autotrace-glyph-via-fontforge
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22124130/import-a-sequence-of-svg-files-into-fontforge-as-glyphs-and-output-a-font-file
http://dmtr.org/ff.php

I have a hunch that createMappedChar() doesn't work unless you've done loadNameList('glyphlist.txt') or loadNameList('aglfn.txt') (BSD-licensed Adobe glyph lists). An alternative seems to be to go by codepoint with createChar().
import fontforge
#fontforge.loadNameList('aglfn.txt') # Might be optional

#font = fontforge.open('existing.sfd')
font = fontforge.font() # new font

glyphNameAndOutlineFilename = {
    ('A', 'capital-a-glyph.svg'),
    ('Adieresis', 'capital-adieresis-glyph.svg'),
    ...
}

#characterAndOutlineFilename = {
#   ('A', 'capital-a-glyph.svg'),
#   ('Ä', 'capital-adieresis-glyph.svg'),
#   ...
#}

for name, filename in glyphNameAndOutlineFilename:
    glyph = font.createMappedChar(name)
    glyph.importOutlines(filename)
    # May need to set glyph.width here

#for c, filename in characterAndOutlineFilename:
#   glyph = font.createChar(ord(c))
#   glyph.importOutlines(filename)
#   # May need to set glyph.width here

#font.generate('output-font.ttf')
font.save('output-font.sfd')