FontForge on Mac OS X
FontForge is a UNIX application, so it doesn’t behave 100% like a normal Mac Application and it needs XQuartz to run.
Read either the short or detailed guide (each with appropriate download links) to get you started.
XQuartz
- Download and install xQuartz if you don’t already have it
- Open XQuartz
- Preferences (⌘,)
- If checked, then uncheck
Enable keyboard shortcuts under X11
orEnable key equivalents under X11
like shown below
FontForge
- For users of Mac OS X 10.10 and later, download and install FontForge 2017-07-31
- For users of Mac OS X 10.09, download and install FontForge 2015-04-30
- Extract the FontForge app and move it to
/Applications
- not anywhere else - Open FontForge
- If asked where X11 is, then find and select XQuartz in
Applications/Utilities
- FontForge is now ready for you to use it like any other app.
1. Install XQuartz
Without XQuartz, FontForge will open a Dock icon but not load any further.
Open Finder and look in your /Applications/Utilities/
folder for the XQuartz
app.
If you don’t have it then download and install: direct link to XQuartz-2.7.11.dmg
Log out and log back in to ensure it works correctly
Just this first time, start XQuartz from Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app
, go to the X11 menu, Preferences, Input, and turn off the Enable keyboard shortcuts under X11
or Enable key equivalents under X11
preference item. FontForge will start XQuartz automatically for you next time.
2. Install FontForge
For users of Mac OS X 10.10 and later, download and install FontForge 2017-07-30
For users of Mac OS X 10.09, download and install FontForge 2015-04-30
Open it and move the FontForge.app
file to /Applications
- do not move it anywhere else
Right Click (or hold the Command
key and click once) and choose Open
from the menu, and confirm you want to open the app
You may see a dialog box saying “Choose Application. Where is X11?” with a sort of Finder window. Find XQuartz in Applications/Utilities
and click OK
Be patient while it runs a first-time setup process
FontForge will create a new font and show you its glyphs in a table:
Next time, it will open fast and in any typical way: double clicking it, drag it to the dock, using Launcher, Spotlight or Quicksilver…
Tips
When you run FontForge, its dock icon will disappear after it is launched, because it is controlled by XQuartz.
To bring fontforge’s windows to the font, click the XQuartz icon, or use Alt+Tab to switch to it.
Problems?
If you have any problems with installation or upgrading, create a Github Issue to discuss with our community.
Other sources and versions
You can also install Daily Development Snapshots, install using Package Managers or build from source
New development versions are released every few days, and the latest is always available from http://dl.bintray.com/fontforge/fontforge/.
To install an update:
- quit FontForge and X11
- drag and drop the new FontForge.app into
/Applications
and replace it - start FontForge again
Building from source
Build with source using Homebrew in the normal way:
brew install python gettext libpng jpeg libtiff giflib cairo pango libspiro czmq fontconfig automake libtool pkg-config glib pango
brew install -v --debug fontforge --HEAD --with-giflib --with-x11 --with-libspiro
If anything goes wrong, just create a ticket for the package manager or try to use non-HEAD versions.
If you build from sources with Homebrew assistance, you may be lucky if you run
./configure && make -j3 && sudo make install;
(You’ll need to have all the dependencies already installed.)
Advanced Configuration
To make FontForge more pleasant to use, you can change some aspects of the way it works on Macs. These steps are optional.
Hot keys UI size 3-button mouse
If the hotkeys are unfamiliar, you can change them!
- quit FontForge and X11
- with your text editor, open
/Applications/FontForge.app/Contents/Resources/opt/local/share/fontforge/hotkeys/default
- change the hotkeys and save the file
- start FontForge again
If the UI appears very big or very small, you can change the way the UI is sized.
- quit FontForge and X11
- with your text editor, open
/Applications/FontForge.app/Contents/Resources/opt/local/share/fontforge/pixmaps/resources
- measure the physical width of your screen in centimeters. In this example, it is 34cm wide.
- add a new line,
Gdraw.ScreenWidthCentimeters: 34
and save the file - start FontForge again
- if the scaling is still not right, play with the value until it is
FontForge is designed to make use of a three button mouse. It is also designed to make use of modifier keys on mouse clicks (eg, Control-left-click can mean something different than left-click.)
If you have a standard one button mouse, then you have the option of having the Mac simulate a three button mouse (for instance Option-left-click behaves like clicking the middle mouse button). Unfortunately this means you can no longer use the Option key to change the behavior of the left (only) button click. To enable this, click the XQuartz app in the Dock, and then go to X11 menu in the top left, Preferences, Input, and turn on Emulate three button mouse
If you have a two or three button mouse, then use it (and turn off Emulate three button mouse
in the X11 preferences.)
Don’t miss an update!
Subscribe to the FontForge announcement list.
You can also subscribe to the user and developer lists.