make_gdl(1)

MAKE_GDL(1)

User Contributed Perl Documentation

MAKE_GDL(1)

NAME

make_gdl - Create GDL from a TrueType Font

SYNOPSIS

  make_gdl [-a file] [-i file] [-l type [-s num]] [-n num] [-z bitfield]
           infile outfile
  make_gdl -h
Creates font specific GDL from a font and optional attachment point database

OPTIONS

  -a file       Attachment point database
  -c classfile  xml file of class and property information to merge in
  --classprops  specifies whether classes are made for property values in
                the classfile
  --classwarn   issue warnings if classfile contains references to glyphs
                that are not in the font.
  --autodefines Output per class #defines for key classes
  -d name=val   Add #defines to output gdl
  -e file       A file containing names (1 per line) of glyphs that are 
                known to have no outline (thus shouldn't generate warnings). 
  -h            print manpage
  -i file       add #include statement at end of file
  -l type       type =
                    first - class name is first code, contents other codes
                    last  - class name is last code, contents other codes
                    firstcomp - treat extensions as part of elements, as first
                    lastcomp - treat extensions as part of elements, as last
  -m "list"     List of APs to ignore when deciding whether a glyph is a mark
  -n num        Add a normalization substitution with the given pass number
  -o "list"     List of AP names to omit
  --package file
                Use the named file instead of Font::TTF::Scripts::GDL.pm to
                open the font. Assumes the internal package name is the
                same as the basename of file (sans any extension).
  -p num        Add auto positioning attachment rules with the given pass number
  -r            Rename point names such that final M gets initial _ and final S
                is removed. Typically for Fontographer fonts.
  -s num        Add ligature substitution rules with the given pass number
  -z bitfield   Bitfield of various controls:
                    0 - use component properties to set ligature bounding boxes
                    1 - normalise even if presentation is only references
                    2 - use postscript names in glyph definitions

When writing a GDL description for a font there are generally two parts to such a description. The first part is a general behaviour description that is appropriate to a number of fonts for a particular writing system. It will contain rules for reordering, substitution, positioning, etc and is often written in terms of classes rather than individual glyphs. For a very simple script such a description may be empty.

The second part of a description is font specific and includes names of glyphs positions of attachment points and other properties for each glyph. It will also contain class definitions and perhaps even some glyph specific rules.

It is this second part that make_gdl is designed to address. Make_gdl will take a TTF and perhaps an attachment point database (defined in ttfbuilder) and will create a standardised font specific GDL description which may or may not be sufficient to describe the behaviour of the font. It is more likely that a general behaviour file will also need to be written.

The generated GDL consists of 4 sections:

Glyph Definitions

Each glyph has a definition as part of a table(glyph) section. The name of the glyph is based on the postscript name of the glyph. If the name is of the form of a general Unicode character in the Adobe Glyph List, then the name is transformed with an initial "g_" followed by the unicode USV. If there is a sequence of unicode values in the name, the "uni" parts of the name are replaced by <_> resulting in something like: "g_1000_103c". Otherwise the name is transformed to lower case with each upper case letter preceded by "_" and the name preceded by "g_" as in "g__a" for A. If a glyph has a variant ("."var) the "." is turned into "_". If a glyph is multinamed (separated by "/") then only the first name is used for the glyph name although the glyph will appear in all the classes appropriate to all its names.

Glyphs may have attachment points and these come from the attachment points database given on the command line. In addition any properties with the name starting "GDL_" are included as glyph attributes for use in rules. Ligature components may also propagate from the attachment point database.

Attachment points are assumed to be named according to the Fontlab convention whereby a diacritic has an anchor named "_"x that is anchored to a base character on the attachment point x. The names of the se attachment points are munged so that "_"x becomes "xM" and x becomes x"S".

Class Definitions

For each attachment point base name (x) a class is created. Class "c"x"Dia" contains a list of all the glyphs with the attachment point "_"x. Class "cTakes"x"Dia" contains all the glyphs with attachment point x. Class "cn"x"Dia" contains all the glyphs without attachment point "_"X. And the class "cnTakes"x"Dia" contains all the glyphs without the x attachment point.

In addition for each glyph name variant (as labelled in a postscript name for a glyph using "."var) a class named "c"var is created with all the glyphs with that variant in their name. A class named "cno_"var is also created containing all the corresponding glyphs without the variant, in direct correspondance, so that the non-variant form may be mapped to the variant form using a single rule, for all the glyphs in the class.

Finally a class is created for ligature components. If a glyph is part of a ligature rule it is either the key glyph for the rule or part of the class for the rule. Thus for a rule keyed of a glyph named x there will be two classes: "clig_"x which is the ligatures involving x and "cligno_"x which contains all the components that correspond to the ligatures found in the other class. This makes a ligature rule a simple 2:1 mapping from "cligno_"x + key to "clig_"x.

Rules

Make_gdl may also create generalised rules to simplify the creation of GDL descriptions. Which rule sets are generated is controlled from the command line.

If the "-n" command line option is used, make_gdl will create normalisation rules. These rules will map any glyph sequence that corresponds to a unicode sequence that has a canonical composition that exists in the font into that glyph.

If the "-s" command line option is used, make_gdl will write rules for combining glyphs into ligatures according to the glyph naming in the postscript name table. Ligature rules are based on a class and a glyph. By default the class contains a list of first glyphs in a ligature pair and there is a rule for each second glyph. If "-l last" is used then this is reversed with there being a rule for each first glyph and the second glyph is in a class. If variants are involved, should the name be a variant of the ligature or the last glyph in the ligature sequence? If "-l firstcomp" or "-l lastcomp" then then variant is considered part of the last glyph otherwise it is considered part of the ligature.

Inclusion

make_gdl outputs a preprocessor definition "MAXGLYPH" that is set to the number of glyphs in the font.

Since a GDL description is only a single file, the command line allows one to specify another GDL file to include at the end of the file. This makes including a font independent GDL fragment much easier.

Classfile

The DTD for the classes file is:

    <!ELEMENT classes (class, property)*>
    <!ELEMENT class (#PCDATA)>
    <!ATTLIST class
        name    CDATA #REQUIRED
        exts    CDATA #IMPLIED>
    <!ELEMENT property (#PCDATA)>
    <!ATTLIST property
        name    CDATA #REQUIRED
        value   CDATA #REQUIRED
        exts    CDATA #IMPLIED>

AUTHOR

Martin Hosken <http://scripts.sil.org/FontUtils>. (see CONTRIBUTORS for other authors).

LICENSING

This script is released under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0. For details, see the full text of the license in the file LICENSE.

2026-10-03

perl v5.44.0