Font Support

Status

FOP (building PDF files) normally supports only the base 14 font package defined in the Adobe PDF specification. That includes the following fonts: Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol and ZapfDingbats.

Font support in FOP can be extended by the addition of font metric files (written in XML) created from Adobe Type 1 fonts. No other font types (TrueType, Type 0, Type 3, etc.) are supported at this time. The current method of adding fonts to FOP requires the package to be recompiled.

Adding additional Type 1 fonts

As mentioned above you need an XML file containing font metrics to be able to use an additional font. FOP contains a tool that can generate such a font metrics file from a PFM file.

Generating a font metrics file

Run the class org.apache.fop.fonts.apps.PFMReader to generate the XML file. Important: The tool does two XSL transformations, one of which uses charlist.xml. At the moment in order for the tool to work correctly you have to copy charlist.xml temporarily to the local directory from where you intend to start the tool. (If anyone has an improvement on this...)

`java -cp fop.jar;xerces.jar;xalan.jar;w3c.jar`

`org.apache.fop.fonts.apps.PFMReader pfm-file xml-file`

Put the resulting XML file into the src/codegen directory.

Note: The tool will construct some values (FontBBox, StemV and ItalicAngle) based on assumptions and calculations which are only an approximation to the real values. FontBBox and Italic Angle can be found in the human-readable part of the PFB file. The PFMReader tool does not yet interpret PFB files, so if you want to be correct, you may have to adjust the values in the XML file manually. The constructed values however appear to have no visible influence.

Register the fonts within FOP

Open the class org.apache.fop.render.pdf.FontSetup and add entries to the ones present according to the following example:

`fontInfo.addMetrics("F14", new ZapfDingbats());`

`fontInfo.addMetrics("F15", new BauerBodoniRoman()); //This is the new entry.`

`...`

`fontInfo.addFontProperties("F14", "ZapfDingbats", "normal", "normal");`

`fontInfo.addFontProperties("F15", "BauerBodoni", "normal", "normal"); //This is the new entry.`

Note: The class name to use is visible in the <class-name> element of the font metrics file.

Adjusting build.xml

In the src/codegen directory you find the font metrics files for the base 14 fonts. The are being transformed during build into Java classes and then compiled. The newly generated font metrics file must be included in this process. To do that open build.xml and add entries according to the following example:

`<property name="ZapfDingbats.xml" value="${build.codegen}/ZapfDingbats.xml"/>`

`<property name="BauerBodoni.xml" value="${build.codegen}/BauerBodoni.xml"/>`

`...`

`<xslt infile="${ZapfDingbats.xml}" xsltfile="${fontfile.xsl}"`

`outfile="${build.src}/${replacestring}/render/pdf/fonts/ZapfDingbats.java" smart="yes"/>`

`<xslt infile="${BauerBodoni.xml}" xsltfile="${t1fontfile.xsl}"`

`outfile="${build.src}/${replacestring}/render/pdf/fonts/BauerBodoniRoman.java" smart="yes"/>`

Rebuild FOP!

Note: Be sure to use ${t1fontfile.xsl} instead of ${fontfile.xsl}. This is neccessary because of the additional metrics information needed for non base 14 fonts.