Changing FontForge’s UI Appearance¶
FontForge has an extensive appearance editor that evolved out of the X resource system but now bears little relation to it beyond its file format. As of 2021 every parameter is represented in the editor and almost all have a tooltip similar to the explanations below. The editor is therefore the primary source of information about the parameters and this document is mostly useful for its explanation of the new font specification system.
Fonts¶
A font specification consists of a size directive, one or more style directives a weight directive, an explicit or implicit family list, and/or a reference font name.
Explicit Size Directives¶
An explicit size directive is either an integer followed by “pt” for a point size (as in “10pt”) or an integer followed by “px” for a pixel size (as in “12px”).
Style Directives¶
A style directive is one or more of “italic”, “oblique”, “small-caps”, “extended”, and “condensed”.
Weight Directives¶
A weight directive is either one of the strings “normal”, “light”, or “bold” or an integer multiple of 100, where 400 is equivalent to “normal” and 700 is equivalent to “bold”.
Family Lists¶
A family list is a comma-separated list of families, where a given family name can contain spaces. When present a family list must come last in the specification, whereas other directives can occur in any order.
The directive “bold italic 10pt dejavu sans,helvetica,sans” therefore specifies 10 point bold italic DejaVu Sans as the font, with Helvetica and Sans possibly used as fallbacks for missing glyphs.
Reference Font Names¶
Instead of specifying a font from scratch you can do so in relation to a reference font, given by the name of the resource preceded by a caret. The primary fonts to reference are “View.DefaultFont”, “View.LabelFont”, “View.MonoFont”, and “View.SerifFont”. These are (or should be) specified with appropriate family lists for a sans-serif, “unicode”, monospace, and serif font respectively. They also specify a reference font size, which is 12 points by default. The label “unicode” font is typically used in cases where extended or obscure unicode characters are directly displayed (most often as glyph slot labels in the FontView window).
To copy the exact specification of a different font you can just include the reference name, as in “^View.DefaultFont”. To override the size, weight or style just include one of those directives, as in “10pt bold ^View.MonoFont”. Note that style directives are not cumulative, so if “FontInfo.Font” is bold then “italic ^FontInfo.Font” will just be italic, not bold italic.
Finally, and most usefully, you can specify a size as a percentage rather than an absolute size, with an integer followed by a percent sign. “83% bold ^View.DefaultFont” therefore specifies whatever size (in points or pixels) would be 83% of that font.
The default resource file now has these relative font settings, so that changing the point size of View.DefaultFont scales the whole UI. There are some glitches but for the most part it works at lower point sizes (less than 17).
Other Info¶
By default FontForge loads the system configuration file. You can change this behavior by adding a custom file in your preferences, which happens automatically when you choose Save As” in the File->Appearance Editor and keep the button checked. Also see File->Preference->Generic->ResourceFile.
When editing resources some will take effect immediately, some when a new window is opened, and some on the next restart of the program. It is therefore best to restart after each significant change.
The Directives¶
View¶
- fontforge.View.DefaultFont
- Specifies the main font family used throughout the program, which is usually sans-serif, along with a reference size (12 points by default). 
- fontforge.View.MonoFont
- Specifies the monospace font family used in various fields and tables along with a reference size (copied from View.DefaultFont by default). 
- fontforge.View.SerifFont
- Specifies the serif font family used in a few contexts along with a reference size (copied from View.DefaultFont by default). 
- fontforge.View.Background
- Sets the background color for the drawing areas of the fontview, glyph view, bitmap view and metrics view. 
Font View¶
- fontforge.FontView.GlyphFGColor
- The color of the glyph image in the FontView when not selected 
- fontforge.FontView.GlyphInfoColor
- Sets the color used to display information about selected glyph, between the FontView menu bar and the glyph array. 
- fontforge.FontView.SlotOutlineColor
- The color of the box around each glyph. 
- fontforge.FontView.SlotDivisionColor
- The color of the line between the glyph label and glyph image 
- fontforge.FontView.LabelColor
- The default color of the label 
- fontforge.FontView.UnencodedLabelColor
- The color of the label when the glyph is not part of the encoding 
- fontforge.FontView.MissingLabelColor
- The color of the substitute label when the proper one is unknown or unavailable. 
- fontforge.FontView.EmptySlotFgColor
- Sets the color of crosses marking empty code points. 
- fontforge.FontView.SelectedColor
- Sets the background color of selected glyphs. 
- fontforge.FontView.SelectedFgColor
- Sets the foreground color of selected glyphs. 
- fontforge.FontView.ChangedColor
- Sets the color used to mark changed glyphs. 
- fontforge.FontView.MissingBitmapColor
- In a font with both outline and bitmaps this marks a slot with an outline but not a bitmap 
- fontforge.FontView.MissingOutlineColor
- In a font with both outline and bitmaps this marks a slot with a bitmap but no outline 
- fontforge.FontView.HintingNeededColor
- Sets the color of markings for glyphs that need hinting or instructing. 
- fontforge.FontView.MetricsAdvanceAtColor
- fontforge.FontView.MetricsAdvanceToColor
- fontforge.FontView.MetricsBaselineColor
- fontforge.FontView.MetricsOriginColor
- The respective colors of these metrics when they are set as visible in the View menu 
- fontforge.FontView.Font
- The font used for the lables, which by default is just ^View.DefaultFont 
Outline Points¶
- fontforge.CharView.PointColor
- Sets the color used to draw curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view. 
- fontforge.CharView.FirstPointColor
- Sets the color of the first point on a contour. 
- fontforge.CharView.SelectedPointColor
- Sets the color used to draw selected curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view. 
- fontforge.CharView.SelectedPointWidth
- Sets the width of the line used to outline selected curved, corner or tangent points in the outline character view. 
- fontforge.CharView.ExtremePointColor
- Sets the color of a point which is an extremum. 
- fontforge.CharView.PointOfInflectionColor
- Sets the color of a location which is a point of inflection. 
- fontforge.CharView.AlmostHVColor
- Sets the color used to mark lines and curves which are almost, but not quite horizontal or vertical. 
- fontforge.CharView.NextCPColor
- Sets the color used to draw the “Next” control point. 
- fontforge.CharView.PrevCPColor
- Sets the color used to draw the “Previous” control point. 
- fontforge.CharView.SelectedCPColor
- Sets the color used to draw a control point that has been selected. 
- fontforge.CharView.AnchorColor
- Sets the color used to draw an anchor point 
- fontforge.CharView.LabelFont
- Used for point and contour names, anchor point names, etc. 
- fontforge.CharView.IconFont
- Used to build window decoration icons in some cases 
- fontforge.CharView.PointNumberFont
- Used for point numbers, hints, etc. 
Outline Lines/Fills¶
- fontforge.CharView.ForegroundOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw foreground outlines. 
- fontforge.CharView.ForegroundThickOutlineColor
- The color of thick outlines in the active layer (when zoomed in) 
- fontforge.CharView.FillColor
- Sets the color used to draw a character’s fill 
- fontforge.CharView.PreviewFillColor
- The color to use when performing a preview fill. If this is not set then FontForge will fallback to using fontforge.CharView.FillColor. Neither of these resources are set then black will be used. 
- fontforge.CharView.OpenPathColor
- The color of the line of an open path. (The “thin” color will be with the alpha removed and the “thick” color will be with the alpha included.) 
- fontforge.CharView.ClipPathColor
- The color of a clip path. 
- fontforge.CharView.BackgroundOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw background outlines. 
- fontforge.CharView.BackgroundThickOutlineColor
- The color of “thick” background outlines (when zoomed in). 
- fontforge.CharView.WidthColor
- Sets the color used to draw the advance width line. 
- fontforge.CharView.WidthSelColor
- Sets the color used to draw the advance width if it is selected. 
- fontforge.CharView.LBearingSelColor
- The color of the left bearing line wien selected 
- fontforge.CharView.LigatureCaretColor
- Sets the color used to draw ligature caret lines. 
- fontforge.CharView.AnchoredOutlineColor
- The color of another glyph drawn in the current view to show where it would be placed by an anchor lookup. 
- fontforge.CharView.CoordinateLineColor
- Sets the color used to draw the baseline and x=0 line. 
- fontforge.CharView.AscentDescentColor
- Sets the color used to draw the ascent and descent lines. 
- fontforge.CharView.ItalicCoordColor
- Sets the color used to draw various horizontal metrics lines when they have been skewed appropriately for an italic font. 
- fontforge.CharView.MetricsLabelColor
- Sets the color used to label metrics lines 
- fontforge.CharView.TemplateOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw a template outline. (not currently used) 
- fontforge.CharView.RulerBigTickColor
- Sets the color of coarse-grained ruler ticks. 
- fontforge.CharView.RulerCurrentTickColor
- Sets the color used to draw a vertical and a horizontal tick corresponding to the mouse position. 
- fontforge.CharView.RulerFont
- Font uesd for ruler numbers and other ruler notations. 
- fontforge.CharView.GuideOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw outlines in the Guide layer. 
- fontforge.CharView.GuideDragColor
- The color used to display a new guide line dragged from the ruler. 
Outline Tools¶
- fontforge.CharView.TraceColor
- Sets the color used to draw the trace of the freehand tool. 
- fontforge.CharView.OldOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw the original outline of a set of splines being transformed with one of the transform tools (flip, rotate, scale, etc.) 
- fontforge.CharView.TransformOriginColor
- Sets the color used to draw the origin of the current transformation. 
- fontforge.CharView.DraggingComparisonOutlineColor
- The color used to draw the outline of the old spline when you are interactively modifying a glyph 
- fontforge.CharView.DraggingComparisonAlphaChannelColor
- Only the alpha value of this parameter is used. If non zero it will set the alpha channel for the control points, bezier information and other non spline indicators for the Dragging Comparison Outline spline 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolLineColor
- The color used to draw the measure tool line. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolPointColor
- The color used to draw the measure tool points. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolPointSnappedColor
- The color used to draw the measure tool points when snapped. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolCanvasNumbersColor
- The color used to draw the measure tool numbers on the canvas. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolCanvasNumbersSnappedColor
- The color used to draw the measure tool numbers on the canvas when snapped. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolWindowForeground
- The measure tool “window” foreground color. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolWindowBackground
- The measure tool “window” background color. 
- fontforge.CharView.MeasureToolFont
- The font used to display the information in the measure tool “window”. 
Outline Hints¶
- fontforge.CharView.BlueValuesStippledCol
- Sets the color used to draw the BlueValues and OtherBlues zones. 
- fontforge.CharView.FamilyBlueStippledColor
- Sets the color used to draw the FamilyBlueValues and FamilyOtherBlues zones. 
- fontforge.CharView.MDHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw minimum distance hints 
- fontforge.CharView.HintLabelColor
- Sets the color used to label hint lines (and blue value lines) 
- fontforge.CharView.DHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw diagonal hints 
- fontforge.CharView.HHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw horizontal stem hints 
- fontforge.CharView.VHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw vertical stem hints 
- fontforge.CharView.HFlexHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw the halo around horizontal flex hints 
- fontforge.CharView.VFlexHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw the halo around vertical flex hints. 
- fontforge.CharView.ConflictHintColor
- Sets the color used to draw hints when they conflict 
- fontforge.CharView.HHintActiveColor
- Sets the color used to draw a horizontal stem hint when it is active in the review hints dlg. 
- fontforge.CharView.VHintActiveColor
- Sets the color used to draw a vertical stem hint when it is active in the review hints dlg. 
- fontforge.CharView.DeltaGridColor
- Indicates a notable grid pixel when suggesting deltas. 
Outline Raster¶
- fontforge.CharView.GridFitOutlineColor
- Sets the color used to draw outlines which have been gridfit (this should probably be the same as BackgroundOutlineColor as both are in the background layer). 
- fontforge.CharView.GridFitWidthColor
- Sets the color used to draw the advance width once it has been grid fit (if is on) 
- fontforge.CharView.RasterColor
- Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap (if or is on) 
- fontforge.CharView.RasterNewColor
- Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap if they have recently been turned on (if is on) 
- fontforge.CharView.RasterOldColor
- Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap f they have recently been turned off (if is on) 
- fontforge.CharView.RasterGridColor
- Sets the color used to draw the pixel grid used by the rasterizer (if or is on) 
- fontforge.CharView.RasterDarkColor
- When doing anti-aliased debugging, sets the color used for the darkest pixel. Other pixels will be interpolated between this and the background. 
- fontforge.CharView.BackgroundImageColor
- Sets the color used to draw background images. 
Palettes¶
- fontforge.CharView.CVPaletteForegroundColor
- The foreground color of the tools and layers palettes. 
- fontforge.CharView.CVPaletteBackgroundColor
- The background color of the tools and layers palettes. 
- fontforge.CharView.Button3DEdgeLightColor
- The color of the light edge of palette buttons when Button3d is True. 
- fontforge.CharView.Button3DEdgeDarkColor
- The color of the dark edge of palette buttons when Button3d is True. 
- fontforge.CharView.Button3D
- When True palette buttons are displayed with a 3D effect. 
- fontforge.LayersPalette.Font
- The font used in the layers palettes dialog. 
- fontforge.ToolsPalette.Font
- The font used in the Tools Palette dialog for labelling tool options. 
Bitmap View¶
- fontforge.BitmapView.BitmapColor
- The color of the large bitmap. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.OverviewColor
- The color of the small bitmap view. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.GuideColor
- The color of the guide lines for glyph metrics. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.WidthGuideColor
- The color of the guide line for the advance width. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.GridColor
- The color of the guide lines for the bitmap grid. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.OutlineColor
- The color of the outline. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.ActiveToolColor
- The color of the preview for drawing lines, rectangles, and ellipses. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedRegionColor
- The color of the selected region. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.ReferenceColor
- The color of a reference. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedReferenceColor
- The color of the selected reference. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.ReferenceBorderColor
- The color used to outline a reference. 
- fontforge.BitmapView.SelectedReferenceBorderColor
- The color used to outline the selected reference. 
Metrics View¶
- fontforge.MetricsView.Font
- The font used to display labels in the metrics view. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.GlyphColor
- The foreground color of the glyph display area. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.SelectedGlyphColor
- The color for the currently selected glyph. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.AdvanceWidthColor
- The color of field divider lines. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.AdvanceWidthColor
- Sets the color for the grid lines in the metrics view when nothing special is happening to them. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.ItalicAdvanceColor
- In an italic font, this will be the color used to draw the line at the italicAngle which corresponds to the italic advance width. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.KernLineColor
- Sets the color for the grid line in the metrics view which currently may be moved to change a glyph’s kerning. 
- fontforge.MetricsView.SideBearingLneColor
- Sets the color for the grid line in the metrics view which currently may be moved to change a glyph’s right side bearing (or bottom side bearing). 
Misc Windows¶
- fontforge.BDFProperties.Font
- Sets the font used in the BDF Properties dialog for stand alone text 
- fontforge.Combinations.Font
- Sets the font used in the kern and anchor combinations dialog for labelling the combinations 
- fontforge.CVT.Font
- Sets the font used in the ‘cvt ‘ table dialog 
- fontforge.DebugView.Background
- The background of the TTF debugging window. 
- fontforge.DebugView.Font
- The font used to display the truetype instructions being debugged. 
- fontforge.FontInfo.OriginLineColor
- The color used for the baseline and x=0 line in kerning dialogs. 
- fontforge.FontInfo.Font
- The font used for Font Info dialog scrolling lists. 
- fontforge.GlyphInfo.Font
- Sets the font used in the glyph info dialog for stand alone text 
- fontforge.Groups.Font
- Sets the font used in the Groups dialog 
- fontforge.Histogram.Font
- Sets the font used in the Histogram dialog 
- fontforge.KernClass.TextColor
- Color for kerning class names. 
- fontforge.KernClass.Font
- Sets the font used in the kern class and pair dialogs 
- fontforge.KernFormat.Font
- The normal font used in the kernig format dialog. 
- fontforge.KernFormat.BoldFont
- The bold font used in the kernig format dialog. 
- fontforge.Math.Font
- The normal font used in the Math dialog. 
- fontforge.Math.BoldFont
- The bold font used in the Math dialog. 
Misc Windows 2¶
- fontforge.Prefs.MonoFont
- The monospace font used in the preferences dialog. 
- fontforge.SearchView.Font
- Sets the font used in the find and replace dialog 
- fontforge.SearchView.BoldFont
- Sets the bold font used in the find and replace dialog 
- fontforge.ShowATT.SelectColor
- Color used for currently selected entry in the Show ATT dialog. 
- fontforge.ShowATT.GlyphNameColor
- Color used for (some) glyph names in the Show ATT dialog. 
- fontforge.ShowATT.Font
- Sets the font used in the Show ATT dialog 
- fontforge.ShowATT.MonoFont
- Sets the monospaced font used in the Show ATT dialog 
- fontforge.StateMachine.Font
- Sets the font used in the Apple state machine dialog 
- fontforge.TilePath.Font
- Sets the font used in the Tile Path dialog 
- fontforge.TilePath.BoldFont
- Sets the bold font used in the Tile Path dialog 
- fontforge.TTInstruction.Font
- Sets the font used in the various dialogs which edit truetype instructions (‘fpgm’ table, glyph instructions, etc.) 
- fontforge.Validate.Font
- Sets the font used in the Validate dialog 
- fontforge.Warnings.Font
- Sets the font used in the Warnings dialog 
Splash Screen¶
- fontforge.Splash.Foreground
- The foreground color of the About dialog. 
- fontforge.Splash.Background
- The background color of the About… dialog. 
- fontforge.Splash.Font
- Sets the font used in the splash screen and About FontForge dialog. 
- fontforge.Splash.ItalicFont
- Sets the italic font used in the About… dialog. 
- fontforge.Splash.MonoFont
- The monospace font used in the About… dialog. 
- fontforge.Splash.Image
- The image used on the splash screen and About… dialog. 
SFTextArea¶
- fontforge.SFTextArea.Box.ActiveInner
- fontforge.SFTextArea.Box.Padding
- See the GGadget Box section. 
- fontforge.SFTextArea.Font
- Sets the font used in the Print dialog and its variants dialog – except I don’t think this ever gets used. 
GDraw¶
- Gdraw.Background
- The default background color in contexts other than View windows and GGadgets. 
- Gdraw.Foreground
- The default foreground color in contexts other than View windows and GGadgets. 
- Gdraw.WarningForeground
- A color appropriate for displaying warning and error messages relative to GDraw.Background and other background colors. 
- Gdraw.ScreenResolution
- The resolution of the screen in dots per inch. (Don’t set this or set it to zero for the system default resolution.) 
- Gdraw.MultiClickTime
- An integer (milliseconds) - The maximum amount of time allowed between two clicks for them to be considered a double (triple, etc.) click. 
- Gdraw.MultiClickWiggle
- An integer (pixels) - The maximum number of pixels the mouse is allowed to move between two clicks and have them still be considered a double click. 
- Gdraw.SelectionNotifyTimeout
- An integer (seconds) - Gdraw will wait this many seconds after making a request for a selection (ie. when doing a Paste). If it gets no responce after that period it reports a failure. 
- Gdraw.TwoButtonFixup
- A boolean - On a windows keyboard use the modifier key with the flag on it to simulate mouse button 2 (middle button). If this key is depressed when a mouse button is pressed or released then pretend it was button 2 that was pressed or release. 
- Gdraw.MacOSXCmd
- A boolean - On Mac OS X the user will probably expect to use the Command (apple, cloverleaf) key to control the menu (rather than the Control key). If this is set then the command key will be mapped to the control key internally. 
- Gdraw.Synchronize
- A boolean - Whether to synchronize the display before raising the first window. 
GDraw (X backend only)¶
These are not included in the appearance editor and need to be set some other way, perhaps through the normal X Resources system.
- Gdraw.Depth
- An integer (1, 8, 16, 32) - You can use this to request a different depth than the default one. Not all servers will support all depths. If FontForge can’t find a visual with the desired depth it will use the default depth. 
- Gdraw.VisualClass
- A string (“StaticGray”, “GrayScale”, “StaticColor”, “PseudoColor”, “TrueColor”, “DirectColor”) - FontForge will search for a visual with the given class (and possibly depth if the depth argument is specified too). 
- Gdraw.Colormap
- An string (“Current”, “Copy”, “Private”) - You can use this to control what FontForge does about the colormap on an 8bit screen - Current – FontForge will attempt to allocate its colors in the current colormap. 
- Copy – FontForge will allocate what colors it can and then copy the current color map into a private copy. This means FontForge has access to a much wider range of colors, and (as long as the shared colormap doesn’t change) FontForge’s colormap will match that of the rest of the screen. 
- Private – FontForge will allocate a private colormap and set the colors just as it wants them. It will almost certainly not match the shared colormap. 
 
- Gdraw.Keyboard
- ibm | mac | sun | ppc | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 - Allows you to specify the type of keyboard. Currently this is only relevant when generating menus. The modifier keys are in different locations on different keyboards (under different operating systems) and if FontForge knows what keyboard you are using it can make the hot-keys have better labels. - ibm | 0 - Uses the Control and Alt keys 
- mac | 1 - Uses the Command and Option keys (Mac OS/X, Mac keyboard) 
- ppc | 3 - Uses the Control and Command keys (Suse ppc linux, Mac keyboard) 
- sun | 2 - Uses the Control and Meta keys 
 
Popup¶
- Gdraw.GGadget.Popup.Font
- A font - Specifies the font to use in a popup (tooltip) message. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Popup.Foreground
- A color - Specifies the foreground color of popup (tooltip) messages. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Popup.Background
- A color - Specifies the background color of popup (tooltip) messages. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Popup.Delay
- An integer (milliseconds). - Specifies the amount of time the cursor must remain motionless before a popup message pops up. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Popup.LifeTime
- An integer (milliseconds). - Specifies the length of time the message will display. 
Progress¶
- Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Font
- A font - Specifies the font to use in a progress window. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Background
- A color - Specifies the background color of progress window. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.Foreground
- A color - Specifies the foreground color of progress window. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.Progress.FillCol
- A color - Specifies the color of the progress bar in the progress window. 
GGadget¶
- Gdraw.GGadget...
- Every ggadget in enclosed in a box. No gadget is actually a GGadget, but every other gadget inherits (potentially with modification) from this abstract class. The following information may be supplied for any box: - ...Box.BorderType
- one of “none”, “box”, “raised”, “lowered”, “engraved”, “embossed”, “double” - For a description of these see the css manual. 
 - ...Box.BorderShape
- one of “rect”, “roundrect”, “ellipse”, “diamond” - Describes the basic shape of the box. (some ggadgets must be in rectangles). 
 - ...Box.BorderWidth
- An integer (points) - Specifies the width of the box’s border in points (NOT pixels) 
 - ...Box.Padding
- An integer (points) - Specifies the padding between the interior of the box and the border 
 - ...Box.Radius
- An integer (points) - Specifies the radius of a roundrect. Ignored for everything else. 
 - ...Box.BorderInner
- A boolean (true, on or 1, false, off or 0) - Specifies whether a line should be drawn inside the border. 
 - ...Box.BorderInnerCol
- A color - Specifies a color of line that should be drawn inside a border. 
 - ...Box.BorderOuter
- A boolean (true, on or 1, false, off or 0) - Specifies whether a black line should be drawn outside the border. 
 - ...Box.BorderOuterCol
- A color - Specifies a color of line that should be drawn outside a border. 
 - ...Box.ActiveInner
- A boolean (true, on or 1, false, off or 0) - Specifies whether a yellow line should be drawn inside the border when the gadget is active (not all gadgets support this). 
 - ...Box.DoDepressedBackground
- A boolean (true, on or 1, false, off or 0) - Changes the color of the background while a button is depressed. 
 - ...Box.GradientBG
- A boolean (true, on or 1, false, off or 0) - Draws a gradient from GradientStartCol (at top and bottom edge) to Background (in the center). 
 - ...Box.BorderBrightest
- A color - The color of the brightest edge of the border (usually the left edge) 
 - ...Box.BorderBrighter
- A color - The color of the next to brightest edge of the border (usually the top edge) 
 - ...Box.BorderDarkest
- A color - The color of the darkest edge of the border (usually the right edge) 
 - ...Box.BorderDarker
- A color - The color of the next to next to darkest edge of the border. (usually the bottom edge) 
 - ...Box.NormalBackground
- A color - The color of a normal background (not disabled, not depressed) 
 - ...Box.NormalForeground
- A color - The color of a normal foreground (not disabled) 
 - ...Box.DisabledBackground
- A color - The color of a disabled background . 
 - ...Box.DisabledForeground
- A color - The color of a normal foreground. 
 - ...Box.ActiveBorder
- A color - The color of an ActiveInner border. 
 - ...Box.PressedBackground
- A color - The color of a depressed background. 
 - ...Box.GradientStartCol
- A color - Only meaningful if GradientBG is set. Draws a gradient of colors for the background with this color as the start point at the top and bottom edges of the gadget, and Background as the end point in the center of it. 
 - ...Font
- A font - Specifies the default font for a ggadget. 
 
GGadget 2¶
- Gdraw.GGadget.Skip
- Space (in points) to skip between gadget elements. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.LineSkip
- Space (in points) to skip after a line. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.FirstLine
- Space (in points) to skip before a line when it is the first element 
- Gdraw.GGadget.LeftMargin
- The default left margin (in points) 
- Gdraw.GGadget.TextImageSkip
- Space (in points) left between images and text any labels, buttons, menu items, etc. that have both. 
- Gdraw.GGadget.ImagePath
- A unix style path string, with directories separated by “:”. The sequence “~/” at the start of a directory will be interpreted as the user’s home directory. If a directory is “=” then the installed pixmap directory will be used. - Specifies the search path for images. Specifically those used in the menus, and those used in various gadgets listed below. 
The Gadgets¶
- Gdraw.GListMark... controls the shape of the mark used to show the menu of a combo box.
  - See below for additional directives. 
- Gdraw.GLabel...
  
- Gdraw.GButton...
  - See below for additional directives. 
- Gdraw.GDefaultButton... Inherits from GButton
  
- Gdraw.GCancelButton... Inherits from GButton
  
- Gdraw.GDropList...
  
- Gdraw.GRadio...
  
- Gdraw.GCheckBox...
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBox...
- Two forms of checkbox-like element, the first a traditional checkbox and the second an visibility switch in the layer palette. 
- Gdraw.GRadioOn...
- Gdraw.GRadioOff...
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOn...
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOff...
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOn...
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOff...
- These are mostly means of specifiying images for the radio button and checkboxes, but you can also use them to customize how an activated button looks vs a deactivated one. - See below for additional directives. 
- Gdraw.GTextField...
  
- Gdraw.GComboBox... Inherits from GTextField
  - Also called a “List Field” 
- Gdraw.GComboBoxMenu... Inherits from GComboBox (This is the box drawn around the GListMark in a ComboBox)
  
- Gdraw.GNumericField... Inherits from GTextField
  
- Gdraw.GNumericFieldSpinner... Inherits from GNumericField
  
- Gdraw.GScrollBar...
- A scroll bar widget. See below for additional directives. 
- Gdraw.GList...
- Gdraw.GScrollBarThumb...
- Gdraw.GGroup... -- a frame around groups of gadgets.
- Gdraw.GLine...
- Gdraw.GMenu...
- Gdraw.GMenuBar...
- Gdraw.GTabSet...
- Gdraw.GVTabSet...
- As above. - Specifies the box, font, color, etc. for this particular type of ggadget. See below for additional GMenu directives. 
- Gdraw.GHVBox
- A group of gadgets that sits inside - GGroupand supports graceful reflow of window contents in event of resizing. Modelled after GTK boxes. It’s supposed to be invisible, but interface developers might actually want to style it.
- Gdraw.GScrollBar.Width
- An integer (points) - Specifies the scrollbar width in points (for horizontal scrollbars it specifies the height) 
- Gdraw.GScrollBar.StartTime
- An integer specifying the repeat latency in milliseconds. 
- Gdraw.GScrollBar.RepeatTime
- An integer specifying the time between repeats in milliseconds. 
- Gdraw.GListMark.Width
- An integer (points) - Specifies the width for the little mark at the end of comboboxes and drop lists. 
- Gdraw.GListMark.Image
- A filename of an image file - Will be used instead of GListMark.Box if present. This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GListMark.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file - Will be used instead of GListMark.Box for disabled (non-clickable) instances, if present. This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GMenu.Grab
- A boolean - Controls whether menus do pointer grabs. Debugging is easier if they don’t. Default is for them to do grabs. 
- Gdraw.GMenu.MacIcons
- A boolean - Controls whether menus show shortcuts as the standard mac icons (cloverleaf for Command key, up arrow for shift, ^ for control and weird squiggle for Option(Meta/Alt)) or as text (“Cnt-Shft-A”). Default is True on the mac and False elsewhere.   - True¶   - False¶ 
- Gdraw.GRadioOn.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a radio button. (This is drawn within the - GRadioOnbox, if you intend the image to be the entire radio marker you should probably make the- GRadioOnbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GRadioOn.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a disabled (non-clickable) radio button. (This is drawn within the - GRadioOnbox, if you intend the image to be the entire radio marker you should probably make the- GRadioOnbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GRadioOff.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a radio button. (This is drawn within the - GRadioOffbox, if you intend the image to be the full radio marker you should probably make the- GRadioOffbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GRadioOff.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a disabled (non-clickable) radio button. (This is drawn within the - GRadioOffbox, if you intend the image to be the full radio marker you should probably make the- GRadioOffbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOn.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a check box button. (This is drawn within the - GCheckBoxOnbox, if you intend the image to be the complete check box marker you should probably make the- GCheckBoxOnbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOn.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a disabled (non-clickable) check box button. (This is drawn within the - GCheckBoxOnbox, if you intend the image to be the complete check box marker you should probably make the- GCheckBoxOnbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOff.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a check box button. (This is drawn within the - GCheckBoxOffbox, if you intend the image to be the sole check box marker you should probably make the- GCheckBoxOffbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GCheckBoxOff.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a disabled )non-clickable) check box button. (This is drawn within the - GCheckBoxOffbox, if you intend the image to be the sole check box marker you should probably make the- GCheckBoxOffbox be a blank rectangle). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory.
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOn.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a visibility box button. (This is the “eye” drawn within the layers palette of glyph view). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOn.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “On” state of a disabled (non-clickable) visibility box button. (This is the “eye” drawn within the layers palette of glyph view). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOff.Image
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a visibility box button. (This is the “eye” drawn within the layers palette of glyph view). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GVisibilityBoxOff.DisabledImage
- A filename of an image file. - Used for drawing the “Off” state of a disabled (non-clickable) visibility box button. (This is the “eye” drawn within the layers palette of glyph view). This is either a fully qualified pathname, or the filename of an image in the pixmap directory. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.TitleFont
- A font. - The font used to draw titles in a GMatrixEdit. By default this is smaller and bolder than the font used for text in the matrix edit. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.TitleBG
- A color. - Background color used for the titles of a matrix edit. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.TitleFG
- A color. - Foreground color used to draw the text of the titles of a matrix edit. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.TitleDivider
- A color. - Color used to draw the divider lines in the titles of a matrix edit. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.RuleCol
- A color. - Used to draw the horizontal and vertical lines in the body of a matrix edit. 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.FrozenCol
- A color. - Used to draw text in a cell which is frozen (cannot but updated by the user) 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.ActiveCol
- A color. - Used to draw text in the cell which is active (and used for the “<New>” entry). 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.ActiveBG
- A color. - The background color of a cell that is active (and used for the “<New>” entry). 
- Gdraw.GMatrixEdit.TitleFont
- A font. - Used in the title area of a GMatrixEdit. 
- ...
- Deprecated
- The following resources are deprecated and will be silently ignored. - fontforge.FontView.FontSize
- fontforge.FontView.FontFamily
- fontforge.FontView.SerifFamily
- fontforge.FontView.ScriptFamily
- fontforge.FontView.FrakturFamily
- fontforge.FontView.DoubleStruckFamily
- fontforge.FontView.SansFamily
- fontforge.FontView.MonoFamily
- Gdraw.GHVGroupBox
- Gdraw.ScreenWidthCentimeters
- Gdraw.ScreenWidthInches
 
- Colors
- Colors may be specified as: - rgb(r,g,b) - where r,g and b are doubles between 0 and 1.0 
- argb(a,r,g,b) - where a,r,g, and b are doubles between 0 and 1.0 - (The alpha channel is only supported in windows with cairo – that is the glyph view. Alpha 1.0 is fully opaque, alpha 0.0 should be fully transparent, values in between are translucent. Since drawing something fully transparent has no effect, FontForge treats transparent spot colors as fully opaque). 
- rgb(r%,g%,b%) - where r, g, and b are doubles between 0% and 100% 
- hsv(h,s,v) - A color expressed as hue (between 0 and 360), saturation (0.0 and 1.0) and value (0.0 and 1.0) 
- hsl(h,s,l) - A color expressed as hue (between 0 and 360), saturation (0.0 and 1.0) and luminosity (0.0 and 1.0) 
- r g b - where r, g, and b are decimal integers between 0 and 255 
- #rgb - where r, g, and b are hex digits between 0 and 15 (0xf) 
- #rrggbb - where rr, gg, bb are hex numbers between 0x00 and 0xff 
- #aarrggbb - where aa, rr, gg, bb are hex numbers between 0x00 and 0xff - (The alpha channel is only supported in cairo windows. If alpha is 0, then fontforge will treat the color as opaque because drawing a completely transparent spot color does nothing). 
- #rrrrggggbbbb - where rrrr, gggg, bbbb are hex numbers between 0x0000 and 0xffff 
- or one of the color names accepted on the net (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, white, black, maroon, olive, navy, purple, lime, aqua, teal, fuchsia, silver) 
 
Keyboards and Mice.¶
FontForge assumes that your keyboard has a control key and some equivalent of a meta key. FontForge works best with a three button mouse.
Almost all keyboards now-a-days will have the needed modifier keys, but which key is used for what will depend on the keyboard and the OS (for instance XDarwin and suse linux use quite different mappings for the modifier keys on the mac keyboard). Usually this is only relevant for menus (and mnemonics). FontForge tries to guess the keyboard from the environment in which it was compiled. But with X this may not always be appropriate. So the “Gdraw.Keyboard” resource above may be used to change this. (Currently this setting only control the labels that appear in menus for the hotkeys).
Mice are more problematic. On PCs we usually have two button mice and on mac single button mice. Many linuxes that run on a PC will give you an option of simulating the middle button of the mouse by depressing the left and right buttons simultaneously. FontForge will also allow you to simulate it by holding down the super key (usually this is the one with the picture of a windows flag on it) while depressing either mouse button.
On the mac I don’t see any good way of simulating a three button mouse…