Changing FontForge’s UI Appearance — FontForge 20230101 documentation

# 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 View ‣ Show Grid Fit is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterColor

  Sets the color used to draw the pixels of a rasterized bitmap (if View ‣ Show Grid Fit or Hints ‣ Debug 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 Hints ‣ Debug 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 Hints ‣ Debug is on)

fontforge.CharView.RasterGridColor

  Sets the color used to draw the pixel grid used by the rasterizer (if View ‣ Show Grid Fit or Hints ‣ Debug 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 `GGroup` and 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 `GRadioOn` box, if you intend the image to be the entire radio marker you should probably make the `GRadioOn` box 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 `GRadioOn` box, if you intend the image to be the entire radio marker you should probably make the `GRadioOn` box 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 `GRadioOff` box, if you intend the image to be the full radio marker you should probably make the `GRadioOff` box 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 `GRadioOff` box, if you intend the image to be the full radio marker you should probably make the `GRadioOff` box 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 `GCheckBoxOn` box, if you intend the image to be the complete check box marker you should probably make the `GCheckBoxOn` box 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 `GCheckBoxOn` box, if you intend the image to be the complete check box marker you should probably make the `GCheckBoxOn` box 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 `GCheckBoxOff` box, if you intend the image to be the sole check box marker you should probably make the `GCheckBoxOff` box 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 `GCheckBoxOff` box, if you intend the image to be the sole check box marker you should probably make the `GCheckBoxOff` box 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…