A high-performance C library and command-line tool for parsing, building, and optimizing OpenType font files with JSON serialization.
otfcc is a C library and command-line utility for parsing, building, and inspecting OpenType font files. It enables font engineers and developers to convert fonts to and from JSON for easy manipulation, offering significant performance improvements over traditional tools like `ttx` and `makeotf`.
Font engineers, typography developers, and toolchain maintainers who need to programmatically process, optimize, or convert OpenType fonts.
Developers choose otfcc for its exceptional speed—up to 40× faster than `ttx` and 900× faster than `makeotf`—and its JSON-based workflow, which simplifies font editing and integration into automated pipelines.
Optimized OpenType builder and inspector.
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Benchmarks show it's 4× faster than ttx on CFF OTF and 40× on TTF, with building speeds up to 900× faster than makeotf, making it ideal for batch processing.
Converts OpenType fonts to and from JSON, enabling easy programmatic editing and seamless integration into scripts and automated pipelines.
Fully supports OpenType features like GSUB, GPOS, GDEF, CID-keyed CFF, and vertical metrics, ensuring compatibility with complex font structures.
Offers multiple optimization levels from O0 to O3, allowing fine-tuning from no optimization to aggressive strategies tailored for web fonts.
Building from source requires premake and specific compilers like Clang/LLVM, with detailed setup steps that can be cumbersome for users unfamiliar with C toolchains.
Lacks a graphical user interface or library bindings for other languages, limiting accessibility for non-developers and integration into some visual workflows.
Precompiled binaries are only provided for Windows and Mac, with Linux requiring manual building or AUR, which may not cover all distributions smoothly.
Requires deep understanding of OpenType font structures and command-line options, which can be intimidating for those new to font engineering.