# Starting fontforge

- Installing from a pre-built unix package
- Installing on a Mac
- Installing on MS/Windows
- Before you build (on a mac)
- Before you build (on MS/Windows)
- Building and installing from source
- Dependencies (external libraries/helper programs)
- Installing documentation
- Starting FontForge
  - Before starting fontforge on cygwin
  - Notes on the PATH variable
  - Starting fontforge from the command line
  - On the mac

## Starting FontForge

### Before starting fontforge on cygwin

Before you can start fontforge on cygwin you must start the X11 server.

Open a cygwin window and type

>     $ xinit

This should create a task window that covers your entire screen, inside of which there should be an xterm (sort of like the cygwin window earlier). Be prepared to type commands in this window.

You should then type

>     $ twm &

### Notes on the PATH variable

On most systems fontforge will install itself into `/usr/local/bin` (that's the standard place for optional software), and this is not always in the default search path for commands (grrrr). Which means you might have everything properly installed, but nothing actually works. If you see messages like `"fontforge: command not found."` this has (probably) happened to you.

So what do you do?

You need to set the PATH environment variable so that it includes /usr/local/bin. The value of the PATH variable is a set of directories separated by colons.

>     $ echo $PATH
>     /home/gww/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/sbin

Unfortunately there are two ways of doing this because there are two different conventions used by unix shells. Type:

>     $ echo $SHELL
>     /bin/bash

If the name of your shell is `bash` (as above), `ksh` or `sh` then you want to type

>     $ PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH ; export PATH

If the name of your shell is `tcsh` or `csh` then you say

>     $ setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH

But you'd have to do that every time you logged in. Instead you want this included in the shell's initialization. Again there are two cases, for the `bash` family of shells you want to edit the file `~/.profile` while for the `csh` family you want to edit the file `~/.login`. On a bash system the following command is generally sufficient:

>     $ cat >>~/.profile
>     PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH ; export PATH
>     ^D

(where `^D` represents control-D, obtained by holding down the control key while depressing `d`.
And for the csh family you would type:

>     $ cat >>~/.login
>     setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:$PATH
>     ^D

### Starting fontforge from the command line

>     $ fontforge font.pfa font2.sfd font3.ttf font4.otf

will start fontforge looking at the fonts you specify on the command line. It can read either pfb or pfa fonts, and some ps fonts (type 0 fonts based on a type 1 dictionary) as well as truetype fonts, open type fonts and many other formats.

(If you get a message from your computer saying: "`fontforge: Command not found`" you should read the previous section)

>     $ fontforge -new

will cause fontforge to create a new font (in iso-8859-1 encoding)

>     $ fontforge

will open up a file picker dialog and allow you to browse till you've found a font file (or have created a new one).

>     $ fontforge -script script.pe fonts...

This will invoke fontforge in a non-interactive mode, and have it run the named script. Any further arguments on the command line will be passed as arguments to the script and processed (or not) by it.

For a complete description of possible arguments see the section on the command line.

### On the mac

Before you start fontforge on the mac you must start the X11 server. You can do this by opening the Applications folder, and then opening the Utilities folder, and then double-clicking on "X11". (If you don't have X11 there then refer back to the instructions for installing it)

Having done that there should be a menubar with a menu labeled "Applications". Click on this. There should be a "FontForge" entry in it. Selecting FontForge will start fontforge and bring up a dialog allowing you to open a font or create a new one.

Caveat: FontForge does not normally show mac resource fonts in this dialog -- however it can still open one even it it isn't displayed. Simply type in the name of the file containing it. (or, if you prefer, type a "*" in the textfield and then press the [Filter] button. This should show you all files).

If the Applications menu does not contain a "FontForge" entry, you can add one yourself:

- Select Applications->Customize Menu
- Then press the (Add) button in the dialog that appears
- Double click in the left-most section of the blank line which just appeared and then type "FontForge"
- Press the [Tab] key and type "/usr/local/bin/fontforge"
- Press the [Tab] key again and type "f"
- Then press (Done)

(You may also start fontforge from the command line here. Go to the Applications menu and select xterm, and then type one of the commands listed above)

Caveat: FontForge does not use the Command key to invoke menu items. (Any use of the Command key is intercepted by X11, so Command-Q will quit out of X11 (and abort fontforge), it will not quit fontforge cleanly)

Caveat: FontForge was written assuming the availability of a three button mouse. X11 simulates this by creating a virtual three button mouse where the middle button is invoked by Option-Mouse click and the right button by Command-Mouse click.