# Fonts, faces, and output

In the previous chapter, we saw how to set up a buffer and fill it with text as Unicode code points. In order to shape this buffer text with HarfBuzz, you will need also need a font object.

HarfBuzz provides abstractions to help you cache and reuse the heavier parts of working with binary fonts, so we will look at how to do that. We will also look at how to work with the FreeType font-rendering library and at how you can customize HarfBuzz to work with other libraries.

Finally, we will look at how to work with OpenType variable fonts, the latest update to the OpenType font format, and at some other recent additions to OpenType.

## Font and face objects

The outcome of shaping a run of text depends on the contents of a specific font file (such as the substitutions and positioning moves in the 'GSUB' and 'GPOS' tables), so HarfBuzz makes accessing those internals fast.

An hb_face_t represents a face in HarfBuzz. This data type is a wrapper around an hb_blob_t blob that holds the contents of a binary font file. Since HarfBuzz supports TrueType Collections and OpenType Collections (each of which can include multiple typefaces), a HarfBuzz face also requires an index number specifying which typeface in the file you want to use. Most of the font files you will encounter in the wild include just a single face, however, so most of the time you would pass in `0` as the index when you create a face:

          hb_blob_t* blob = hb_blob_create_from_file(file);
          ...
          hb_face_t* face = hb_face_create(blob, 0);

On its own, a face object is not quite ready to use for shaping. The typeface must be set to a specific point size in order for some details (such as hinting) to work. In addition, if the font file in question is an OpenType Variable Font, then you may need to specify one or variation-axis settings (or a named instance) in order to get the output you need.

In HarfBuzz, you do this by creating a font object from your face.

Font objects also have the advantage of being considerably lighter-weight than face objects (remember that a face contains the contents of a binary font file mapped into memory). As a result, you can cache and reuse a font object, but you could also create a new one for each additional size you needed. Creating new fonts incurs some additional overhead, of course, but whether or not it is excessive is your call in the end. In contrast, face objects are substantially larger, and you really should cache them and reuse them whenever possible.

You can create a font object from a face object:

          hb_font_t* hb_font = hb_font_create(hb_face);

After creating a font, there are a few properties you should set. Many fonts enable and disable hints based on the size it is used at, so setting this is important for font objects. `hb_font_set_ppem(font, x_ppem, y_ppem)` sets the pixels-per-EM value of the font. You can also set the point size of the font with `hb_font_set_ptem(font, ptem)`. HarfBuzz uses the industry standard 72 points per inch.

HarfBuzz lets you specify the degree subpixel precision you want through a scaling factor. You can set horizontal and vertical scaling factors on the font by calling `hb_font_set_scale(font, x_scale, y_scale)`.

There may be times when you are handed a font object and need to access the face object that it comes from. For that, you can call

          hb_face = hb_font_get_face(hb_font);

You can also create a font object from an existing font object using the `hb_font_create_sub_font()` function. This creates a child font object that is initiated with the same attributes as its parent; it can be used to quickly set up a new font for the purpose of overriding a specific font-functions method.

All face objects and font objects are lifecycle-managed by HarfBuzz. After creating a face, you increase its reference count with `hb_face_reference(face)` and decrease it with `hb_face_destroy(face)`. Likewise, you increase the reference count on a font with `hb_font_reference(font)` and decrease it with `hb_font_destroy(font)`.

You can also attach user data to face objects and font objects.

## Customizing font functions

During shaping, HarfBuzz frequently needs to query font objects to get at the contents and parameters of the glyphs in a font file. It includes a built-in set of functions that is tailored to working with OpenType fonts. However, as was the case with Unicode functions in the buffers chapter, HarfBuzz also wants to make it easy for you to assign a substitute set of font functions if you are developing a program to work with a library or platform that provides its own font functions.

Therefore, the HarfBuzz API defines a set of virtual methods for accessing font-object properties, and you can replace the defaults with your own selections without interfering with the shaping process. Each font object in HarfBuzz includes a structure called `font_funcs` that serves as a vtable for the font object. The virtual methods in `font_funcs` are:

- `hb_font_get_font_h_extents_func_t`: returns the extents of the font for horizontal text.

- `hb_font_get_font_v_extents_func_t`: returns the extents of the font for vertical text.

- `hb_font_get_nominal_glyph_func_t`: returns the font's nominal glyph for a given code point.

- `hb_font_get_variation_glyph_func_t`: returns the font's glyph for a given code point when it is followed by a given Variation Selector.

- `hb_font_get_nominal_glyphs_func_t`: returns the font's nominal glyphs for a series of code points.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_advance_func_t`: returns the advance for a glyph.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_h_advance_func_t`: returns the advance for a glyph for horizontal text.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_v_advance_func_t`:returns the advance for a glyph for vertical text.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_advances_func_t`: returns the advances for a series of glyphs.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_h_advances_func_t`: returns the advances for a series of glyphs for horizontal text .

- `hb_font_get_glyph_v_advances_func_t`: returns the advances for a series of glyphs for vertical text.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_origin_func_t`: returns the origin coordinates of a glyph.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_h_origin_func_t`: returns the origin coordinates of a glyph for horizontal text.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_v_origin_func_t`: returns the origin coordinates of a glyph for vertical text.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_extents_func_t`: returns the extents for a glyph.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_contour_point_func_t`: returns the coordinates of a specific contour point from a glyph.

- `hb_font_get_glyph_name_func_t`: returns the name of a glyph (from its glyph index).

- `hb_font_get_glyph_from_name_func_t`: returns the glyph index that corresponds to a given glyph name.

You can fetch the font-functions configuration for a font object by calling `hb_font_get_font_funcs()`:

          hb_font_funcs_t *ffunctions;
          ffunctions = hb_font_get_font_funcs (font);

The individual methods can each be replaced with their own setter function, such as `hb_font_funcs_set_nominal_glyph_func(*ffunctions, func, *user_data, destroy)`.

Font-functions structures can be reused for multiple font objects, and can be reference counted with `hb_font_funcs_reference()` and `hb_font_funcs_destroy()`. Just like other objects in HarfBuzz, you can set user-data for each font-functions structure and assign a destroy callback for it.

You can also mark a font-functions structure as immutable, with `hb_font_funcs_make_immutable()`. This is especially useful if your code is a library or framework that will have its own client programs. By marking your font-functions structures as immutable, you prevent your client programs from changing the configuration and introducing inconsistencies and errors downstream.

## Font objects and HarfBuzz's native OpenType implementation

By default, whenever HarfBuzz creates a font object, it will configure the font to use a built-in set of font functions that supports contemporary OpenType font internals. If you want to work with OpenType or TrueType fonts, you should be able to use these functions without difficulty.

Many of the methods in the font-functions structure deal with the fundamental properties of glyphs that are required for shaping text: extents (the maximums and minimums on each axis), origins (the `(0,0)` coordinate point which glyphs are drawn in reference to), and advances (the amount that the cursor needs to be moved after drawing each glyph, including any empty space for the glyph's side bearings).

As you can see in the list of functions, there are separate "horizontal" and "vertical" variants depending on whether the text is set in the horizontal or vertical direction. For some scripts, fonts that are designed to support text set horizontally or vertically (for example, in Japanese) may include metrics for both text directions. When fonts don't include this information, HarfBuzz does its best to transform what the font provides.

In addition to the direction-specific functions, HarfBuzz provides some higher-level functions for fetching information like extents and advances for a glyph. If you call

          hb_font_get_glyph_advance_for_direction(font, direction, extents);

then you can provide any hb_direction_t as the direction parameter, and HarfBuzz will use the correct function variant for the text direction. There are similar higher-level versions of the functions for fetching extents, origin coordinates, and contour-point coordinates. There are also addition and subtraction functions for moving points with respect to the origin.

There are also methods for fetching the glyph ID that corresponds to a Unicode code point (possibly when followed by a variation-selector code point), fetching the glyph name from the font, and fetching the glyph ID that corresponds to a glyph name you already have.

HarfBuzz also provides functions for converting between glyph names and string variables. `hb_font_glyph_to_string(font, glyph, s, size)` retrieves the name for the glyph ID glyph from the font object. It generates a generic name of the form `gidDDD` (where DDD is the glyph index) if there is no name for the glyph in the font. The `hb_font_glyph_from_string(font, s, len, glyph)` takes an input string s and looks for a glyph with that name in the font, returning its glyph ID in the glyph output parameter. It automatically parses `gidDDD` and `uniUUUU` strings.

## Working with OpenType Variable Fonts

If you are working with OpenType Variable Fonts, there are a few additional functions you should use to specify the variation-axis settings of your font object. Without doing so, your variable font's font object can still be used, but only at the default setting for every axis (which, of course, is sometimes what you want, but does not cover general usage).

HarfBuzz manages variation settings in the hb_variation_t data type, which holds a tag for the variation-axis identifier tag and a value for its setting. You can retrieve the list of variation axes in a font binary from the face object (not from a font object, notably) by calling `hb_ot_var_get_axis_count(face)` to find the number of axes, then using `hb_ot_var_get_axis_infos()` to collect the axis structures:

          axes = hb_ot_var_get_axis_count(face);
          ...
          hb_ot_var_get_axis_infos(face, 0, axes, axes_array);

For each axis returned in the array, you can can access the identifier in its tag. HarfBuzz also has tag definitions predefined for the five standard axes specified in OpenType (`ital` for italic, `opsz` for optical size, `slnt` for slant, `wdth` for width, and `wght` for weight). Each axis also has a min_value, a default_value, and a max_value.

To set your font object's variation settings, you call the `hb_font_set_variations()` function with an array of hb_variation_t variation settings. Let's say our font has weight and width axes. We need to specify each of the axes by tag and assign a value on the axis:

          unsigned int variation_count = 2;
          hb_variation_t variation_data[variation_count];
          variation_data[0].tag = HB_OT_TAG_VAR_AXIS_WIDTH;
          variation_data[1].tag = HB_OT_TAG_VAR_AXIS_WEIGHT;
          variation_data[0].value = 80;
          variation_data[1].value = 750;
          ...
          hb_font_set_variations(font, variation_data, variation_count);

That should give us a slightly condensed font ("normal" on the `wdth` axis is 100) at a noticeably bolder weight ("regular" is 400 on the `wght` axis).

In practice, though, you should always check that the value you want to set on the axis is within the [min_value,max_value] range actually implemented in the font's variation axis. After all, a font might only provide lighter-than-regular weights, and setting a heavier value on the `wght` axis will not change that.

Once your variation settings are specified on your font object, however, shaping with a variable font is just like shaping a static font.