font2svgfiles

Install

git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:hugolpz/font2svg-linguist.git
cd font2svg-linguist
npm install

Input/Output

Input: a free license unicode font, a json array of (CJK) unicode characters such as :

Output : serie of svg files {yourCharacter}-{type}.svg with the glyph and optionally with annotations, such as pinyin, English, or other. Seel gallery of examples below.

And flexibility for other variants.

Usage

The script is still best used by hacking ./index.js in order to set the initial variables to your convenience. You may also use is via shell commands and options (see below).

Run

# load font kaishu,ANNOTATIONFIELD= unihan field `kMandarin` for annotations, use provided list `Kangxi_radicals_214`
$ FONTOPTION=kaishu ANNOTATIONFIELD=kMandarin LISTNAME=Kangxi_radicals_214 node index.js   

Options

• GLYPHS: list of characters to split an process.
  • ex: 一二三
• LISTNAME: list of characters loaded from ./data/cmn-lists.json.
  • default: ``
  • range: Hangul_letters,Kangxi_radicals_214,Subtlex_3000,Junda_3000,Taiwan_3000,HSK1,HSK2,HSK3,HSK4,HSK5,HSK6,France_255,France_355,France_400,France_405,AFPC_505,France_805,France_1555
• ANNOTATIONFIELD: key to tap into Unihan for annotations. Generated thanks to Unihan-etl. For respective definitions, see Unicode's Unihan.
  • default: ``
  • range: char,kRSKangXi,kTotalStrokes,kMandarin,kDefinition,kCantonese,kJapaneseOn,kJapaneseKun,kKorean,kVietnamese,kFrequency,kTang,kSimplifiedVariant,kTraditionalVariant,kHangul
• FILESUFFIX : general filename's suffixe for the current serie of files.
  • default: '-kaishu.svg'
• DIR : where to output the files.
  • default: './build/'
• FONTPATH : path to the chosen font.
  • default: './fonts/cwtex/cwTeXQKaiZH-Medium.ttf'
• FONTOPTION : some fonts are provided via ./fonts/cjkfonts.js, use the json object's key.
  • default: cwtex
  • range: kaishu, cwtex
• STYLE : where to position annotations, relative to the character.
  • default: 'top'
  • range: 'top', 'bottom',
• WIDTH : the document wished width in pixels.
  • default: 300
  • range: >0
• HEIGHT : the document wished height in pixels.
  • default: 300
  • range: >0
• MARGINS : the margins sizes between the character and the document's border, defines the character's size by substractions. Order is top, right, bottom, left, like in CSS.
  • default: '15 15 15 15'
  • range: '>0 >0 >0 >0'

Meta-data

I use Unihan data for Chinese, processed via Unihan-etl :

cd unihan-etl
unihan-etl -F json --destination ./unihan-language-fields.json --no-expand -f kRSKangXi kTotalStrokes kMandarin kDefinition kCantonese kJapaneseOn kJapaneseKun kKorean kVietnamese kFrequency kTang kSimplifiedVariant kTraditionalVariant kHangul

Fonts

• Open CJKV fonts:
  • Noto Sans CJK as it support Chinese and is under open licence.
  • AR PL UMing, AR PL UKai, AR PL ShanHeiSun, AR PL ZenKai, cwTeXQKaiZH-Medium.ttf, cwTeXQMingZH-Medium.ttf from
• Other fonts

Note: some font files may returns Error('Unsupported OpenType signature ' + signature);new Error('Unsupported OpenType signature ' + signature);

Motivation

This system is build to satisfy the Wikimedia Commons:Ancient Chinese Characters Project. It help to provide multi-system and solid .svg / .png solutions to display Chinese characters. Priority being to display in the 6 traditional calligraphic styles the ~400 Kangxi radicals and 1000 most common characters.

The system could be expanded and used for other usages.

License

Copyright (C) 2013 Hanzi Pinyin Font Project

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.