README.md

BDF Parser

BDF (Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format) Bitmap Font File Parser (Python).

Usage

BdfParserObject = BdfParser(<FONT_FILE_PATH>)
BdfParserObject.{getCharBmpByUnicode|getCharHexByUnicode|getCharHexByUnicode|getGlyphInfo}(<UNICODE_DECIMAL>)

Example

(see also example.py)

Import library and instantiation:

import bdfparser as bp
bpo = bp.BdfParser('example_fonts/bdf/SimSun-14.bdf')

Get binary representation string of bitmap of the character "的":

bpo.getCharBmpByUnicode(30340)

Get hex representation string of bitmap of the character "的":

bpo.getCharHexByUnicode(30340)

Get hex representation string in bytes of bitmap of the character "的":

bpo.getCharHexByUnicode(30340).hex()

Get glyph information:

bpo.getGlyphInfo(30340)

The above script returns:

{'dwx0': 14, 'bbW': 12, 'bbH': 14, 'bbXOff': 1, 'bbYOff': -2, 'bitmap': '2100\n2100\n41F0\nFA10\n8C10\n8810\n8910\nF890\n8890\n8810\n8810\n8810\nF810\n8860', 'outputW': 14, 'outputH': 15, 'shadowedOutputW': 15, 'shadowedOutputH': 16, 'glowedOutputW': 16, 'glowedOutputH': 17}

Get binary representation of bitmap of the character "￣"

bpo.getCharBmpByUnicode(65507)

Get binary representation of bitmap of the character "©" -- "©" does not exist in some font, and does not exist in GBK, therefore it throws an error:

bpo.getCharBmpByUnicode(169)

Get the declared font name:

bpo.getFontName()

Other tools

• Example .bdf fonts:
  • GNU Unifont (Wikipedia article; Homepage): Unicode font (intended to support "all" common languages)
  • M+ FONTS (Wikipedia article; Homepage): Japanese font
  • HanWangYanKai 王漢宗自由字型顏體 (Chinese Wikipedia article; download .ttf): Traditional Chinese font
  • See also some typical but non-free, fair-used Chinese fonts in another repo
• otf2bdf: OpenType to BDF Converter. Just an archive. Not written by me.

Projects that use this library

FNT Generator: Might and Magic 6 7 8 and Heroes 3 font File Generator in Python. Another project of mine

License

• Python code is written by me (Tom CHEN) and is released under the MIT License.
• otf2bdf: see its page.
• Example .bdf fonts:
  • GNU Unifont: GNU General Public License v2, by Roman Czyborra, Paul Hardy, part of the GNU Project
  • M+ FONTS: a free license, designed by Coji Morishita
  • HanWangYanKai 王漢宗自由字型顏體: GNU General Public License v2, by 王漢宗
  • Other fonts are proprietary, and are used non-commercially and fairly