How can you load a font (TTF) from a file using Core Text?

Question

Prior to OSX 10.6, ATSFontActivateFromFileSpecification/ATSFontActivateFromFileReference were available and could be used to load a font from a file. I can't find anything similar in Core Text.

score 20 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 03 '12 at 11:46

20

You can get a CTFontRef from a font file by going via a CGFontRef:

CFURLRef url = CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(kCFAllocatorDefault, CFSTR("/path/to/font"), kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle, false);
CGDataProviderRef dataProvider = CGDataProviderCreateWithURL(url);
CGFontRef theCGFont = CGFontCreateWithDataProvider(dataProvider);
CTFontRef theCTFont = CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont(theCGFont);
CFRelease(theCGFont);
CFRelease(dataProvider);
CFRelease(url);

// do something with the CTFontRef here

CFRelease(theCTFont);

edited Feb 03 '12 at 11:46

JOM

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answered Apr 24 '10 at 04:16

Rob Keniger

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This doesn't work under Snow Leopard (confirmed by Apple) and you need to use `ATSFontActivateFromMemory()` on that version of OS X only. – trojanfoe Jul 20 '12 at 08:25
Cannot confirm this. It works fine here on Snow Leopard. – Andreas Aug 30 '16 at 14:21
This seems to be missing the size, matrix, and attributes arguments to CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont() – David Jones Apr 19 '22 at 15:54

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 21 '15 at 09:01

11

It looks like CTFontManagerCreateFontDescriptorsFromURL is the Core Text replacement.

edited Feb 21 '15 at 09:01

eonil

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answered Apr 24 '10 at 03:37

miekelly

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And it makes for [shorter code than the Core Graphics route](https://gist.github.com/1696100). – Peter Hosey Jan 28 '12 at 22:57

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '20 at 22:34

Here's an updated version of how to do this in 2020. Much simpler now. Used 12 as arbitrary type size.

let fontURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "path/to/font.otf")
let fd = CTFontManagerCreateFontDescriptorsFromURL(fontURL as CFURL) as! [CTFontDescriptor]
let theCTFont = CTFontCreateWithFontDescriptor(fd[0], 12.0, nil)

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 10 '13 at 08:54

NSURL *fontURL = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"Crystal" withExtension:@"ttf"];
    assert(fontURL);
    CFErrorRef error = NULL;
    if (!CTFontManagerRegisterFontsForURL((__bridge CFURLRef)fontURL, kCTFontManagerScopeProcess, &error))
    {
        CFShow(error);
        abort();
    }

How can you load a font (TTF) from a file using Core Text?

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