path: root/doc/context/sources/general/manuals/luatex/luatex-fonts.tex

% language=uk

\environment luatex-style
\environment luatex-logos

\startcomponent luatex-fonts

\startchapter[reference=fonts,title={Font structure}]

\section {The font tables}

All \TEX\ fonts are represented to \LUA\ code as tables, and internally as
\CCODE~structures. All keys in the table below are saved in the internal font
structure if they are present in the table returned by the \type {define_font}
callback, or if they result from the normal \TFM|/|\VF\ reading routines if there
is no \type {define_font} callback defined.

The column \quote {\VF} means that this key will be created by the \type
{font.read_vf()} routine, \quote {\TFM} means that the key will be created by the
\type {font.read_tfm()} routine, and \quote{used} means whether or not the
\LUATEX\ engine itself will do something with the key.

The top|-|level keys in the table are as follows:

\starttabulate[|l|c|c|c|l|p|]
\BC key                     \BC vf  \BC tfm \BC used \BC value type \BC description \NC \NR
\NC \type{name}             \NC yes \NC yes \NC yes  \NC string     \NC metric (file) name \NC \NR
\NC \type{area}             \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC string     \NC (directory) location, typically empty \NC \NR
\NC \type{used}             \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC boolean    \NC indicates usage (initial: false) \NC \NR
\NC \type{characters}       \NC yes \NC yes \NC yes  \NC table      \NC the defined glyphs of this font \NC \NR
\NC \type{checksum}         \NC yes \NC yes \NC no   \NC number     \NC default: 0 \NC \NR
\NC \type{designsize}       \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC number     \NC expected size (default: 655360 == 10pt) \NC \NR
\NC \type{direction}        \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC number     \NC default: 0 \NC \NR
\NC \type{encodingbytes}    \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC default: depends on \type {format} \NC \NR
\NC \type{encodingname}     \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC encoding name \NC \NR
\NC \type{fonts}            \NC yes \NC no  \NC yes  \NC table      \NC locally used fonts \NC \NR
\NC \type{psname}           \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC This is the \POSTSCRIPT\ fontname in the incoming font
                                                                        source, and it's used as fontname identifier in the \PDF\
                                                                        output. This has to be a valid string, e.g.\ no spaces
                                                                        and such, as the backend will not do a cleanup. This gives
                                                                        complete control to the loader. \NC \NR
\NC \type{fullname}         \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC output font name, used as a fallback in the \PDF\ output
                                                                        if the \type {psname} is not set \NC \NR
\NC \type{header}           \NC yes \NC no  \NC no   \NC string     \NC header comments, if any \NC \NR
\NC \type{hyphenchar}       \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC default: \TEX's \type {\hyphenchar} \NC \NR
\NC \type{parameters}       \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC hash       \NC default: 7 parameters, all zero \NC \NR
\NC \type{size}             \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC number     \NC loaded (at) size. (default: same as designsize) \NC \NR
\NC \type{skewchar}         \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC default: \TEX's \type {\skewchar} \NC \NR
\NC \type{type}             \NC yes \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC basic type of this font \NC \NR
\NC \type{format}           \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC disk format type \NC \NR
\NC \type{embedding}        \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC \PDF\ inclusion  \NC \NR
\NC \type{filename}         \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC the name of the font on disk \NC \NR
\NC \type{tounicode}        \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes  \NC number     \NC When this is set to~1 \LUATEX\ assumes per|-|glyph
                                                                        tounicode entries are present in the font. \NC \NR
\NC \type{stretch}          \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC the \quote {stretch} value from \type
                                                                        {\expandglyphsinfont} \NC \NR
\NC \type{shrink}           \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC the \quote {shrink} value from \type
                                                                        {\expandglyphsinfont} \NC \NR
\NC \type{step}             \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC the \quote {step} value from \type
                                                                        {\expandglyphsinfont} \NC \NR
\NC \type{expansion_factor} \NC no  \NC no  \NC no   \NC number     \NC the actual expansion factor of an expanded font \NC \NR
\NC \type{attributes}       \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC the \type {\pdffontattr} \NC \NR
\NC \type{cache}            \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC string     \NC This key controls caching of the \LUA\ table on the
                                                                        \TEX\ end where \type {yes} means: use a reference to
                                                                        the table that is passed to \LUATEX\ (this is the
                                                                        default), and no \type {no} means: don't store the
                                                                        table reference, don't cache any \LUA\ data for this
                                                                        font while \type {renew} means: don't store the table
                                                                        reference, but save a reference to the table that is
                                                                        created at the first access to one of its fields in font.
                                                                        Note: the saved reference is thread|-|local, so be
                                                                        careful when you are using coroutines: an error will be
                                                                        thrown if the table has been cached in one thread, but
                                                                        you reference it from another thread. \NC \NR
\NC \type{nomath}           \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC boolean    \NC This key allows a minor speedup for text fonts. If it
                                                                        is present and true, then \LUATEX\ will not check the
                                                                        character entries for math|-|specific keys. \NC \NR
\NC \type{oldmath}          \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC boolean    \NC This key flags a font as representing an old school \TEX\
                                                                        math font and disables the \OPENTYPE\ code path. \NC \NR
\NC \type{slant}            \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC This has the same semantics as the \type {SlantFont}
                                                                        operator in font map files. \NC \NR
\NC \type{extent}           \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes  \NC number     \NC This has the same semantics as the \type {ExtendFont}
                                                                        operator in font map files. \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

The key \type {name} is always required. The keys \type {stretch}, \type
{shrink}, \type {step} only have meaning when used together: they can be used to
replace a post|-|loading \type {\expandglyphsinfont} command. The \type
{auto_expand} option is not supported in \LUATEX. In fact, the primitives
that create expanded or protruding copies are probably only useful when used with
traditional fonts because all these extra \OPENTYPE\ properties are kept out of
the picture. The \type {expansion_factor} is value that can be present inside a
font in \type {font.fonts}. It is the actual expansion factor (a value between
\type {-shrink} and \type {stretch}, with step \type {step}) of a font that was
automatically generated by the font expansion algorithm.

Because we store the actual state of expansion with each glyph and don't have
special font instances, we can change some font related parameters before lines
are constructed, like:

\starttyping
font.setexpansion(font.current(),100,100,20)
\stoptyping

This is mostly meant for experiments (or an optimizing routing written in \LUA)
so there is no primitive.

The key \type {attributes} can be used to set font attributes in the \PDF\ file.
The key \type {used} is set by the engine when a font is actively in use, this
makes sure that the font's definition is written to the output file (\DVI\ or
\PDF). The \TFM\ reader sets it to false. The \type {direction} is a number
signalling the \quote {normal} direction for this font. There are sixteen
possibilities:

\starttabulate[|c|c|c|c|]
\BC number   \BC meaning   \BC number    \BC meaning   \NC \NR
\NC \type{0} \NC \type{LT} \NC \type {8} \NC \type{TT} \NC \NR
\NC \type{1} \NC \type{LL} \NC \type {9} \NC \type{TL} \NC \NR
\NC \type{2} \NC \type{LB} \NC \type{10} \NC \type{TB} \NC \NR
\NC \type{3} \NC \type{LR} \NC \type{11} \NC \type{TR} \NC \NR
\NC \type{4} \NC \type{RT} \NC \type{12} \NC \type{BT} \NC \NR
\NC \type{5} \NC \type{RL} \NC \type{13} \NC \type{BL} \NC \NR
\NC \type{6} \NC \type{RB} \NC \type{14} \NC \type{BB} \NC \NR
\NC \type{7} \NC \type{RR} \NC \type{15} \NC \type{BR} \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

These are \OMEGA|-|style direction abbreviations: the first character indicates
the \quote {first} edge of the character glyphs (the edge that is seen first in
the writing direction), the second the \quote {top} side. Keep in mind that
\LUATEX\ has a bit different directional model so these values are not used for
anything.

The \type {parameters} is a hash with mixed key types. There are seven possible
string keys, as well as a number of integer indices (these start from 8 up). The
seven strings are actually used instead of the bottom seven indices, because that
gives a nicer user interface.

The names and their internal remapping are:

\starttabulate[|l|c|]
\BC name                  \BC remapping \NC \NR
\NC \type {slant}         \NC 1 \NC \NR
\NC \type {space}         \NC 2 \NC \NR
\NC \type {space_stretch} \NC 3 \NC \NR
\NC \type {space_shrink}  \NC 4 \NC \NR
\NC \type {x_height}      \NC 5 \NC \NR
\NC \type {quad}          \NC 6 \NC \NR
\NC \type {extra_space}   \NC 7 \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

The keys \type {type}, \type {format}, \type {embedding}, \type {fullname} and
\type {filename} are used to embed \OPENTYPE\ fonts in the result \PDF.

The \type {characters} table is a list of character hashes indexed by an integer
number. The number is the \quote {internal code} \TEX\ knows this character by.

Two very special string indexes can be used also: \type {left_boundary} is a
virtual character whose ligatures and kerns are used to handle word boundary
processing. \type {right_boundary} is similar but not actually used for anything
(yet).

Other index keys are ignored.

Each character hash itself is a hash. For example, here is the character \quote
{f} (decimal 102) in the font \type {cmr10 at 10pt}:

\starttyping
[102] = {
    ['width'] = 200250,
    ['height'] = 455111,
    ['depth'] = 0,
    ['italic'] = 50973,
    ['kerns'] = {
        [63] = 50973,
        [93] = 50973,
        [39] = 50973,
        [33] = 50973,
        [41] = 50973
    },
    ['ligatures'] = {
        [102] = {
            ['char'] = 11,
            ['type'] = 0
        },
        [108] = {
            ['char'] = 13,
            ['type'] = 0
        },
        [105] = {
            ['char'] = 12,
            ['type'] = 0
        }
    }
}
\stoptyping

The following top|-|level keys can be present inside a character hash:

\starttabulate[|l|c|c|c|l|p|]
\BC key              \BC vf  \BC tfm \BC used  \BC type    \BC description \NC\NR
\NC \type{width}            \NC yes \NC yes \NC yes   \NC number  \NC character's width, in sp (default 0) \NC\NR
\NC \type{height}           \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC number  \NC character's height, in sp (default 0) \NC\NR
\NC \type{depth}            \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC number  \NC character's depth, in sp (default 0) \NC\NR
\NC \type{italic}           \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC number  \NC character's italic correction, in sp (default zero) \NC\NR
\NC \type{top_accent}       \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC number  \NC character's top accent alignment place, in sp (default zero) \NC\NR
\NC \type{bot_accent}       \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC number  \NC character's bottom accent alignment place, in sp (default zero) \NC\NR
\NC \type{left_protruding}  \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC number  \NC character's \type {\lpcode} \NC\NR
\NC \type{right_protruding} \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC number  \NC character's \type {\rpcode} \NC\NR
\NC \type{expansion_factor} \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC number  \NC character's \type {\efcode} \NC\NR
\NC \type{tounicode}        \NC no  \NC no  \NC maybe \NC string  \NC character's \UNICODE\ equivalent(s), in \UTF|-|16BE hexadecimal format \NC\NR
\NC \type{next}             \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC number  \NC the \quote {next larger} character index \NC\NR
\NC \type{extensible}       \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC table   \NC the constituent parts of an extensible recipe \NC\NR
\NC \type{vert_variants}    \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes   \NC table   \NC constituent parts of a vertical variant set \NC \NR
\NC \type{horiz_variants}   \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes   \NC table   \NC constituent parts of a horizontal variant set \NC \NR
\NC \type{kerns}            \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC table   \NC kerning information \NC\NR
\NC \type{ligatures}        \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC table   \NC ligaturing information \NC\NR
\NC \type{commands}         \NC yes \NC no  \NC yes   \NC array   \NC virtual font commands \NC\NR
\NC \type{name}             \NC no  \NC no  \NC no    \NC string  \NC the character (\POSTSCRIPT) name \NC\NR
\NC \type{index}            \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes   \NC number  \NC the (\OPENTYPE\ or \TRUETYPE) font glyph index \NC\NR
\NC \type{used}             \NC no  \NC yes \NC yes   \NC boolean \NC typeset already (default: false)? \NC\NR
\NC \type{mathkern}         \NC no  \NC no  \NC yes   \NC table   \NC math cut-in specifications \NC\NR
\stoptabulate

The values of \type {top_accent}, \type {bot_accent} and \type {mathkern} are
used only for math accent and superscript placement, see the \at {math chapter}
[math] in this manual for details.

The values of \type {left_protruding} and \type {right_protruding} are used only
when \type {\protrudechars} is non-zero.

Whether or not \type {expansion_factor} is used depends on the font's global
expansion settings, as well as on the value of \type {\adjustspacing}.

The usage of \type {tounicode} is this: if this font specifies a \type
{tounicode=1} at the top level, then \LUATEX\ will construct a \type {/ToUnicode}
entry for the \PDF\ font (or font subset) based on the character|-|level \type
{tounicode} strings, where they are available. If a character does not have a
sensible \UNICODE\ equivalent, do not provide a string either (no empty strings).

If the font level \type {tounicode} is not set, then \LUATEX\ will build up \type
{/ToUnicode} based on the \TEX\ code points you used, and any character-level
\type {tounicodes} will be ignored. The string format is exactly the format that
is expected by Adobe \CMAP\ files (\UTF-16BE in hexadecimal encoding), minus the
enclosing angle brackets. For instance the \type {tounicode} for a \type {fi}
ligature would be \type {00660069}. When you pass a number the conversion will be
done for you.

The presence of \type {extensible} will overrule \type {next}, if that is also
present. It in in turn can be overruled by \type {vert_variants}.

The \type {extensible} table is very simple:

\starttabulate[|l|l|p|]
\BC key        \BC type   \BC description                \NC\NR
\NC \type{top} \NC number \NC top character index        \NC\NR
\NC \type{mid} \NC number \NC middle character index     \NC\NR
\NC \type{bot} \NC number \NC bottom character index     \NC\NR
\NC \type{rep} \NC number \NC repeatable character index \NC\NR
\stoptabulate

The \type {horiz_variants} and \type {vert_variants} are arrays of components.
Each of those components is itself a hash of up to five keys:

\starttabulate[|l|l|p|]
\BC key             \BC type   \BC explanation \NC \NR
\NC \type{glyph}    \NC number \NC The character index. Note that this is an encoding number, not a name. \NC \NR
\NC \type{extender} \NC number \NC One (1) if this part is repeatable, zero (0) otherwise. \NC \NR
\NC \type{start}    \NC number \NC The maximum overlap at the starting side (in scaled points). \NC \NR
\NC \type{end}      \NC number \NC The maximum overlap at the ending side (in scaled points). \NC \NR
\NC \type{advance}  \NC number \NC The total advance width of this item. It can be zero or missing,
                                   then the natural size of the glyph for character \type {component}
                                   is used. \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

The \type {kerns} table is a hash indexed by character index (and \quote
{character index} is defined as either a non|-|negative integer or the string
value \type {right_boundary}), with the values the kerning to be applied, in
scaled points.

The \type {ligatures} table is a hash indexed by character index (and \quote
{character index} is defined as either a non|-|negative integer or the string
value \type {right_boundary}), with the values being yet another small hash, with
two fields:

\starttabulate[|l|l|p|]
\BC key         \BC type   \BC description \NC \NR
\NC \type{type} \NC number \NC the type of this ligature command, default 0 \NC \NR
\NC \type{char} \NC number \NC the character index of the resultant ligature \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

The \type {char} field in a ligature is required.

The \type {type} field inside a ligature is the numerical or string value of one
of the eight possible ligature types supported by \TEX. When \TEX\ inserts a new
ligature, it puts the new glyph in the middle of the left and right glyphs. The
original left and right glyphs can optionally be retained, and when at least one
of them is kept, it is also possible to move the new \quote {insertion point}
forward one or two places. The glyph that ends up to the right of the insertion
point will become the next \quote {left}.

\starttabulate[|l|c|l|l|]
\BC textual (Knuth)       \BC number \BC string        \BC result      \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r =: n}     \NC 0      \NC \type{=:}     \NC \type{|n}   \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r =:| n}    \NC 1      \NC \type{=:|}    \NC \type{|nr}  \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r |=: n}    \NC 2      \NC \type{|=:}    \NC \type{|ln}  \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r |=:| n}   \NC 3      \NC \type{|=:|}   \NC \type{|lnr} \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r  =:|> n}  \NC 5      \NC \type{=:|>}   \NC \type{n|r}  \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r |=:> n}   \NC 6      \NC \type{|=:>}   \NC \type{l|n}  \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r |=:|> n}  \NC 7      \NC \type{|=:|>}  \NC \type{l|nr} \NC\NR
\NC \type{l + r |=:|>> n} \NC 11     \NC \type{|=:|>>} \NC \type{ln|r} \NC\NR
\stoptabulate

The default value is~0, and can be left out. That signifies a \quote {normal}
ligature where the ligature replaces both original glyphs. In this table the~\type {|}
indicates the final insertion point.

The \type {commands} array is explained below.

\section {Real fonts}

Whether or not a \TEX\ font is a \quote {real} font that should be written to the
\PDF\ document is decided by the \type {type} value in the top|-|level font
structure. If the value is \type {real}, then this is a proper font, and the
inclusion mechanism will attempt to add the needed font object definitions to the
\PDF. Values for \type {type} are:

\starttabulate[|l|p|]
\BC value          \BC description            \NC\NR
\NC \type{real}    \NC this is a base font    \NC\NR
\NC \type{virtual} \NC this is a virtual font \NC\NR
\stoptabulate

The actions to be taken depend on a number of different variables:

\startitemize[packed]
\startitem
    Whether the used font fits in an 8-bit encoding scheme or not.
\stopitem
\startitem
    The type of the disk font file.
\stopitem
\startitem
    The level of embedding requested.
\stopitem
\stopitemize

A font that uses anything other than an 8-bit encoding vector has to be written
to the \PDF\ in a different way.

The rule is: if the font table has \type {encodingbytes} set to~2, then this is a
wide font, in all other cases it isn't. The value~2 is the default for \OPENTYPE\
and \TRUETYPE\ fonts loaded via \LUA. For \TYPEONE\ fonts, you have to set \type
{encodingbytes} to~2 explicitly. For \PK\ bitmap fonts, wide font encoding is not
supported at all.

If no special care is needed, \LUATEX\ currently falls back to the
mapfile|-|based solution used by \PDFTEX\ and \DVIPS. This behaviour might
silently be removed in the future, in which case the related primitives and \LUA\
functions will become no|-|ops.

If a \quote {wide} font is used, the new subsystem kicks in, and some
extra fields have to be present in the font structure. In this case, \LUATEX\
does not use a map file at all.

The extra fields are: \type {format}, \type {embedding}, \type {fullname}, \type
{cidinfo} (as explained above), \type {filename}, and the \type {index} key in
the separate characters.

Values for \type {format} are:

\starttabulate[|l|p|]
\BC value           \BC description                                               \NC \NR
\NC \type{type1}    \NC this is a \POSTSCRIPT\ \TYPEONE\ font                     \NC \NR
\NC \type{type3}    \NC this is a bitmapped (\PK) font                            \NC \NR
\NC \type{truetype} \NC this is a \TRUETYPE\ or \TRUETYPE|-|based \OPENTYPE\ font \NC \NR
\NC \type{opentype} \NC this is a \POSTSCRIPT|-|based \OPENTYPE\ font             \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

\type {type3} fonts are provided for backward compatibility only, and do not
support the new wide encoding options.

Values for \type {embedding} are:

\starttabulate[|l|p|]
\BC value         \BC description                             \NC \NR
\NC \type{no}     \NC don't embed the font at all             \NC \NR
\NC \type{subset} \NC include and atttempt to subset the font \NC \NR
\NC \type{full}   \NC include this font in its entirety       \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

The other fields are used as follows: The \type {fullname} will be the
\POSTSCRIPT|/|\PDF\ font name. The \type {cidinfo} will be used as the character
set (the CID \type {/Ordering} and \type {/Registry} keys). The \type {filename}
points to the actual font file. If you include the full path in the \type
{filename} or if the file is in the local directory, \LUATEX\ will run a little
bit more efficient because it will not have to re|-|run the \type {find_xxx_file}
callback in that case.

Be careful: when mixing old and new fonts in one document, it is possible to
create \POSTSCRIPT\ name clashes that can result in printing errors. When this
happens, you have to change the \type {fullname} of the font.

Typeset strings are written out in a wide format using 2~bytes per glyph, using
the \type {index} key in the character information as value. The overall effect
is like having an encoding based on numbers instead of traditional (\POSTSCRIPT)
name|-|based reencoding. The way to get the correct \type {index} numbers for
\TYPEONE\ fonts is by loading the font via \type {fontloader.open} and use the table
indices as \type {index} fields.

In order to make sure that cut and paste of the final document works okay you can
best make sure that there is a \type {tounicode} vector enforced.

\section[virtualfonts]{Virtual fonts}

\subsection{The structure}

You have to take the following steps if you want \LUATEX\ to treat the returned
table from \type {define_font} as a virtual font:

\startitemize[packed]
\startitem
    Set the top|-|level key \type {type} to \type {virtual}.
\stopitem
\startitem
    Make sure there is at least one valid entry in \type {fonts} (see below).
\stopitem
\startitem
    Give a \type {commands} array to every character (see below).
\stopitem
\stopitemize

The presence of the toplevel \type {type} key with the specific value \type
{virtual} will trigger handling of the rest of the special virtual font fields in
the table, but the mere existence of 'type' is enough to prevent \LUATEX\ from
looking for a virtual font on its own.

Therefore, this also works \quote {in reverse}: if you are absolutely certain
that a font is not a virtual font, assigning the value \type {base} or \type
{real} to \type {type} will inhibit \LUATEX\ from looking for a virtual font
file, thereby saving you a disk search.

The \type {fonts} is another \LUA\ array. The values are one- or two|-|key
hashes themselves, each entry indicating one of the base fonts in a virtual font.
In case your font is referring to itself, you can use the \type {font.nextid()}
function which returns the index of the next to be defined font which is probably
the currently defined one.

An example makes this easy to understand

\starttyping
fonts = {
    { name = 'ptmr8a', size = 655360 },
    { name = 'psyr', size = 600000 },
    { id = 38 }
}
\stoptyping

says that the first referenced font (index 1) in this virtual font is \type
{ptrmr8a} loaded at 10pt, and the second is \type {psyr} loaded at a little over
9pt. The third one is previously defined font that is known to \LUATEX\ as font id
\quote {38}.

The array index numbers are used by the character command definitions that are
part of each character.

The \type {commands} array is a hash where each item is another small array,
with the first entry representing a command and the extra items being the
parameters to that command. The allowed commands and their arguments are:

\starttabulate[|l|l|l|p|]
\BC command name   \BC arguments \BC type      \BC description \NC \NR
\NC \type{font}    \NC 1         \NC number    \NC select a new font from the local \type {fonts} table \NC \NR
\NC \type{char}    \NC 1         \NC number    \NC typeset this character number from the current font,
                                                   and move right by the character's width \NC \NR
\NC \type{node}    \NC 1         \NC node      \NC output this node (list), and move right
                                                   by the width of this list\NC \NR
\NC \type{slot}    \NC 2         \NC 2 numbers \NC a shortcut for the combination of a font and char command\NC \NR
\NC \type{push}    \NC 0         \NC           \NC save current position\NC \NR
\NC \type{nop}     \NC 0         \NC           \NC do nothing \NC \NR
\NC \type{pop}     \NC 0         \NC           \NC pop position \NC \NR
\NC \type{rule}    \NC 2         \NC 2 numbers \NC output a rule $ht*wd$, and move right. \NC \NR
\NC \type{down}    \NC 1         \NC number    \NC move down on the page \NC \NR
\NC \type{right}   \NC 1         \NC number    \NC move right on the page \NC \NR
\NC \type{special} \NC 1         \NC string    \NC output a \type {\special} command \NC \NR
\NC \type{pdf}     \NC 2         \NC 2 strings \NC output a \PDF\ literal, the first string is one of \type {origin},
                                                   \type {page}, \type {text}, \type {font}, \type {direct} or \type {raw}; if you
                                                   have one string only \type {origin} is assumed \NC \NR
\NC \type{lua}     \NC 1         \NC string    \NC execute a \LUA\ script (at \type {\latelua} time) \NC \NR
\NC \type{image}   \NC 1         \NC image     \NC output an image (the argument can be either an \type
                                                   {<image>} variable or an \type {image_spec} table) \NC \NR
\NC \type{comment} \NC any       \NC any       \NC the arguments of this command are ignored \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

When a font id is set to~0 then it will be replaced by the currently assigned
font id. This prevents the need for hackery with future id's (normally one could
use \type {font.nextid} but when more complex fonts are built in the meantime
other instances could have been loaded.

The \type {pdf} option also accepts a \type {mode} keyword in which case the
third argument sets the mode. That option will change the mode in an efficient
way (passing an empty string would result in an extra empty lines in the \PDF\
file. This option only makes sense for virtual fonts. The \type {font} mode only
makes sense in virtual fonts.

These modes are somewhat fuzzy and partially inherited from \PDFTEX.

\starttabulate[|l|p|]
\BC mode           \BC description \NC \NR
\NC \type {origin} \NC enter page mode and set the position \NC \NR
\NC \type {page}   \NC enter page mode \NC \NR
\NC \type {text}   \NC enter text mode \NC \NR
\NC \type {font}   \NC enter font mode (kind of text mode, only in virtual fonts) \NC \NR
\NC \type {always} \NC finish the current string and force a transform if needed \NC \NR
\NC \type {raw}    \NC finish the current string \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

You always need to check what \PDF\ code is generated because there can be all kind of
interferences with optimizations in the backend and fonts are complicated anyway.

Here is a rather elaborate glyph commands example:

\starttyping
...
commands = {
    { "push" },                     -- remember where we are
    { "right", 5000 },              -- move right about 0.08pt
    { "font", 3 },                  -- select the fonts[3] entry
    { "char", 97 },                 -- place character 97 (ASCII 'a')
    { "pop" },                      -- go all the way back
    { "down", -200000 },            -- move upwards by about 3pt
    { "special", "pdf: 1 0 0 rg" }  -- switch to red color
 -- { "pdf", "origin", "1 0 0 rg" } -- switch to red color (alternative)
    { "rule", 500000, 20000 }       -- draw a bar
    { "special", "pdf: 0 g" }       -- back to black
 -- { "pdf", "origin", "0 g" }      -- back to black (alternative)
}
...
\stoptyping

The default value for \type {font} is always~1 at the start of the
\type {commands} array. Therefore, if the virtual font is essentially only a
re|-|encoding, then you do usually not have create an explicit \quote {font}
command in the array.

Rules inside of \type {commands} arrays are built up using only two dimensions:
they do not have depth. For correct vertical placement, an extra \type {down}
command may be needed.

Regardless of the amount of movement you create within the \type {commands}, the
output pointer will always move by exactly the width that was given in the \type
{width} key of the character hash. Any movements that take place inside the \type
{commands} array are ignored on the upper level.

The special can have a \type {pdf:}, \type {pdf:origin:},  \type {pdf:page:},
\type {pdf:direct:} or  \type {pdf:raw:} prefix. When you have to concatenate
strings using the \type {pdf} command might be more efficient.

\subsection{Artificial fonts}

Even in a \quote {real} font, there can be virtual characters. When \LUATEX\
encounters a \type {commands} field inside a character when it becomes time to
typeset the character, it will interpret the commands, just like for a true
virtual character. In this case, if you have created no \quote {fonts} array,
then the default (and only) \quote {base} font is taken to be the current font
itself. In practice, this means that you can create virtual duplicates of
existing characters which is useful if you want to create composite characters.

Note: this feature does {\it not\/} work the other way around. There can not be
\quote {real} characters in a virtual font! You cannot use this technique for
font re-encoding either; you need a truly virtual font for that (because
characters that are already present cannot be altered).

\subsection{Example virtual font}

Finally, here is a plain \TEX\ input file with a virtual font demonstration:

\startbuffer
\directlua {
  callback.register('define_font',
    function (name,size)
      if name == 'cmr10-red' then
        f = font.read_tfm('cmr10',size)
        f.name = 'cmr10-red'
        f.type = 'virtual'
        f.fonts = {{ name = 'cmr10', size = size }}
        for i,v in pairs(f.characters) do
          if (string.char(i)):find('[tacohanshartmut]') then
             v.commands = {
               {'special','pdf: 1 0 0 rg'},
               {'char',i},
               {'special','pdf: 0 g'},
              }
          else
             v.commands = {{'char',i}}
          end
        end
      else
        f = font.read_tfm(name,size)
      end
      return f
    end
  )
}

\font\myfont = cmr10-red at 10pt \myfont  This is a line of text \par
\font\myfontx= cmr10     at 10pt \myfontx Here is another line of text \par
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

\section{The \type {vf} library}

The \type {vf} library can be used when \LUA\ code, as defined in the \type
{commands} of the font, is executed. The functions provided are similar as the
commands: \type {char}, \type {down}, \type {fontid}, \type {image}, \type
{node}, \type {nop}, \type {pop}, \type {push}, \type {right}, \type {rule},
\type {special} and \type {pdf}. This library has been present for a while but
not been advertised and tested much, if only because it's easy to define an
invalid font (or mess up the \PDF\ stream). Keep in mind that the \LUA\ snippets
are executed each time when a character is output.


\section{The \type {font} library}

The font library provides the interface into the internals of the font system,
and also it contains helper functions to load traditional \TEX\ font metrics
formats. Other font loading functionality is provided by the \type {fontloader}
library that will be discussed in the next section.

\subsection{Loading a \TFM\ file}

The behavior documented in this subsection is considered stable in the sense that
there will not be backward-incompatible changes any more.

\startfunctioncall
<table> fnt =
    font.read_tfm(<string> name, <number> s)
\stopfunctioncall

The number is a bit special:

\startitemize
\startitem
    If it is positive, it specifies an \quote {at size} in scaled points.
\stopitem
\startitem
    If it is negative, its absolute value represents a \quote {scaled}
    setting relative to the designsize of the font.
\stopitem
\stopitemize

The internal structure of the metrics font table that is returned is explained in
\in {chapter} [fonts].

\subsection{Loading a \VF\ file}

The behavior documented in this subsection is considered stable in the sense that
there will not be backward-incompatible changes any more.

\startfunctioncall
<table> vf_fnt =
    font.read_vf(<string> name, <number> s)
\stopfunctioncall

The meaning of the number \type {s} and the format of the returned table are
similar to the ones in the \type {read_tfm()} function.

\subsection{The fonts array}

The whole table of \TEX\ fonts is accessible from \LUA\ using a virtual array.

\starttyping
font.fonts[n] = { ... }
<table> f = font.fonts[n]
\stoptyping

See \in {chapter} [fonts] for the structure of the tables. Because this is a
virtual array, you cannot call \type {pairs} on it, but see below for the \type
{font.each} iterator.

The two metatable functions implementing the virtual array are:

\startfunctioncall
<table> f = font.getfont(<number> n)
font.setfont(<number> n, <table> f)
\stopfunctioncall

Note that at the moment, each access to the \type {font.fonts} or call to \type
{font.getfont} creates a \LUA\ table for the whole font. This process can be quite
slow. In a later version of \LUATEX, this interface will change (it will start
using userdata objects instead of actual tables).

Also note the following: assignments can only be made to fonts that have already
been defined in \TEX, but have not been accessed {\it at all\/} since that
definition. This limits the usability of the write access to \type {font.fonts}
quite a lot, a less stringent ruleset will likely be implemented later.

\subsection{Checking a font's status}

You can test for the status of a font by calling this function:

\startfunctioncall
<boolean> f =
    font.frozen(<number> n)
\stopfunctioncall

The return value is one of \type {true} (unassignable), \type {false} (can be
changed) or \type {nil} (not a valid font at all).

\subsection{Defining a font directly}

You can define your own font into \type {font.fonts} by calling this function:

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.define(<table> f)
\stopfunctioncall

The return value is the internal id number of the defined font (the index into
\type {font.fonts}). If the font creation fails, an error is raised. The table
is a font structure, as explained in \in {chapter} [fonts]. An alternative call
is:

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.define(<number> n, <table> f)
\stopfunctioncall

Where the first argument is a reserved font id (see below).

\subsection{Extending a font}

Within reasonable bounds you can extend a font after it has been defined. Because
some properties are best left unchanged this is limited to adding characters.

\startfunctioncall
font.addcharacters(<number n>, <table> f)
\stopfunctioncall

The table passed can have the fields \type {characters} which is a (sub)table
like the one used in define, and for virtual fonts a \type {fonts} table can be
added. The characters defined in the \type {characters} table are added (when not
yet present) or replace an existing entry. Keep in mind that replacing can have
side effects because a character already can have been used. Instead of posing
restrictions we expect the user to be careful. (The \type {setfont} helper is
a more drastic replacer.)

\subsection{Projected next font id}

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.nextid()
\stopfunctioncall

This returns the font id number that would be returned by a \type {font.define}
call if it was executed at this spot in the code flow. This is useful for virtual
fonts that need to reference themselves. If you pass \type {true} as argument,
the id gets reserved and you can pass to \type {font.define} as first argument.
This can be handy when you create complex virtual fonts.

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.nextid(true)
\stopfunctioncall

\subsection{Font id}

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.id(<string> csname)
\stopfunctioncall

This returns the font id associated with \type {csname} string, or $-1$ if \type
{csname} is not defined.

\subsection{Currently active font}

\startfunctioncall
<number> i = font.current()
font.current(<number> i)
\stopfunctioncall

This gets or sets the currently used font number.

\subsection{Maximum font id}

\startfunctioncall
<number> i =
    font.max()
\stopfunctioncall

This is the largest used index in \type {font.fonts}.

\subsection{Iterating over all fonts}

\startfunctioncall
for i,v in font.each() do
  ...
end
\stopfunctioncall

This is an iterator over each of the defined \TEX\ fonts. The first returned
value is the index in \type {font.fonts}, the second the font itself, as a \LUA\
table. The indices are listed incrementally, but they do not always form an array
of consecutive numbers: in some cases there can be holes in the sequence.

\stopchapter

\stopcomponent