---
name: "fonttosfnt"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xorg-fonttosfnt"
version: "1.2.5-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fonttosfnt"
---

# fonttosfnt(1)

Wrap a bitmap font in a sfnt (OpenType) wrapper

## NAME

fonttosfnt - Wrap a bitmap font in a sfnt (OpenType) wrapper

## SYNOPSIS

**fonttosfnt** \[ *options* \] **-o** *file.otb* \[ **--** \] \[ *font* \] ...

**fonttosfnt** **--help**\|**--version**

## DESCRIPTION

Wrap a bitmap font or a set of bitmap fonts in a sfnt (TrueType or OpenType) wrapper. If no font is specified, a BDF font is read from standard input (stdin).

## OPTIONS

- **-v**

  Be verbose.

- **-c**

  Do not crop glyphs. This usually increases file size, but may sometimes yield a modest decrease in file size for small character cell fonts (terminal fonts).

- **-b**

  Write byte-aligned glyph data. By default, unaligned data is written, which yields a smaller file size.

- **-r**

  Do not reencode fonts. By default, fonts are reencoded to Unicode whenever possible.

- **-g** *n*

  Set the type of scalable glyphs that we write. If *n* is 0, no scalable glyphs are written; this is valid but confuses most current software. If *n* is 1, a single scalable glyph (the undefined glyph) is written; this is recommended, but triggers a bug in current versions of **FreeType**. If *n* is 2 (the default), a sufficiently high number of blank glyphs are written, which works with **FreeType** but increases file size.

- **-m** *n*

  Set the type of scalable metrics that we write. If *n* is 0, no scalable metrics are written, which may or may not be valid. If *n* is 1, full metrics for a single glyph are written, and only left sidebearing values are written for the other glyphs. If *n* is 2, scalable metrics for all glyphs are written, which increases file size and is not recommended. The default is 1.

- **--**

  End of options.

- **--help**

  Prints a usage message and exits.

- **--version**

  Prints version info and exits.

## BUGS

Some of the font-level values, notably sub- and superscript positions, are dummy values.

## SEE ALSO

[**X**(7)](/X/7.md), [**Xserver**(1)](/Xserver/1.md), [**Xft**(3)](/Xft/3.md). *Fonts in X11*.

## AUTHOR

The version of **Fonttosfnt** included in this X.Org Foundation release was originally written by Juliusz Chroboczek \<jch@freedesktop.org\> for the XFree86 project.