---
name: "tftopl"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "texlive-doc"
version: "2026.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tftopl"
---

# tftopl(1)

convert a TeX font metric (tfm) file to property list (pl) format

## NAME

tftopl - convert a TeX font metric (tfm) file to property list (pl) format

## SYNOPSIS

**tftopl** \[*options*\] *tfm\_file*\[***.tfm***\] \[*pl\_file*\[***.pl***\]\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **tftopl** program translates a (binary) TeX font metric file to a (plain text) property list file. Then you can view or edit the contents of the tfm file. It also serves as a tfm-file validating program, i.e., if no error messages are given, the input file is correct.

The *pl\_file* is extended with **.pl** if necessary. If *pl\_file* is not given, standard output is used. Likewise,  *tfm\_file* is extended with **.tfm** if it lacks a suffix.

## OPTIONS

See [**tex**(1)](/tex/1.md) for details of command-line parsing.

- **-charcode-format=***format*

  The argument *format* specifies how character codes are output in the pl file. By default (the historical behavior), ASCII letters and digits are output using the "C" code (i.e., as themselves), and other characters are output in octal; unless the font's coding scheme starts with "TeX math sy" or "TeX math ex", in which case all character codes are output in octal.

-

  If *format* is **ascii**, all character codes that correspond to graphic characters, besides the left and right parentheses, are output in ASCII.

-

  Finally, if *format* is **octal**, all character codes are output in octal. (This option is the same as in **vftovp**.)

- **-verbose**

  By default, the program operates silently. With this option, some reports are printed on stdout.

The standard **-help** and **-version** options are also supported.

## ENVIRONMENT

The program looks for *tfm\_file* using the environment variables TFMFONTS and TEXFONTS, in that order. If neither are set, it uses the system default.

## SEE ALSO

[**pltotf**(1)](/pltotf/1.md),\
 Donald E. Knuth, *TeXware*.

Font utility topic on CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/font-util\
 Package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/tftopl\
 Section in the Web2c manual (with an example and summary of the pl format): https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#tftopl-invocation\
 Typeset source code, including the tfm file format description: https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf

## AUTHORS

Donald E. Knuth wrote the program. It was published as part of the *TeXware* technical report from Stanford. Howard Trickey and Pavel Curtis originally ported it to Unix.

Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/tex-k