---
name: "wml::des::gfont"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "wml"
version: "2.32.0~ds1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/wml::des::gfont"
---

# wml::des::gfont(3)

Graphical Font Tag

## NAME

wml::des::gfont - Graphical Font Tag

## SYNOPSIS

```
 #use wml::des::gfont
 <gfont [attributes]>One Single Line Of Text</gfont>
```

## DESCRIPTION

This is a nice interface to the **gFONT** program which can be found at http://www.engelschall.com/sw/gfont/. It provides a `"<gfont>"` tag which can be used similar to the standard HTML tag `"<font>"`. But instead of online rendering by the webbrowser the text is rendered offline via *gfont* into a GIF image.  This has the following advantages:

- All TeX-available fonts can be used.

  you can use any TeX-available fonts instead of the commonly known ones the typical browsers support. These fonts will actually look like you want, i.e. Helvetica \_is\_ Helvetica with `"<gfont>"` while it can be Arial or a totally different (substituted) font when using the `"<font>"` tag.

- Fonts with much greater size can be used.

  With `"<gfont>"` you can increase the `"size"` attribute up to `+9` which is actually 200pt in size while the HTML **font** tag usually stops at `+4`. So `"<gfont>"` can be used for big headlines.

- You can create banners with colored backgrounds.

  The standard `"<font>"` tag cannot use a different background color in HTML 3.2, `"<gfont>"` can. Because it directly renders into a GIF image which background has not to be transparent.

When an image is generated, a text file containing the command which has been run is created, its name is the image file name with a `".cmd"` suffix.  When WML is re-run, this file is searched for and gFONT executed only if command line has changed.

## ATTRIBUTES

- base=*filename*

  Usually the created images for a source file *page.wml* are named *page.gfontXXX.gif* where `"XXX"` is a number starting with `000`. When you use a `"base=foo"` attribute, then the resulting files are named *foo.gfontXXX.gif*.  Actually you can even use a complete filename including a directory prefix, i.e.  when you use `"base=../../common/foo"` attribute, then the GIF images are created as *../../common/foo.gfontXXX.gif*. Use this feature to direct the images to a particular directory. Additionally using a `"base="""` attribute leads to images which are so-called hidden Unix files or dot-files.

  And for most flexibility when no base is specified and the variable `"GFONT_BASE"` is defined (usually from within a *.wmlrc* file via `"-DGFONT_BASE~path/to/gfont/dir/base"`) it is used.  Use this feature to redirect the created images to a particular directory.

  You may also use the variable `"IMAGE_BASE"` which defines in a single line all base names for images generated by WML.

- file=*filename*

  Use this to explicitly set the output filename for the GIF image.  This is usually not used, because you don't need to know the actual filename. But sometimes it can be useful to explicitly set it.

- notag

  This forces `"<gfont>"` to expand to nothing, i.e. no resulting `"<img>"` tag. The image itself is still generated. In combination with the above `"file"` attribute this can be used to generate images to particular files which can be used at other positions, for instance inside `"<rollover>"` (see [**wml::des::rollover**(3)](/wml::des::rollover/3.md)) tags.

- color=#*rrggbb*

  Sets the font (foreground) color. Default is `"#000000"` which is black.

- bgcolor=#*rrggbb*

  Sets the image background color. Default is no color at all, i.e. transparent background.

- face=*fontname*

  Sets the type of the used font where *fontname* is actually any TeX-available font or a name alias from the *Fontmap* file of gFONT. See **gfont**(1) for more details. Default is `"Times"`.

- size=*number*

  Sets the relative size of the font, similar to the HTML 3.2 `"<font<"` tag. Default is 0. The following correspondence to pt-sizes exists:

  ```
   size:  -2 -1  0  1  2  3  4  5   6   7   8   9
     pt:  12 16 20 32 40 50 60 80 100 120 140 160
  ```

  This leads to nearly the same font sizes for `"<font>"` and `"<gfont>"` tags on typical browser setups.

- align=*location*

  This directly corresponds to the `"align"` attribute of the `"<img>"` tag.

- crop

  This indicates that the image should be cropped, i.e. the edges containing only the background color should be removed.

- adjust=*spec*

  This passes through *spec* to the **-r** option of gFONT which adjusts the size of the final image. Use this to expand the image and/or align it.

- :img:*ATTR*=*STR*

  The \`\`*ATTR*=*STR*'' pairs are passed along to the `"<img>"` HTML tag.

## EXAMPLE

```
 <gfont face="HelveticaBold" size=+6 color="#3333cc">
 A sample Headerline
 </gfont>
```

## AUTHOR

```
 Ralf S. Engelschall
 rse@engelschall.com
 www.engelschall.com
```

## REQUIRES

```
 Internal: P1, P2, P3, Image::Size (P5M)
 External: gfont (PATH)
```

## SEE ALSO

HTML `"<font>"` tag, **gfont**(1), http://www.engelschall.com/sw/gfont/