SharpFont

Cross-platform FreeType bindings for .NET

SharpFont is a library that provides FreeType bindings for .NET. It's MIT licensed to make sure licensing doesn't get in the way of using the library in your own projects. Unlike Tao.FreeType, SharpFont provides the full public API and not just the basic methods needed to render simple text. Everything from format-specific APIs to the caching subsystem are included.

SharpFont simplifies the FreeType API in a few ways:

• The error codes that most FreeType methods return are converted to exceptions.
• Since the return values are no longer error codes, methods with a single out parameter are returned instead.
• Most methods are instance methods instead of static methods. This avoids unnecessary redundancy in method calls and creates an API with a .NET look-and-feel.

For example, a regular FreeType method looks like this:

Face face;
int err = FT_New_Face(library, "./myfont.ttf", 0, &face);

The equivalent code in C# with SharpFont is:

Face face = new Face(library, "./myfont.ttf");

##Quick Start

###NuGet SharpFont is available on NuGet. It can be installed by issuing the following command in the package manager console:

PM> Install-Package SharpFont

###From Source Clone the repository and compile the solution. Copy SharpFont.dll to your project and include it as a reference. On Windows, you must include a compiled copy of FreeType2 as freetype6.dll in the project's output directory. It is possible to rename the file by changing the filename constant in FT.Internal.cs and recompile. On Linux and OSX (and any other Mono supported platform), you must also copy SharpFont.dll.config to the project's output directory.

####Mono With the removal of the WIN64 configurations, the included Makefile is effectively redundant. However, you can still build SharpFont by calling make while in the root directory of this project.

####FreeType A large number of FreeType builds for Windows are now available in the SharpFont.Dependencies repository.

##Compiling FreeType on Windows

The copies of freetype6.dll that the Examples project uses by default are chosen based on what works on my machine, and I will probably update it as soon as a new version of FreeType is released. This means that it may not work on older versions of Windows. If this is the case, you can either modify the project file to point to another included version of freetype or you can compile FreeType yourself from source.

Note: Any copy of freetype6.dll can work as a drop-in replacement, including this copy from the GnuWin32 project. Older versions such as that one may crash with a EntryPointException when using newer APIs. If on a 64-bit machine not patching the source code will cause SharpFont to crash in weird places.

Thanks to this StackOverflow answer for the directions:

1. Download the latest FreeType source code.
2. Open builds\win32\vc2010\freetype.sln (or whatever version of Visual Studio you have) in Visual Studio.
3. Change the compile configuration from Debug to Release.
4. Open the project properties window through Project -> Properties.
5. In the General selection, change the Target Name to freetype6 and the Configuration Type to Dynamic Library (.dll).
6. Open up ftoption.h (in the project's Header Files section) and add the following three lines near the DLL export compilation section:

#define FT_EXPORT(x) __declspec(dllexport) x
#define FT_EXPORT_DEF(x) __declspec(dllexport) x
#define FT_BASE(x) __declspec(dllexport) x

7. If compiling for 64-bit apply a patch to the source code (see [Known Issues](#Known Issues)).
8. Also only for 64-bit open up Configuration Manager (the last option in the dropdown menu when changing your compile configuration) and change Platform to x64.

Finally, complile the project (F6 or Build -> Build Solution). freetype6.dll will be output to objs\win32\vc2010. If this is a build that isn't included in Dependencies, consider forking and submitting a pull request with your new build.

##Known Issues

The biggest currently known issue is the Windows 64-bit incompatibility. A patch must be applied to FreeType before it will work properly with SharpFont.

TODO: make a .patch file

##License

As metioned earlier, SharpFont is licensed under the MIT License. The terms of the MIT license are included in both the LICENSE file and below:

Copyright (c) 2012-2013 Robert Rouhani <robert.rouhani@gmail.com>

SharpFont based on Tao.FreeType, Copyright (c) 2003-2007 Tao Framework Team

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

The Windows binary of FreeType that is included in the Examples project and in the NuGet package is redistributed under the FreeType License (FTL).

Portions of this software are copyright (c) 2015 The FreeType Project
(www.freetype.org). All rights reserved.