An export plugin for Glyphs that uses fontc to export fonts. When installed, it shows up in the regular Export dialog (Cmd+E).

It downloads a standalone fontc executable inside the plugin, which is removed when the plugin is deleted.

fontc is a font compiler written in Rust which is designed to be 10x or more faster than fontmake, our other font compiler written in Python. Please note that the font compiler is not production-ready yet. You can follow development progress on the upstream Github repository.

The "Command line options" accept whatever fontc accepts.

Please note that the instructions below are for the maintainers of the plugin, not the Glyphs.app users who can get the updated fontc by upgrading the plugin itself within the app.

The plugin repository is configured to automatically create pull requests when new fontc releases are published:

1. When a new fontc release is published in the fontc repository, a GitHub Actions workflow automatically sends a webhook to this plugin repository.
2. The plugin repository receives the webhook and runs the update workflow (on macOS runners), which:
   • Updates the FONTC_VERSION file
   • Downloads the requirements.txt from the new release
   • Auto-increments both version numbers in Info.plist:
     • CFBundleShortVersionString: Minor version bump (e.g., 0.5 → 0.6)
     • CFBundleVersion: Build number increment (e.g., 6 → 7)
   • Validates all changes, including creating a temporary Python 3.11 venv, installing fontc from requirements.txt, and verifying fontc --version works
   • Creates a pull request with all updates
3. Review and merge the automatically created pull request.

Setup required (one-time, maintainers only):

The fontc repository needs a GitHub secret named FONTC_GLYPHS_PLUGIN_REPO_TOKEN with a Personal Access Token that has repo and workflow permissions to trigger workflows in this plugin repository. This token is used by the notification workflow in fontc/.github/workflows/notify-plugin.yml.

If you need to update manually (e.g., for testing or if automation fails):

Requirements: macOS with Python 3.11 installed (to match Glyphs.app's current Python version)

1. Run the update script:
   • To update to the latest release: ./scripts/update-fontc-version.sh
   • To update to a specific version: ./scripts/update-fontc-version.sh 0.3.2
   • This automatically fetches the version (if not specified), updates FONTC_VERSION, downloads requirements.txt, and bumps version numbers etc.
2. Run validation: ./scripts/validate-update.sh to verify the update
   • This creates a Python 3.11 venv, installs fontc, and tests that it runs correctly
3. Commit the changes and push
4. Create a pull request manually if needed