How can you load a font (TTF) from a file using Core Text?

Question

Prior to OSX 10.6, ATSFontActivateFromFileSpecification/ATSFontActivateFromFileReference were available and could be used to load a font from a file. I can't find anything similar in Core Text.

Madge

Answer 1

You can get a CTFontRef from a font file by going via a CGFontRef:

CFURLRef url = CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(kCFAllocatorDefault, CFSTR("/path/to/font"), kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle, false);
CGDataProviderRef dataProvider = CGDataProviderCreateWithURL(url);
CGFontRef theCGFont = CGFontCreateWithDataProvider(dataProvider);
CTFontRef theCTFont = CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont(theCGFont);
CFRelease(theCGFont);
CFRelease(dataProvider);
CFRelease(url);

// do something with the CTFontRef here

CFRelease(theCTFont);   

Mcmorris

This doesn't work under Snow Leopard (confirmed by Apple) and you need to use ATSFontActivateFromMemory() on that version of OS X only. – Columbine

Cannot confirm this. It works fine here on Snow Leopard. – Legator

This seems to be missing the size, matrix, and attributes arguments to CTFontCreateWithGraphicsFont() – Laylalayman

Answer 2

It looks like CTFontManagerCreateFontDescriptorsFromURL is the Core Text replacement.

Madge

And it makes for shorter code than the Core Graphics route. – Pigtail

Answer 3

Here's an updated version of how to do this in 2020. Much simpler now. Used 12 as arbitrary type size.

let fontURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "path/to/font.otf")
let fd = CTFontManagerCreateFontDescriptorsFromURL(fontURL as CFURL) as! [CTFontDescriptor]
let theCTFont = CTFontCreateWithFontDescriptor(fd[0], 12.0, nil)

Colophon

Answer 4

NSURL *fontURL = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"Crystal" withExtension:@"ttf"];
    assert(fontURL);
    CFErrorRef error = NULL;
    if (!CTFontManagerRegisterFontsForURL((__bridge CFURLRef)fontURL, kCTFontManagerScopeProcess, &error))
    {
        CFShow(error);
        abort();
    }

Bezant