Text object font picker UI #71484

New Issue

Campbell Barton · 2019-11-11T03:38:45+01:00

Campbell Barton commented

2019-11-11 03:38:45 +01:00

Currently selecting a file to pick font's is not very convenient.

We can improve this by:

Automatically scanning the various system font folders, depending on the OS
Using auto-generated named previews, which are cached so we don't need to re-generate each time the menu opens
Presenting a single menu of fonts to the user

Example:

Currently selecting a file to pick font's is not very convenient. We can improve this by: - Automatically scanning the various system font folders, depending on the OS - Using auto-generated named previews, which are cached so we don't need to re-generate each time the menu opens - Presenting a single menu of fonts to the user Example: ![Screenshot 2019-11-11 at 15.40.42.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F8027516/Screenshot_2019-11-11_at_15.40.42.png)

Campbell Barton commented

2019-11-11 03:38:45 +01:00

Added subscriber: @ideasman42

Evan Wilson commented

2020-02-25 19:27:00 +01:00

Added subscriber: @EAW

Arvind R commented

2020-04-07 08:29:11 +02:00

Added subscriber: @r-arvind

Arvind R commented

2020-04-07 08:29:11 +02:00

Hi, I would like to work on this task.

So essentially there are two ways to implement this:

Make a list of the folders where system fonts are usually present in that specific OS. For example, in Linux, fonts are present in "/usr/share/fonts" or "/usr/local/share/fonts". We can scan those directories and get the list of font families. It has been implemented here in typescript. It can be used as reference.
Use OS specific APIs for fetching the font information. For example, Linux comes with fontconfig, Mac has CoreText etc. We can use these APIs instead of manually scanning the folders. It has been implemented in C++ in this repo and can be used for reference.

Once we implement this, we can put it in a function called BKE_get_system_fonts in blender/blenderkernel/BKE_font.h. This function will return a struct (or an array of structs) containing the catalog of fonts-families.

Initially we can just print these values on to the terminal. Once everything works properly and integrates well with blender, we can expose these values in the property editor. Then we can implement additional features like font caching, font preview etc.

Hi, I would like to work on this task. So essentially there are two ways to implement this: 1. Make a list of the folders where system fonts are usually present in that specific OS. For example, in Linux, fonts are present in "/usr/share/fonts" or "/usr/local/share/fonts". We can scan those directories and get the list of font families. It has been implemented [here ](https://github.com/princjef/get-system-fonts) in typescript. It can be used as reference. 2. Use OS specific APIs for fetching the font information. For example, Linux comes with fontconfig, Mac has CoreText etc. We can use these APIs instead of manually scanning the folders. It has been implemented in C++ in this [repo ](https://github.com/foliojs/font-manager) and can be used for reference. Once we implement this, we can put it in a function called BKE_get_system_fonts in blender/blenderkernel/BKE_font.h. This function will return a struct (or an array of structs) containing the catalog of fonts-families. Initially we can just print these values on to the terminal. Once everything works properly and integrates well with blender, we can expose these values in the property editor. Then we can implement additional features like font caching, font preview etc.

tintwotin commented

2020-08-14 10:49:25 +02:00

Added subscriber: @tintwotin

tintwotin commented

2020-08-14 10:49:25 +02:00

If this is to be implemented, please consider also implementing it in the Video Editor Text Strips:

If this is to be implemented, please consider also implementing it in the Video Editor Text Strips: ![image.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F8779729/image.png)

Philipp Oeser removed the

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Text object font picker UI #71484