# rust-fontconfig
Pure-Rust rewrite of the Linux fontconfig library (no system dependencies) - using allsorts as a font parser to support `.woff`, `.woff2`, `.ttc`, `.otf` and `.ttf`
**NOTE**: Also works on Windows, macOS and WASM - without external dependencies!
## Motivation
There are a number of reasons why I want to have a pure-Rust version of fontconfig:
- fontconfig with all dependencies (expat and freetype) is ~190.000 lines of C (extremely bloated for what it does)
- fontconfig, freetype, expat and basically any kind of parsing in C is a common attack vector (via maliciously crafted fonts). The Rust version (allsorts) checks the boundaries before accessing memory, so attacks via font files should be less common.
- it gets rid of the cmake / cc dependencies necessary to build [azul](https://azul.rs) on Linux
- fontconfig isn't really a "hard" library to rewrite, it just parses fonts and selects fonts by name
- Rust has existing xml parsers and font parsers, just use those
- It allows fontconfig libraries to be purely statically linked
- Font parsing / loading can be easily multithreaded (parsing font files in parallel)
- It reduces the number of necessary non-Rust dependencies on Linux for azul to 0
- fontconfig (or at least the Rust bindings) do not allow you to store an in-memory cache, only an on-disk cache, requiring disk access on every query (= slow)
- `no_std` support ("bring your own font files") for WASM
Now for the more practical reasons:
- libfontconfig 0.12.x sometimes hangs and crashes ([see issue](https://github.com/maps4print/azul/issues/110))
- libfontconfig introduces build issues with cmake / cc ([see issue](https://github.com/maps4print/azul/issues/206))
- To support font fallback in CSS selectors and text runs based on Unicode ranges, you have to do several calls into C, since fontconfig doesn't handle that
- The rust rewrite uses multithreading and memory mapping, since that is faster than reading each file individually
- The rust rewrite only parses the font tables necessary to select the name, not the entire font
- The rust rewrite uses very few allocations (some are necessary because of UTF-16 / UTF-8 conversions and multithreading lifetime issues)
## Usage
### Basic Font Query
```rust
use rust_fontconfig::{FcFontCache, FcPattern};
fn main() {
// Build the font cache (scans system fonts)
let cache = FcFontCache::build();
// Query a font by name
let mut trace = Vec::new();
let results = cache.query(
&FcPattern {
name: Some(String::from("Arial")),
..Default::default()
},
&mut trace
);
if let Some(font_match) = results {
println!("Font match ID: {:?}", font_match.id);
println!("Font unicode ranges: {:?}", font_match.unicode_ranges);
// Get font metadata
if let Some(meta) = cache.get_metadata_by_id(&font_match.id) {
println!("Family: {:?}", meta.family);
}
// Get font file path
if let Some(source) = cache.get_font_by_id(&font_match.id) {
match source {
rust_fontconfig::FontSource::Disk(path) => {
println!("Path: {}", path.path);
}
rust_fontconfig::FontSource::Memory(font) => {
println!("Memory font: {}", font.id);
}
}
}
} else {
println!("No matching font found");
}
}
```
### Font Fallback Chain for CSS font-family
The new API separates font chain resolution from text querying:
1. **`resolve_font_chain()`** - Create a fallback chain from CSS font-family (without text)
2. **`chain.resolve_text()`** - Query which fonts to use for specific text
```rust
use rust_fontconfig::{FcFontCache, FcWeight, PatternMatch};
fn main() {
let cache = FcFontCache::build();
// Step 1: Build font fallback chain (without text parameter)
let mut trace = Vec::new();
let font_chain = cache.resolve_font_chain(
&["Arial".to_string(), "sans-serif".to_string()],
FcWeight::Normal,
PatternMatch::DontCare, // italic
PatternMatch::DontCare, // oblique
&mut trace,
);
println!("CSS fallback groups: {}", font_chain.css_fallbacks.len());
for group in &font_chain.css_fallbacks {
println!(" CSS '{}' resolved to {} fonts", group.css_name, group.fonts.len());
}
// Step 2: Query which fonts to use for specific text
let text = "Hello 你好 Здравствуйте";
let font_runs = font_chain.query_for_text(&cache, text);
println!("\nText '{}' split into {} font runs:", text, font_runs.len());
for run in &font_runs {
println!(" '{}' -> font {:?}", run.text, run.font_id);
}
}
```
### Character-by-Character Font Resolution
For fine-grained control, use `resolve_text()` to get per-character font assignments:
```rust
use rust_fontconfig::{FcFontCache, FcWeight, PatternMatch};
fn main() {
let cache = FcFontCache::build();
let chain = cache.resolve_font_chain(
&["sans-serif".to_string()],
FcWeight::Normal,
PatternMatch::False,
PatternMatch::False,
&mut Vec::new(),
);
// Get font assignment for each character
let text = "Hello 世界";
let resolved = chain.resolve_text(&cache, text);
for (ch, font_info) in resolved {
match font_info {
Some((font_id, css_source)) => {
let font_name = cache.get_metadata_by_id(&font_id)
.and_then(|m| m.name.clone().or(m.family.clone()))
.unwrap_or_default();
println!("'{}' -> {} (from CSS '{}')", ch, font_name, css_source);
}
None => println!("'{}' -> NO FONT FOUND", ch),
}
}
}
```
### List All Fonts Matching a Pattern
```rust
use rust_fontconfig::{FcFontCache, FcWeight};
fn main() {
let cache = FcFontCache::build();
// List all fonts - filter by properties
let bold_fonts: Vec<_> = cache.list().into_iter()
.filter(|(pattern, _id)| {
matches!(pattern.weight, FcWeight::Bold | FcWeight::ExtraBold)
})
.collect();
println!("Found {} bold fonts:", bold_fonts.len());
for (pattern, id) in bold_fonts.iter().take(5) {
println!(" {:?}: {:?}", id, pattern.name.as_ref().or(pattern.family.as_ref()));
}
}
```
## Using from C
### Linking with the C API
The rust-fontconfig library provides C-compatible bindings that can be used from C/C++ applications.
#### Binary Downloads
You can download pre-built binary files from the [latest GitHub release](https://github.com/maps4print/rust-fontconfig/releases/latest):
- Windows: `rust_fontconfig.dll` and `rust_fontconfig.lib`
- macOS: `librust_fontconfig.dylib` and `librust_fontconfig.a`
- Linux: `librust_fontconfig.so` and `librust_fontconfig.a`
#### Building from Source
Alternatively, you can build the library from source:
```bash
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/maps4print/rust-fontconfig.git
cd rust-fontconfig
# Build with FFI support
cargo build --release --features ffi
# The generated libraries will be in target/release
```
#### Including in Your C Project
1. Copy the header file from `ffi/rust_fontconfig.h` to your include directory
2. Link against the static or dynamic library
3. Include the header file in your C code:
```c
#include "rust_fontconfig.h"
```
### Minimal C Example
```c
#include <stdio.h>
#include "rust_fontconfig.h"
int main() {
// Build the font cache
FcFontCache cache = fc_cache_build();
if (!cache) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to build font cache\n");
return 1;
}
// Create a pattern to search for Arial
FcPattern* pattern = fc_pattern_new();
fc_pattern_set_name(pattern, "Arial");
// Search for the font
FcTraceMsg* trace = NULL;
size_t trace_count = 0;
FcFontMatch* match = fc_cache_query(cache, pattern, &trace, &trace_count);
if (match) {
char id_str[40];
fc_font_id_to_string(&match->id, id_str, sizeof(id_str));
printf("Found font! ID: %s\n", id_str);
// Get the font path
FcFontPath* font_path = fc_cache_get_font_path(cache, &match->id);
if (font_path) {
printf("Font path: %s (index: %zu)\n", font_path->path, font_path->font_index);
fc_font_path_free(font_path);
}
fc_font_match_free(match);
} else {
printf("Font not found\n");
}
// Clean up
fc_pattern_free(pattern);
if (trace) fc_trace_free(trace, trace_count);
fc_cache_free(cache);
return 0;
}
```
For a more comprehensive example, see the [example.c](ffi/example.c) file included in the repository.
#### Compiling the C Example
On Linux:
```bash
gcc -I./include -L. -o font_example example.c -lrust_fontconfig
```
On macOS:
```bash
clang -I./include -L. -o font_example example.c -lrust_fontconfig
```
On Windows:
```bash
cl.exe /I./include /Fe:font_example.exe example.c rust_fontconfig.lib
```
## Performance
- cache building: ~90ms for ~530 fonts
- cache query: ~4µs
## Features
- **Font matching** by name, family, style properties, or Unicode ranges
- **CSS font-family resolution** with `resolve_font_chain()` for proper fallback handling
- **Per-character font resolution** with `chain.resolve_text()` for multilingual text
- **Font run grouping** with `chain.query_for_text()` for text shaping pipelines
- Support for font weights (thin, light, normal, bold, etc.)
- Support for font stretches (condensed, normal, expanded, etc.)
- In-memory font loading and caching
- Optional `no_std` support ("bring your own fonts" for WASM)
- C API for integration with non-Rust languages
## License
MIT