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Unified Font Object

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Unified Font Object (UFO)
Filename extension
.ufo, .ufoz
Developed byTal Leming, Just van Rossum, Erik van Blokland, Ben Kiel, Frederik Berlaen
Initial releaseUFO 1
Latest release
UFO 3
Type of format macOS Package, XML, Property List
Free format?Yes
Websitehttp://unifiedfontobject.org

The Unified Font Object (UFO) is an XML-based source file format for digital fonts. It was created by Tal Leming, Just van Rossum and Erik van Blokland[1]. Contributors to the format also include Ben Kiel and Frederik Berlaen[1]. UFO is a "future proof" open format that is designed to be "application independent" and "human readable and human editable"[2].

History

The first UFO format ("UFO 1") was written by Tal Leming, Just van Rossum and Erik van Blokland in 2004[2], and presented to the public at the Robothon conference, held in The Hague in 2005. Since then there have been 2 revisions to the format, with version 4 ("UFO 4") in progress[2].

Technical Format

On macOS, the UFO appears as a package; a file system directory that presents as a single file. On Windows and other operating systems, it appears to be a file system directory containing Property List files and XML files.

Use in Programming

The UFO file format translates easily to object-based representation[3] in code. Popular libraries for accessing UFO data include the following:

Python Libraries

  • RoboFab, the first python library written specifically to access UFO data, by Leming, van Rossum, van Blokland, Kiel and others[4], now defunct.
  • FontParts, the successor to RoboFab, by Kiel, Leming, et al[5].
  • FontTools, a library for accessing font data started by van Rossum, maintained by Behdad Esfahbod, Cosimo Lupo, et al[6]. Contains ufoLib, originally a separate library for reading and writing UFO files. It was merged into the library in on 18 October, 2018[7]

Libraries in Other Languages

  • ufoJS (JavaScript), by Lasse Fister[8].
  • Norad (Rust), by Nikolaus Waxweiler and Colin Rofls, et al[9].
  • UFOKit (Swift), by David Schweinsberg[10].

Reception

The font editing program RoboFont uses UFO as its only source file format[11]. Other font editing programs, such as Glyphs[12], FontLab 7[13] and FontForge[14] can read and write the UFO format natively.

The UFO format is a popular choice among open source font projects, because the text-based format is compatible with version control systems like Git[15]. Open source font projects that have used UFO as their main format include Adobe's Source Sans Pro[16], Source Code Pro[17] and Source Serif Pro[18], and the IBM Plex superfamily[19]. Parts of the Noto fonts project are available in the UFO format[20].

A common criticism of the format is that its structure (of sometimes hundreds of files) does not work well with online file hosting services like Dropbox[21]. This criticism led to the creation of the "UFOZ" format, which compresses a UFO (version 3 and up) into a single ZIP archive and makes it easier to sync.

References

  1. ^ a b "Contributors". unifiedfontobject.org. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  2. ^ a b c "Overview". unifiedfontobject.org. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  3. ^ Beckmann, Tom (2019). The font engineering platform collaborative font creation in a self-supporting programming environment. Justus Hildebrand, Corinna Jaschek, Eva Krebs, Alexander Löser, Marcel Taeumel, Tobias Pape. Potsdam. p. 72. ISBN 978-3-86956-464-7. OCLC 1169672607.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ "Contributors to robotools/robofab". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  5. ^ "Contributors to robotools/fontParts". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  6. ^ "Contributors to fonttools/fonttools". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  7. ^ "merge ufoLib into fontTools.ufoLib by anthrotype · Pull Request #1335 · fonttools/fonttools". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  8. ^ "Contributors to graphicore/ufoJS". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  9. ^ "Contributors to linebender/norad". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  10. ^ "Contributors to dcsch/ufokit". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  11. ^ RoboFont. "Welcome to RoboFont!". robofont.com. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  12. ^ "Working with UFO | Glyphs". glyphsapp.com. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  13. ^ "Font Formats". help.fontlab.com. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  14. ^ "Technical Bulletin: UFO 3 Export". fontforge.org. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  15. ^ "LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 29, 2013 [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  16. ^ "adobe-fonts/source-sans-pro". GitHub. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  17. ^ adobe-fonts/source-code-pro, Adobe Fonts, 2020-05-28, retrieved 2020-05-28
  18. ^ "adobe-fonts/source-serif-pro". GitHub. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  19. ^ IBM/plex, International Business Machines, 2020-05-28, retrieved 2020-05-28
  20. ^ Liputan6.com (2020-11-25). "Inisiatif Google Melestarikan Bahasa Terancam Punah Lewat Noto Font". liputan6.com (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2021-11-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Simonson, Mark (2014-06-12). "I didn't quite realize until recently: .ufo + Dropbox kind of sucks". @marksimonson. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
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