Core Text and Fonts

Features and techniques

Session 226
Ned Holbrook
Typographic Engineer

These are confidential sessionsplease refrain from streaming, blogging, or taking pictures

What You Will Learn

New features in Mountain Lion and iOS 6
Line bounds
Baseline alignment
Techniques
Vertical text
Font names, fallbacks, emoji
Avoiding common pitfalls

CoreText Overview
Fundamental framework for Unicode text layout and fonts
Available via:
AppKit (OS X)
Core Animation
UIKit (iOS)
WebKit

CoreText Overview
Availability

Leopard and iOS 3.2

Top-level framework on iOS and Mountain Lion

CoreText Overview
Deprecated OS X Frameworks

ATSUI (text layout)

ATS (font management)

New Features

Line Bounds
CTLineGetTypographicBounds()

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetTypographicBounds()

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetBoundsWithOptions(, 0)

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetBoundsWithOptions(, kCTLineBoundsUseOpticalBounds)

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetBoundsWithOptions(, kCTLineBoundsUseHangingPunctuation)

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetBoundsWithOptions(, kCTLineBoundsUseHangingPunctuation |
kCTLineBoundsUseOpticalBounds)

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
CTLineGetBoundsWithOptions(, kCTLineBoundsUseGlyphPathBounds)

Just the facts, maam.

Line Bounds
kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineBoundsOptions

Affects line edges during frame filling

Baseline Alignment
Better handling of mixed scripts

Hello

Baseline Alignment
Better handling of mixed scripts

Hello

Baseline Alignment
Better handling of mixed scripts

#$ World

Baseline Alignment
Better handling of mixed scripts

#$

World

Baseline Alignment
Typographic effects

Drop Caps

Baseline Alignment
Typographic effects

rop

aps

Baseline Alignment
Basics

Each font has multiple baselines

Each baseline is a vertical offset
Each glyph has a default baseline
Alignment uses the same baseline from two sets

Baseline Alignment
Basics, cont.

Parameters determined by string attributes

Reference established with kCTBaselineReferenceInfoAttributeName
Baselines to be moved use kCTBaselineInfoAttributeName
Baseline being aligned is kCTBaselineClassAttributeName

Baseline Alignment
Font Fallbacks
CTFontRef font;
NSMutableAttributedString *attrString;
NSRange range;
NSDictionary *referenceInfo = @{
(id)kCTBaselineReferenceFont : (id)font
};
[attrString addAttribute:(id)kCTBaselineReferenceInfoAttributeName
value:referenceInfo range:range];

Baseline Alignment
Specifying a Baseline
CTFontRef font, hangingFont;
NSMutableAttributedString *attrString;
NSRange range, wordRange;
NSDictionary *referenceInfo = @{
(id)kCTBaselineReferenceFont : (id)font
};
[attrString addAttribute:(id)kCTBaselineReferenceInfoAttributeName
value:referenceInfo range:range];
NSRange hangingRange = NSMakeRange(wordRange.location, 1);
[attrString addAttribute:(id)kCTBaselineClassAttributeName
value:(id)kCTBaselineClassHanging range:hangingRange];
[attrString addAttribute:(id)kCTFontAttributeName,
value:(id)hangingFont range:hangingRange];

Baseline Alignment
Specifying an Offset
CTFontRef font;
NSMutableAttributedString *attrString;
NSRange range;
NSDictionary *referenceInfo = @{
(id)kCTBaselineReferenceFont : (id)font,
(id)kCTBaselineClassHanging : @5.0
};
[attrString addAttribute:(id)kCTBaselineReferenceInfoAttributeName
value:referenceInfo range:range];

CTFontCollection
Lion improvements
Mutable collections
Easier to access font family members
Toll-free bridged with NSFontCollection
Preferred way to enumerate fonts

AAT and OpenType Features

New AAT features correspond to common OT features

For example, to enable pcap feature

CTFontRef font;
CTFontDescriptorRef descriptor = CTFontCopyFontDescriptor(font);
CTFontDescriptorRef pcapDescriptor =
CTFontDescriptorCreateCopyWithFeature(descriptor,
(CFNumberRef)[NSNumber numberWithInt:kLowerCaseType],
(CFNumberRef)[NSNumber numberWithInt:
kLowerCasePetiteCapsSelector]);
CTFontRef pcapFont = CTFontCreateWithFontDescriptor(pcapDescriptor,
0.0, NULL);

Bidirectional Text
kCTWritingDirectionAttributeName

Embedding or override

Advanced Topics

Vertical Text

Vertical Text
kCTVerticalFormsAttributeName = @YES

Vertical Text

kCTVerticalFormsAttributeName = @YES

Vertical Text

Rotate context

Vertical Text

Rotate context

Vertical Text
Use NSTextView or CTFramesetter if possible
Not using one of those?
Layout process is same as with horizontal text
Drawing is much, much different

Font Names
Fonts have many names

Example:

PostScript

TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT

Family

Times New Roman

Full/Display

Times New Roman Italic

Style

Italic

Font Names
Fonts have many names

Example:

PostScript

TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT

Family

Times New Roman

Full/Display

Times New Roman Italic

Style

Italic

Font Names
Fonts have many names

Example:

PostScript

TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT

Family

Times New Roman

Full/Display

Times New Roman Italic

Style

Italic

Font Names
Performance
CTFontCreateWithName() is currently too lenient

Will stop accepting non-PostScript names in future releases

iOS 6 adds logging to detect use of wrong name:

June 13 08:50:59 YourDevice YourApp[237] <Notice>: CoreText performance
note: Client requested font with PostScript name "HelveticaNeue" using name
"Helvetica Neue" instead.
June 13 08:50:59 YourDevice YourApp[237] <Notice>: CoreText performance
note: Set a breakpoint on CTLogSuboptimalRequest to debug.

Font Names
Specifying a non-PostScript name
NSDictionary *attributes = @{
(id)kCTFontFamilyNameAttribute : @"Times New Roman"
};
CTFontDescriptorRef descriptor = CTFontDescriptorCreateWithAttributes(
(CFDictionaryRef)attributes);
NSArray *matches =
(NSArray *)CTFontDescriptorCreateMatchingFontDescriptors(
descriptor, NULL);
if ([matches count] != 0) {
// at least one match found, first one would have been returned by
// CTFontDescriptorCreateMatchingFontDescriptor()
}

Fallback Fonts
Layout relies on fallback fonts
Augment system cascade using kCTFontCascadeListAttribute
Terminate fallback processing with font covering all characters
LastResort
Composite (CFR) fonts on Mountain Lion
/System/Library/DTDs/SplicedFont.dtd

Embedding Fonts
Fonts need not live in distinct files to be usable
On Mountain Lion or iOS
CGDataProviderRef provider = CGDataProviderCreateWithCFData(data);
CGFontRef cgFont = CGFontCreateWithDataProvider(provider);
CFErrorRef error = NULL;
if (CTFontManagerRegisterGraphicsFont(cgFont, &error)) {
// access font via font names
CTFontManagerUnregisterGraphicsFont(cgFont, NULL);
}

On Lion or higher

CTFontManagerCreateFontDescriptorFromData()

Emoji

Emoji

Emoji
Unification is a big problem

I Unicode

I Unicode

Emoji
Unicode 6.1 solutionvariation sequences

<U+2665>

???

<U+2665 U+FE0E>

<U+2665 U+FE0F>

Drawing Color Glyphs

Automatic with CTFrameDraw(), CTLineDraw(), and CTRunDraw()
Or use CTFontDrawGlyphs()

Analogous to CGContextShowGlyphsAtPositions()

Identifying Color Glyphs

CTFontRef font;
CGGlyph glyph;
CTFontSymbolicTraits symTraits = CTFontGetSymbolicTraits(font);
if ((symTraits & kCTFontTraitColorGlyphs) != 0) {
// font has color glyphs
CGPathRef path = CTFontCreatePathForGlyph(font, glyph, NULL);
if (path == NULL) {
// this is a color glyph
}
else {
// not a color glyph
CFRelease(path);
}
}

CGContext Drawing Parameters

CoreText only sets what it needs to
Most string attributes correspond to a particular parameter
Exception to the rulekCTForegroundColorAttributeName

Use kCTForegroundColorFromContextAttributeName

Synthesizing Styles
CoreText does not synthesize font styles (bold, italic)
Clients may choose to do something for compatibility reasons
Italic: Skewed font matrix
Bold: No best approach

More Information
Jake Behrens
UI Frameworks Evangelist
[email protected]

Documentation
Mac OS X Human Interface Guidelines
http://developer.apple.com/ue

Apple Developer Forums

http://devforums.apple.com

Related Sessions
Introduction to Attributed Strings for iOS

Mission
Wednesday 3:15PM

Advanced Attributed Strings for iOS

Mission
Thursday 10:15AM

Labs
Core Text Framework Lab

Essentials Lab B
Thursday 11:30AM

The last 3 slides

after the logo are
intentionally left
blank for all
presentations.

The last 3 slides

after the logo are
intentionally left
blank for all
presentations.

The last 3 slides

after the logo are
intentionally left
blank for all
presentations.