hershey - a Go package for Hershey vector font data

Overview

The Hershey fonts are a convenient set of definitions of vector font data. This package provides a Go API to use them.

Getting started

The hershey package is bundled with an example program that shows most of the features of the package. For example:

$ git clone https://github.com/tinkerator/hershey.git
$ cd hershey
$ go run examples/query.go --banner="Read Me!"
         V                                                                                                                                   
 ............................................................................................................................................
 ............................................................................................................................................
 .############.........................................................#.......................#...............#..........................#..
 .#...........#........................................................#.......................#..............##..........................#..
 .#............#.......................................................#.......................#..............##..........................#..
 .#............#.......................................................#.......................##............#.#..........................#..
 .#.............#......................................................#.......................##............#.#..........................#..
 .#.............#......................................................#.......................##............#.#..........................#..
 .#.............#......................................................#.......................#.#..........#..#..........................#..
 .#............#...........#####.............#####..#...........#####..#.......................#.#..........#..#...........#####..........#..
 .#............#.........##.....#..........##.....#.#.........##.....#.#.......................#..#........#...#.........##.....#.........#..
 .#...........#.........#........#........#........##........#........##.......................#..#........#...#........#........#........#..
 .############.........#.........#.......#..........#.......#..........#.......................#..#........#...#.......#.........#........#..
 .#......#............#...........#.....#...........#......#...........#.......................#...#......#....#......#...........#.......#..
>.#.......#...........#...........#.....#...........#......#...........#.......................#...#......#....#......#...........#.......#..
 .#.......#...........#############.....#...........#......#...........#.......................#...#......#....#......#############.......#..
 .#........#..........#.................#...........#......#...........#.......................#....#....#.....#......#...................#..
 .#.........#.........#.................#...........#......#...........#.......................#....#....#.....#......#......................
 .#.........#.........#.................#...........#......#...........#.......................#.....#..#......#......#......................
 .#..........#........#.................#...........#......#...........#.......................#.....#..#......#......#......................
 .#...........#........#..........#......#..........#.......#..........#.......................#.....#..#......#.......#..........#..........
 .#...........#.........#........#........#........##........#........##.......................#......##.......#........#........#........#..
 .#............#.........##.....#..........##.....#.#.........##.....#.#.......................#......##.......#.........##.....#........#.#.
 .#.............#..........#####.............#####..#...........#####..#.......................#.......#.......#...........#####..........#..
 ............................................................................................................................................
 ............................................................................................................................................

You can list the known fonts (mapped to utf8 encoding) as follows:

$ go build examples/query.go
$ ./query --ls
2025/05/16 06:09:11 known fonts: ["astrology" "cursive" "futural" "futuram" "gothgbt" "gothgrt" "gothiceng" "gothicger" "gothicita" "gothitt" "rowmand" "rowmans" "rowmant" "scriptc" "scripts" "symbolic" "timesg" "timesi" "timesib" "timesr" "timesrb"]

Full help is availble with the --help option. Examples:

$ ./query --glyph=33

glyph 33: (-5,-13), (5,10)
      V      
 ............
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
>.....#......
 .....#......
 .....#......
 ............
 ............
 ............
 ............
 .....#......
 ....#.#.....
 .....#......
 ............
$ ./query --scan
... the full list of known glyphs in the default font (rowmans) ...

The original font data, in .jhf format, can be found in the jhfdata/hershey/ directory.

The query tool can also be used (with go1.24+) to convert these files from their original encoding to utf8 encoding using the translation files in the utf8 directory. For example, this will regenerate the fonts/rowmans.jhf file:

$ ./query --dir jhfdata/hershey --font rowmans --xlate utf8 --dest fonts
2025/05/11 16:30:41 wrote "fonts/rowmans.jhf"

Please feel free to contribute fixes to the utf8 translation files and add support for more fonts.

Bug reports and feature requests

The hershey package has been developed purely out of self-interest and offers no guarantee of fixes/support. That being said, if you would like to suggest a feature addition or suggest a fix, please use the bug tracker.

License information

The Hershey data (everything in the jhfdata/ sub-directory) has a very permissive license, covered by the file jhfdata/hershey/hershey.txt file. See the jhfdata/README.md for the lineage of this data.

For the rest of this package, see the LICENSE file: the same BSD 3-clause license as that used by golang itself.