# Font tools

## Overview

Font files provide the pixel patterns used for drawing characters. EPOC Release 5 defines a new plug-in architecture, called the Open Font System, to provide support for arbitrary font formats; these may be outline, vector, bitmap, etc. In particular, this lays the foundation for full support of scaleable fonts.

However, until font plug-ins have been released, developers should continue to work with EPOC’s own font store file format (`.gdr`).

Two methods can be used to produce a `.gdr` file:

- The most likely method to be used by third party developers involves coding the font specification as a `.gd` text file, see Font definition file. This file type can be compiled into a font store file, using the `fnttran` tool.
- Existing fonts, e.g. those licensed from a supplier in EFF versions 1 or 2 or legacy font formats (`.fsc`), can be converted into a `.gd` file using the `fontcomp` tool. The `.gd` file can then be compiled into the `.gdr` file using `fnttran`. Fonts in Adobe’s Bitmap Distribution Format (`.bdf` files) can also be used by `fnttran` directly, see Bitmap distribution format files.

The font tool reference material is contained in the topics:

- Font compiler — `fnttran.exe`
- Convert font file formats — `fontcomp.exe`
- Font definition file