fonttry

Temporarily install fonts on macOS from any source format — without touching Font Book.

fonttry compiles and installs fonts into the current macOS session scope via CoreText. As soon as you hit Ctrl+C or close the terminal, the fonts are unregistered automatically. Your original files are never modified.

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Features

• One command to compile + install + uninstall
• Supports .otf, .ttf, .ufo, .designspace, .glyphs, .glyphx, .fontra
• Compiles via fontmake (UFO, Designspace, Glyphs) or the Fontra Python backend (Fontra)
• Choose output format with -o: ttf (default), otf (CFF2 for variable), or static with --instance
• Pre-flight checks before compiling multi-master sources:
  • detects missing glyphs per master
  • checks contour count, point structure and component compatibility
  • removes incompatible glyphs automatically so compilation doesn't fail
  • synchronises kerning and public.glyphOrder across masters
• Works in session scope: fonts are visible in any application on your system
• Cleans up stale workspaces from previous runs automatically
• Cleans up on Ctrl+C, SIGTERM or SIGHUP

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Requirements

• macOS (uses CoreText — Linux/Windows not supported)
• Python 3.10+
• Xcode Command Line Tools (for compiling the CoreText helper on first run):

  xcode-select --install
  

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Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install fonttry

This installs fontmake and all required dependencies. fonttry supports .otf, .ttf, .ufo, .designspace and .glyphs sources out of the box.

.fontra support (optional)

If you work with .fontra projects, one additional package is required. It has no PyPI release yet and must be installed directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/fontra/fontra-compile

You only need this if you intend to use fonttry with .fontra files.

From source

git clone https://github.com/typium/fonttry
cd fonttry
pip install -r requirements.txt   # includes fontra-compile from GitHub
pip install -e .

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Usage

# Binary fonts — install directly
fonttry MyFont.otf
fonttry MyFont.ttf

# UFO — compiles to TTF, then installs
fonttry MyFont.ufo

# Designspace — compiles to variable TTF by default
fonttry MyFamily.designspace

# Designspace — compile as variable CFF2 (OTF)
fonttry MyFamily.designspace -o otf

# Designspace — compile a specific named instance
fonttry MyFamily.designspace --instance "Regular"
fonttry MyFamily.designspace --instance "Regular" -o otf

# Glyphs file
fonttry MyFont.glyphs
fonttry MyFont.glyphs --instance "Bold"

# Fontra project (requires fontra-compile, see Installation)
fonttry MyFont.fontra

Output format (-o)

Flag	Variable source	Static (--instance or UFO)
(none)	variable TTF	TTF
-o ttf	variable TTF	TTF
-o otf	variable CFF2	OTF
-o variable-ttf	variable TTF	—
-o variable-otf	variable CFF2	—

Verbose mode

fonttry MyFamily.designspace --verbose

Shows all missing or incompatible glyphs without truncation.

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Terminal output

📋  Preparing workspace…
  → Workspace : /path/to/.fonttry_abc123

⚙  Compiling MyFamily.designspace…
  → fontmake --output-dir … -m MyFamily.designspace -o variable
  ✓  1 font(s) compiled

⬆  Temporary installation (Session scope)…
  ✓  MyFamily[wght].ttf

✓  1 active font(s) — visible in any application on your system.
   🔤  MyFamily Regular

   Ctrl+C to uninstall and quit.

Press Ctrl+C to uninstall and exit.

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How it works

1. Workspace — a hidden temp folder is created next to your source. Your original files are never touched. Stale workspaces from previous failed runs are cleaned up automatically.
2. Pre-flight (multi-master sources) — sources are checked for interpolation compatibility. Incompatible glyphs are removed from the workspace copy so compilation doesn't fail.
3. Compilation — fontmake is called for UFO, Designspace and Glyphs sources. Fontra sources are first exported to Designspace via the Fontra Python backend, then compiled with fontmake.
4. Staging — compiled fonts are copied to ~/Library/Application Support/fonttry/.
5. Registration — a small CoreText helper registers the fonts at session scope. Fonts are visible to all apps immediately, without admin rights, and disappear when the session ends.
6. Cleanup — on exit, the helper unregisters the fonts and the workspace is deleted.

The CoreText helper (fonthelper) is compiled from Objective-C on first run using clang. It is cached in the staging directory and reused on subsequent runs.

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Project structure

fonttry/
├── src/
│   └── fonttry/
│       ├── __init__.py       # version
│       ├── core.py           # all logic + CLI entry point
│       └── checks.py         # --lint quality checks
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── publish.yml       # publishes to PyPI on release
├── pyproject.toml            # build config + dependencies
├── requirements.txt          # includes fontra-compile (no PyPI release)
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── AUTHORS.txt
└── LICENSE

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Publishing a new version (maintainers)

1. Bump version in pyproject.toml and src/fonttry/__init__.py.
2. Update CHANGELOG.md.
3. Commit, tag and push:

   git tag v0.2.0
   git push origin v0.2.0
   

4. Create a GitHub Release from the tag → the publish.yml workflow uploads to PyPI automatically via trusted publishing (no API key required).

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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License

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.