Font Conversion. Advanced details | Aspose.Font for .NET

In some cases, there is a sense to read/modify converted font data before saving the font.

Method Aspose.Font.Font.Convert(FontType fontType) was designed for such cases. This method converts a font into the type specified and returns the object inherited from Aspose.Font.Font class which corresponds to FontType value, passed into Convert() method.

The next table shows a map of coherence between FontType values and objects, inherited from the base Aspose.Font.Font class.

Font type	Font object
TTF	Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont
Type1	Aspose.Font.Type1.Type1Font
CFF	Aspose.Font.Cff.CffFont
OTF	Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont

Use resultant font object to access/change font properties before saving resultant font or instead of saving resultant font.

At the current moment method Convert() supports conversion only into TrueType font format (FontType.TTF), so it always returns the object of type TtfFont as result of conversion independently of source font used.

Next code snippet loads CFF font CenturyGothic from disk, converts it into TrueType format, and changes the name of the converted font to “CenturyGothic_Converted”.

Fulfill the next actions:

1. Load the source CFF font –

   • Build the absolute path to the source file using the data directory constant:

     string fontPath = Path.Combine(DataDir, "CenturyGothic.cff");

     This ensures the correct file location regardless of the operating system.
   • Create a FontFileDefinition that tells Aspose.Font the physical file format ("cff") and provides a stream source for the file:

     var fontFileDef = new FontFileDefinition("cff", new FileSystemStreamSource(fontPath));

   • Build a FontDefinition that combines the desired font type (FontType.CFF) with the previously created fontFileDef:

     var fontDefinition = new FontDefinition(FontType.CFF, fontFileDef);

   • Open the font using Font.Open(fontDefinition). The method returns a generic Font instance that represents the loaded CFF font and can be used for further conversion steps.

2. Convert the font to TrueType –

   • Invoke the conversion method on the previously loaded Font object:

     Aspose.Font.Font convertedFont = font.Convert(FontType.TTF);

   • The Convert method reads the source CFF data, applies the conversion algorithm, and returns a new Aspose.Font.Font instance that internally represents a TrueType font (TtfFont).
   • This generic convertedFont can be further cast to the concrete Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont type to access TrueType‑specific properties.

3. Cast the result to the concrete TrueType class and rename –

   • Safely cast the generic convertedFont to the concrete TrueType class:

     Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont destFont = convertedFont as Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont;

   • Verify that the cast succeeded (destFont != null). If the cast fails, handle the error accordingly.
   • Set a new name for the converted font:

     destFont.FontName = "CenturyGothic_Converted";

   • This updates the internal font name metadata, which will be reflected in the saved file.

4. Prepare the output file path –

   • Choose the desired output file name, e.g., "CffToTtf_out.ttf".
   • Build the full output path using the output directory constant:

     string outPath = Path.Combine(OutputDir, "CffToTtf_out.ttf");

   • Path.Combine ensures correct path separators across platforms and concatenates the directory and file name safely.

5. Save the converted TrueType font –

   • Persist the renamed TrueType font to disk:

     destFont.Save(outPath);

   • After saving, you can optionally verify that the file was created:

     bool exists = System.IO.File.Exists(outPath);

   • Logging the outPath or the existence check helps confirm successful conversion and saving.

 
    // Open cff font
    string fontPath = Path.Combine(DataDir, "CenturyGothic.cff");
    FontDefinition fontDefinition = new FontDefinition(FontType.CFF, new FontFileDefinition("cff", new FileSystemStreamSource(fontPath)));
    Font font = Font.Open(fontDefinition);

    // Convert font into TrueType format and cast font returned to Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont
    Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont destFont = font.Convert(FontType.TTF) as Aspose.Font.Ttf.TtfFont;

    // Change name of converted font
    destFont.FontName = "CenturyGothic_Converted";

    // Ttf output settings
    string outPath = Path.Combine(OutputDir, "CffToTtf_out.ttf");

    // Save resultant font with font name changed
    destFont.Save(outPath);

The full range of examples for using Aspose.Font for.NET is placed in Aspose.Font.Examples.sln solution, in the net-examples folder of the Aspose.Font Documentation github repository.