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You are here: Rendering > Resources
Short URL: https://scripts.sil.org/ViewGlyph_home

SIL ViewGlyph — Font Viewing Program

Bob Hallissy, 2009-10-31

Updated!

v1.81 2009-10-01: overflow error on startup fixed; new statistics added; auto-load Unicode cmap if present.

v1.80 2007-08-23: New features show font in right-to-left contexts

v1.79 2007-04-10: cmap overflow error (noticed with some Microsoft Vista fonts) now fixed.

What does SIL ViewGlyph allow me to do?

Among its most useful features, ViewGlyph allows you to see a font's contents through different eyes, so to speak. Want to know what the font looks like when used by a Unicode application? How about when the font is moved to a Macintosh? Or, suppose I have the multilingual extensions installed and want to know what a font looks like when viewed through a particular codepage? ViewGlyph can show you the raw glyph palette, which is useful if you are writing smarts (i.e. OpenType, Graphite, or AAT tables) for your font. You can view certain TrueType font tables (name and cmap) and see various font metrics. Finally, ViewGlyph is useful for investigating how Windows maps 8-bit characters into Unicode through various codepages.

To give you a feel for the program, here is a sample screenshot of the main window with some annotations:

SIL ViewGlyph main window with annotations



System requirements

ViewGlyph works best on Windows 2000 or later, but it will work (with some reduced functionality) on anything from Windows 95 forward. The primary areas of reduced functionality on Win 9x/ME are where Uniscribe is needed for the correct display of text. See the Readme for more details.

Tutorial

In addition to the documentation provided with the program (and available below as a separate download), there is a ViewGlyph tutorial walkthrough.

Downloads

Zip file containing installer for program and documentation

SIL ViewGlyph 1.81 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2009-10-31
Download "ViewGlyph_1_81.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [17422 downloads]

If you already have version 1.75 or later installed, you can download just the .exe file and copy it into your Program FilesSIL ViewGlyphfolder:

Just the ViewGlyph 1.81 executable for those who have 1.75 or later already installed
Bob Hallissy, 2009-10-31
Download "ViewGlyf.exe", Windows application, 324KB [5036 downloads]

Documentation only

The user documentation is installed with the program, but if you want to download it separately here it is:

SIL ViewGLyph v1.81 User Documentation
Bob Hallissy, 2009-10-31
Download "Readme.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 139KB [10449 downloads]

Older versions

In the event the latest fails to work for you...

SIL ViewGlyph 1.80 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2007-08-23
Download "ViewGlyph_1_80.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [4847 downloads]
SIL ViewGlyph 1.79 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2007-04-10
Download "ViewGlyph_1_79.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [3799 downloads]
SIL ViewGlyph 1.77 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2004-05-06
Download "ViewGlyph_1_77.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [6392 downloads]
SIL ViewGlyph 1.75 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2003-02-20
Download "ViewGlyph_1.75.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [5191 downloads]
SIL ViewGlyph 1.74 installer
Bob Hallissy, 2003-02-20
Download "ViewGlyph_1.74.zip", ZIP archive, 2MB [3885 downloads]

Version History

VersionDateNew or FixFeature
1.81.0000 1-Oct-2009 Fix Overflow error on startup (Saved window positions > 32K)
    New Made cmap window auto-load Unicode cmap if present
    New Additional otm* metrics in the font statistics
1.80.0000 23-Aug-2007 New Statusbar buttons to show Initial, Medial, Final and Isolate forms, and also to turn on right-to-left reading
1.79.0000 6-Apr-2007 Fix cmap overflow with some Vista fonts
1.77.0000 6-May-2004 New Home and End keys scroll chart
1.76.0000 12-May-2003 Fix Crashed on fonts with more than 32768 post names
1.75.0000 17-Feb-2003 New Support for supplemental plane chars ("surrogates")
    New Copy-to-clipboard from sample text window
    New Copy-to-clipboard permitted in any Unicode view (e.g., Mac Unicode)
    Fix Dragging certain objects over main window caused runtime error
    Fix Malformed cmap could put program in infinite loop
    Fix Did not handle fonts with multiple MacRoman cmaps
1.74.0000 09-Sep-2002 New Hex and decimal display of character and glyph codes
1.73.0000 09-Jul-2002 New Main window now fully sizable.
    New Options to control Chart and Text display APIs, including ability to suppress Uniscribe processing (via ETO_IGNORELANGUAGE)
    New Names window supports multiple-select and ctl-c copies selected items to the clipboard.
    Fix Corrected postscript names for Mac-std characters
    Fix Was not remembering font size when closed while viewing a font file.
1.72.0000 10-Dec-2001 Fix Print of Windows Character Set, for symbol fonts, gave error or incorrect results.

Version History

Support

As this program is distributed at no cost, I am unable to provide a commercial level of personal technical support. I am interested in hearing from you, however, and will try to resolve problems that are reported to me. You can send feedback to me here.


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