pfbtops Command in Linux
The pfbtops command in Linux converts Portable Font Binary (PFB) files into a more human-readable PostScript Type 1 font format (PFA). PFB and PFA files are font formats used to store PostScript fonts, but they differ in encoding.
A PFB file is a compact, binary-encoded Type 1 font format used primarily on Windows, while a PFA file is a plain-text ASCII version of the same font, used mainly on Unix-like systems. The pfbtops simplifies converting PFB fonts to PFA format for compatibility with modern tools and workflows, supporting stream processing and line splitting.
Table of Contents
Here is a comprehensive guide to the options available with the pfbtops command −
- Installation of pfbtops Command
- Syntax of pfbtops Command
- pfbtops Command Options
- Examples of pfbtops Command in Linux
Installation of pfbtops Command
The pfbtops command is a part of the GNU troff package also known as groff. It is a text formatting and typesetting system for creating high-quality documents, including Unix/Linux manual pages. To use the pfbtops command in Linux the groff package must be installed.
To install groff on Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Raspberry Pi OS, Debian, and Debian-based distributions, use the command given below −
sudo apt install groff
To install it on Arch Linux, use −
sudo pacman -S groff
To install groff on CentOS, use the command given below −
sudo yum install groff
To install groff on Fedora, use the following command −
sudo dnf install groff
To verify the installation of the pfbtops command in Linux, check its version −
pfbtops -v
Syntax of pfbtops Command
The syntax of the Linux pfbtops command is as follows −
pfbtops [pfb-file]
In the above syntax, the [pfb-file] field is used to specify the PFB file that needs to be converted into PFA format.
pfbtops Command Options
The options of the pfbtops command are listed below −
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| --help | To display a brief help about the tool |
| -v / --version | To display the command version |
Examples of pfbtops Command in Linux
In this section, the usage of pfbtops command in Linux will be discussed with examples −
Converting a PFB to a PFA File
To convert a PFB file to PFA, use the pfbtops command with the PFB file name −
pfbtops myfont.pfb
The above command displays the PFA data in the standard output as shown in the image above.
Converting a PFB to a PFA File and Storing Output to a File
By default, the pfbtops command translates the PFB file and displays the PFA data in the standard output. To store it in a file, use the redirection operator (>) −
pfbtops myfont.pfb > output.pfa
Reading PFB Data from Standard Input and Converting to a PFA File
If the PFB file is not specified then the pfbtops command can read PFB data from standard input using a pipe (|) operator −
cat myfont.pfb | pfbtops myfont.pfb > output.pfa
Extracting Font Properties and Meta from PFA Data
To extract specific font property or metadata from the pfbtops command output, use the grep command and specify the property name. For example, to extract the font name, use the pfbtops command in the following way −
pfbtops < myfont.pfb | grep FontName
Other properties that can be extracted are listed below −
- FontType
- FontMatrix
- FontBBox
- PaintType
- FontInfo
- version
- Fullname
- FamilyName
- FSType
- ItalicAngle
- UnderlinePosition
- UnderlineThickness
Displaying Help
To display a brief help related to the tool, use the --help option −
pfbtops --help
Conclusion
The pfbtops command in Linux converts the Portable Font Binary (PFB) files into the more human-readable PostScript Type 1 font format (PFA).
By installing the groff package, pfbtops can be used to ensure compatibility with modern tools and workflows. This command helps convert, store, and extract specific font properties from PFB files, supporting efficient font management on Unix-like systems.