Fonts & text
A font is (in simple terms) a collection of shapes used to draw text.
A glyph is one of these shapes.
There can be multiple glyphs for the same character
(alternates to be used in different contexts, for example),
or a glyph can be a ligature of multiple characters.
Converting text to positioned glyphs is shaping.
Cairo itself provides a “toy” text API that only does simple shaping:
no ligature or kerning;
one glyph per character,
positioned by moving the cursor by the X and Y advance of each glyph.
It is expected that most applications will need to
use Pango or a similar library in conjunction with cairo
for more comprehensive font handling and text layout.
Font faces
Note
At the moment cairocffi only supports cairo’s “toy” font selection API.
FontFace
objects of other types could be obtained
eg. from Context.get_font_face()
,
but they can not be instantiated directly.
Enumerated values
Some parameters or return values in the cairo API
only have a fixed, finite set of valid values.
These are represented as enumerated types in C, and as integers in CFFI.
Users are encouraged to use the constants defined here
in the cairocffi
module
rather than literal integers.
For example:
surface = cairocffi.ImageSurface(cairocffi.FORMAT_ARGB32, 300, 400)
Content
Used to describe the content that a Surface
will contain,
whether color information, alpha information (translucence vs. opacity),
or both.
-
cairocffi.CONTENT_COLOR
The surface will hold color content only.
-
cairocffi.CONTENT_ALPHA
The surface will hold alpha content only.
-
cairocffi.CONTENT_COLOR_ALPHA
The surface will hold color and alpha content.
Compositiong operator
Used to set the compositing operator for all cairo drawing operations.
The default operator is OPERATOR_OVER
.
The operators marked as unbounded modify their destination
even outside of the mask layer
(that is, their effect is not bound by the mask layer).
However, their effect can still be limited by way of clipping.
To keep things simple, the operator descriptions here
document the behavior for when both source and destination are either
fully transparent or fully opaque.
The actual implementation works for translucent layers too.
For a more detailed explanation of the effects of each operator,
including the mathematical definitions,
see http://cairographics.org/operators/.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_CLEAR
Clear destination layer. (bounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_SOURCE
Replace destination layer. (bounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_OVER
Draw source layer on top of destination layer. (bounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_IN
Draw source where there was destination content. (unbounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_OUT
Draw source where there was no destination content. (unbounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_ATOP
Draw source on top of destination content and only there.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DEST
Ignore the source.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DEST_OVER
Draw destination on top of source.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DEST_IN
Leave destination only where there was source content. (unbounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DEST_OUT
Leave destination only where there was no source content.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DEST_ATOP
Leave destination on top of source content and only there. (unbounded)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_XOR
Source and destination are shown where there is only one of them.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_ADD
Source and destination layers are accumulated.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_SATURATE
Like OPERATOR_OVER
,
but assuming source and destination are disjoint geometries.
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_MULTIPLY
Source and destination layers are multiplied.
This causes the result to be at least as dark as the darker inputs.
(Since 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_SCREEN
Source and destination are complemented and multiplied.
This causes the result to be at least as light as the lighter inputs.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_OVERLAY
Multiplies or screens, depending on the lightness of the destination color.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DARKEN
Replaces the destination with the source if it is darker,
otherwise keeps the source. (Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_LIGHTEN
Replaces the destination with the source if it is lighter,
otherwise keeps the source. (Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_COLOR_DODGE
Brightens the destination color to reflect the source color.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_COLOR_BURN
Darkens the destination color to reflect the source color.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_HARD_LIGHT
Multiplies or screens, dependent on source color. (Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_SOFT_LIGHT
Darkens or lightens, dependent on source color. (Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_DIFFERENCE
Takes the difference of the source and destination color.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_EXCLUSION
Produces an effect similar to difference, but with lower contrast.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_HSL_HUE
Creates a color with the hue of the source
and the saturation and luminosity of the target. (Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_HSL_SATURATION
Creates a color with the saturation of the source
and the hue and luminosity of the target.
Painting with this mode onto a gray area produces no change.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_HSL_COLOR
Creates a color with the hue and saturation of the source
and the luminosity of the target.
This preserves the gray levels of the target
and is useful for coloring monochrome images or tinting color images.
(Since cairo 1.10)
-
cairocffi.OPERATOR_HSL_LUMINOSITY
Creates a color with the luminosity of the source
and the hue and saturation of the target.
This produces an inverse effect to OPERATOR_HSL_COLOR
.
(Since cairo 1.10)
Antialiasing mode
Specifies the type of antialiasing to do when rendering text or shapes.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_DEFAULT
Use the default antialiasing for the subsystem and target device.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_NONE
Use a bilevel alpha mask.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_GRAY
Perform single-color antialiasing.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_SUBPIXEL
Perform antialiasing by taking advantage of the order
of subpixel elements on devices such as LCD panels.
As it is not necessarily clear from the above what advantages
a particular antialias method provides,
since cairo 1.12, there is also a set of hints:
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_FAST
Allow the backend to degrade raster quality for speed.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_GOOD
A balance between speed and quality.
-
cairocffi.ANTIALIAS_BEST
A high-fidelity, but potentially slow, raster mode.
These make no guarantee on how the backend will perform its rasterisation
(if it even rasterises!),
nor that they have any differing effect other than to enable
some form of antialiasing.
In the case of glyph rendering,
ANTIALIAS_FAST
and ANTIALIAS_GOOD
will be mapped to ANTIALIAS_GRAY
,
with ANTIALIAS_BEST
being equivalent to ANTIALIAS_SUBPIXEL
.
The interpretation of ANTIALIAS_DEFAULT
is left entirely up to
the backend, typically this will be similar to ANTIALIAS_GOOD
.
Fill rule
Used to select how paths are filled.
For both fill rules, whether or not a point is included in the fill
is determined by taking a ray from that point to infinity
and looking at intersections with the path.
The ray can be in any direction,
as long as it doesn’t pass through the end point of a segment
or have a tricky intersection such as intersecting tangent to the path.
(Note that filling is not actually implemented in this way.
This is just a description of the rule that is applied.)
The default fill rule is FILL_RULE_WINDING
.
New entries may be added in future versions.
-
cairocffi.FILL_RULE_WINDING
If the path crosses the ray fromleft-to-right, counts +1.
If the path crosses the rayfrom right to left, counts -1.
(Left and right are determined from the perspective
of looking along the ray from the starting point.)
If the total count is non-zero, the point will be filled.
-
cairocffi.FILL_RULE_EVEN_ODD
Counts the total number of intersections,
without regard to the orientation of the contour.
If the total number of intersections is odd, the point will be filled.
Line cap style
Specifies how to render the endpoints of the path when stroking.
The default line cap style is LINE_CAP_BUTT
.
-
cairocffi.LINE_CAP_BUTT
Start (stop) the line exactly at the start (end) point.
-
cairocffi.LINE_CAP_ROUND
Use a round ending, the center of the circle is the end point.
-
cairocffi.LINE_CAP_SQUARE
Use squared ending, the center of the square is the end point.
Line join style
Specifies how to render the junction of two lines when stroking.
The default line join style is LINE_JOIN_MITER
.
-
cairocffi.LINE_JOIN_MITER
Use a sharp (angled) corner, see Context.set_miter_limit()
.
-
cairocffi.LINE_JOIN_ROUND
Use a rounded join, the center of the circle is the joint point.
-
cairocffi.LINE_JOIN_BEVEL
Use a cut-off join, the join is cut off at half the line width
from the joint point.
Font slant
Specifies variants of a font face based on their slant.
-
cairocffi.FONT_SLANT_NORMAL
Upright font style.
-
cairocffi.FONT_SLANT_ITALIC
Italic font style.
-
cairocffi.FONT_SLANT_OBLIQUE
Oblique font style.
Font weight
Specifies variants of a font face based on their weight.
-
cairocffi.FONT_WEIGHT_NORMAL
Normal font weight.
-
cairocffi.FONT_WEIGHT_BOLD
Bold font weight.
Subpixel order
The subpixel order specifies the order of color elements within each pixel
on the display device when rendering with an antialiasing mode of
ANTIALIAS_SUBPIXEL
.
-
cairocffi.SUBPIXEL_ORDER_DEFAULT
Use the default subpixel order for for the target device.
-
cairocffi.SUBPIXEL_ORDER_RGB
Subpixel elements are arranged horizontally with red at the left.
-
cairocffi.SUBPIXEL_ORDER_BGR
Subpixel elements are arranged horizontally with blue at the left.
-
cairocffi.SUBPIXEL_ORDER_VRGB
Subpixel elements are arranged vertically with red at the top.
-
cairocffi.SUBPIXEL_ORDER_VBGR
Subpixel elements are arranged vertically with blue at the top.
Hint style
Specifies the type of hinting to do on font outlines.
Hinting is the process of fitting outlines to the pixel grid
in order to improve the appearance of the result.
Since hinting outlines involves distorting them,
it also reduces the faithfulness to the original outline shapes.
Not all of the outline hinting styles are supported by all font backends.
New entries may be added in future versions.
-
cairocffi.HINT_STYLE_DEFAULT
Use the default hint style for font backend and target device.
-
cairocffi.HINT_STYLE_NONE
Do not hint outlines.
-
cairocffi.HINT_STYLE_SLIGHT
Hint outlines slightly to improve contrast
while retaining good fidelity to the original shapes.
-
cairocffi.HINT_STYLE_MEDIUM
Hint outlines with medium strength
giving a compromise between fidelity to the original shapes and contrast.
-
cairocffi.HINT_STYLE_FULL
Hint outlines to maximize contrast.
Metrics hinting mode
Specifies whether to hint font metrics;
hinting font metrics means quantizing them
so that they are integer values in device space.
Doing this improves the consistency of letter and line spacing,
however it also means that text will be laid out differently
at different zoom factors.
-
cairocffi.HINT_METRICS_DEFAULT
Hint metrics in the default manner for the font backend and target device.
-
cairocffi.HINT_METRICS_OFF
Do not hint font metrics.
-
cairocffi.HINT_METRICS_ON
Hint font metrics.
Path operation
Used to describe the type of one portion of a path when represented as a list.
See Context.copy_path()
for details.
-
cairocffi.PATH_MOVE_TO
-
cairocffi.PATH_LINE_TO
-
cairocffi.PATH_CURVE_TO
-
cairocffi.PATH_CLOSE_PATH
Pattern extend
Used to describe how pattern color/alpha will be determined
for areas “outside” the pattern’s natural area,
(for example, outside the surface bounds or outside the gradient geometry).
Mesh patterns are not affected by the extend mode.
The default extend mode is
EXTEND_NONE
for SurfacePattern
and EXTEND_PAD
for Gradient
patterns.
New entries may be added in future versions.
-
cairocffi.EXTEND_NONE
Pixels outside of the source pattern are fully transparent.
-
cairocffi.EXTEND_REPEAT
The pattern is tiled by repeating.
-
cairocffi.EXTEND_REFLECT
The pattern is tiled by reflecting at the edges.
-
cairocffi.EXTEND_PAD
Pixels outside of the pattern copy the closest pixel from the source.
Pixel filter
Used to indicate what filtering should be applied
when reading pixel values from patterns.
See Pattern.set_filter()
for indicating the desired filter
to be used with a particular pattern.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_FAST
A high-performance filter,
with quality similar to FILTER_NEAREST
.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_GOOD
A reasonable-performance filter,
with quality similar to FILTER_BILINEAR
.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_BEST
The highest-quality available,
performance may not be suitable for interactive use.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_NEAREST
Nearest-neighbor filtering.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_BILINEAR
Linear interpolation in two dimensions.
-
cairocffi.FILTER_GAUSSIAN
This filter value is currently unimplemented,
and should not be used in current code.
PDF version
Used to describe the version number of the PDF specification
that a generated PDF file will conform to.
-
cairocffi.PDF_VERSION_1_4
The version 1.4 of the PDF specification.
-
cairocffi.PDF_VERSION_1_5
The version 1.5 of the PDF specification.
PDF outline
Used to specify the attributes of an outline item. These flags may be
bitwise-or’d to produce any combination of flags.
New in cairo 1.16.
New in cairocffi 0.9.
-
cairocffi.PDF_OUTLINE_FLAG_OPEN
The outline item defaults to open in the PDF viewer.
-
cairocffi.PDF_OUTLINE_FLAG_BOLD
The outline item is displayed by the viewer in bold text.
-
cairocffi.PDF_OUTLINE_FLAG_ITALIC
The outline item is displayed by the viewer in italic text.
There’s also a constant used to specify the root level for outlines.
-
cairocffi.PDF_OUTLINE_ROOT
Root level for outlines.
PostScript level
Used to describe the language level of the PostScript Language Reference
that a generated PostScript file will conform to.
-
cairocffi.PS_LEVEL_2
The language level 2 of the PostScript specification.
-
cairocffi.PS_LEVEL_3
The language level 3 of the PostScript specification.
SVG version
Used to describe the version number of the SVG specification
that a generated SVG file will conform to.
-
cairocffi.SVG_VERSION_1_1
The version 1.1 of the SVG specification.
-
cairocffi.SVG_VERSION_1_2
The version 1.2 of the SVG specification.
SVG unit
Used to describe the units valid for coordinates and lengths in the SVG
specification.
See also:
New in cairo 1.16.
New in cairocffi 0.9.
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_USER
User unit, a value in the current coordinate system. If used in the root
element for the initial coordinate systems it corresponds to pixels.
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_EM
The size of the element’s font.
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_EX
The x-height of the element’s font.
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_PX
Pixels (1px = 1/96th of 1in).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_IN
Inches (1in = 2.54cm = 96px).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_CM
Centimeters (1cm = 96px/2.54).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_MM
Millimeters (1mm = 1/10th of 1cm).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_PT
Points (1pt = 1/72th of 1in).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_PC
Picas (1pc = 1/6th of 1in).
-
cairocffi.SVG_UNIT_PERCENT
Percent, a value that is some fraction of another reference value.
Cluster flags
Specifies properties of a text cluster mapping.
Flags are integer values representing a bit field.
-
cairocffi.TEXT_CLUSTER_FLAG_BACKWARD = 0x00000001
The clusters in the cluster array
map to glyphs in the glyph array from end to start. (Since 1.8)