# Fonts

Displaying text requires a text rendering library and font assets. On Fuchsia, a
text rendering library needs to built into each runtime, but for fonts, runtimes
have the option of using assets provided by a Fuchsia system service.

Read more about:

- [Build-time font configuration](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts/build)
- [Font provider service](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts/provider)
- [Common font maintenance tasks](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts/tasks)

## Glossary

character
:   A symbol used in writing, as an abstract concept. For example, this refers
    to the *concept* of the "upper-case Latin letter A", *not* its
    [graphical representation](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts#gloss-glyph) as three connected lines, nor its
    assigned [Unicode code point](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts#gloss-code-point) of `0x41`, nor any possible
    encodings of it in memory or on disk.

code point
:   A value in the Unicode codespace, in the closed range `[0, 0x10FFFF]`.
    Assigned code points generally correspond to specific characters.

glyph
:   A vector or bitmap image that visually represents a character.

font family
:   A group of typefaces, typically in a variety of styles, sharing common
    design features. Examples include *Noto Sans* , *Noto Sans Mono* , *Arial* ,
    *Roboto* , *Times New Roman*, and thousands of others.

font file (or asset)

:   A file containing glyphs, a table mapping code points to glyphs, and other
    metadata required for rendering text.

    Font files can have a variety of formats (encodings). On Fuchsia, the most
    common font file format is TrueType (file extension `.ttf`). Fuchsia also
    uses TrueType Collection files (`.ttc`), which contain multiple typefaces in
    a single file.

generic font family

:   A general category of font families. The ones supported by Fuchsia are those
    listed in the
    [CSS spec](https://www.w3.org/TR/css-fonts-4/#generic-font-families):
    *serif* , *sans-serif* , *monospace* , *cursive* , *fantasy* , *emoji* , *math* ,
    and *fangsong*. Please see the CSS spec for detailed descriptions and
    examples.

style

:   A collection of visual properties of the glyphs of a typeface, such as
    width, slant (upright, italic, or oblique), and weight.

typeface

:   A collection of [glyphs](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts#gloss-glyph) sharing a common appearance, usually
    corresponding to a single font family, a set of [style](https://fuchsia.dev/fuchsia-src/development/internationalization/fonts#gloss-style)
    properties, and one or more supported scripts.

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