Glyphsto

glyphsto is a community-driven framework and repository for glyph assets designed to streamline the design, storage, and exchange of glyph shapes across font formats. It provides a centralized reference of glyph designs and an ecosystem of tools to manage vector outlines, metadata, and licensing, enabling designers, font engineers, and typesetting systems to collaborate more efficiently.

Its data model records vector outlines, composite glyphs, ligatures, diacritics, color layers, and rendered variants, together with metadata such as designer, license, script, Unicode code points, metrics, and hints. The model is designed to be font-format agnostic, with adapters for OpenType, SVG fonts, and variable fonts.

Key components include a web-based glyph registry, a client library, and command-line tools. The Glyphsto Interchange Protocol (GIP) governs data exchange, supporting JSON schemas for glyph records and binary assets for outlines. The Glyphsto Editor provides an inline design canvas and export pipelines, while the Glyphsto Converter translates glyph data between formats.

Licensing is typically permissive to encourage reuse, with governance based on an open-source model and community contributions. Projects using glyphsto assets are encouraged to attach provenance and licensing information to reduce ambiguity around derivatives and licensing terms.

Impact and reception have been mixed in real-world typography. Proponents see glyphsto as a potential standard for asset sharing and collaboration, while critics note the fragmentation of existing tools and the challenge of harmonizing font-technology specifications.