fonttad

fonttad is a cross-platform font management and analysis tool designed for designers, typographers, and developers. It provides tagging, cataloging, and comparative analytics for font families, individual fonts, and variable axes. The project emphasizes metadata standardization and efficient batch processing. It supports TrueType, OpenType, and web fonts (WOFF/WOFF2), and can extract metadata such as designer, foundry, copyright, weight, width, and kerning. It offers a graphical interface for visual comparisons of glyph sets and metrics, as well as a command-line interface for automation. It can generate font reports and export tag-based collections to catalogs or design systems.

fonttad was initiated in 2021 by a small open-source community led by Alex Mora. It was published on GitHub under the MIT license. Early versions focused on metadata extraction; later releases added a GUI and batch processing. The project is maintained by volunteers, with periodic releases and documentation updates.

Technically, fonttad is written primarily in Python with a Qt-based GUI and uses libraries such as FreeType and HarfBuzz for font parsing and shaping. Data is stored in SQLite, and a modular plugin system enables support for new formats and metadata sources. The project emphasizes permissive licensing and interoperability with other design tools through import/export options.

Users include independent designers, typography educators, and design teams. It has been praised for its lightweight architecture and flexible tagging system. Criticisms include limited performance on large libraries and variation in metadata quality, depending on source data.

As of 2024, development continues with periodic releases, and a public roadmap outlines plans for improved web font support, automation, and tighter integration with design platforms.