harfbuzz-raku.github.io

Description

The harfbuzz-raku project is focused on Raku binding to the HarfBuzz library and its functionality. In particular

• Text Shaping - The selection and positioning of glyphs to display text
• Font Subsetting - Reduction of a font to the set of used glyphs, e.g. for embedding in a PDF or for use as a web-page font.

Installation

The minimum supported version of harfbuzz is 3.0.0 for HarfBuzz::Subset, or 2.7.4 for other Raku HarfBuzz modules.

harbuzz 3.0.0+ is packaged on Debian 12+. Earlier Debian versions and other platforms may need to build from source.

$ cat /etc/debian_version # 12.0 or better
$ sudo apt install libharfbuzz-dev

To build from source:

wget -q https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/archive/8.1.1.tar.gz
tar xvzf 8.1.1.tar.gz
cd harfbuzz-8.1.1
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

The various HarfBuzz Raku modules can then be installed, using an appropriate module manager, such as zef. For example:

zef install HarfBuzz::Subset

Modules

HarfBuzz

Base HarfBuzz bindings. This distribution includes HarfBuzz::Shaper, which may be enough to perform basic shaping.

HarfBuzz::Font::FreeType

FreeType integration (via the Raku Font::FreeType module.

Note that HarfBuzz can load OpenType and TrueType format fonts directly. The FreeType integration most likely to be useful for other font formats, that can be loaded by Font::FreeType.

HarfBuzz::Shaper::Cairo

HarfBuzz/Cairo integration for glyph positioning and display.

HarfBuzz::Subset

Binding to HarfBuzz’s font-subsetting capabilities.