How can I change a font name (not the ttf filename, but the actual font name)?
For example, I want to rename "Tahoma" to "Tahoma7".
My goal is to rename the Tahoma font installed on Windows 7 and install it on Windows XP under different name, so I will have both Tahoma fonts installed on a single operating system. The two fonts are slightly different, and I'd like to have them both.
FontForge may be of use:
FontForge -- An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another. FontForge has support for many macintosh font formats.
TTX is a command line tool and can be make it pretty simple to change a font's name. There's a tutorial on how to do exactly that here: http://www.fontgeek.net/blog/?p=343
Download TTX as part of fonttools
-
To rename the internal font name of a TrueType font (.ttf) without installing GUI-based third-party software, you can use Python and the fonttools library.
Install fonttools:
pip install fonttools
Create a Python Script:
Create a script named rename_font.py:
cat <<EOF > rename_font.py
from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont
import sys
def rename_font(input_path, output_path, new_name):
font = TTFont(input_path)
for record in font['name'].names:
if record.nameID in [1, 4, 6]: # Family name, Full name, PostScript name
record.string = new_name.encode(record.getEncoding())
font.save(output_path)
if name == "main":
if len(sys.argv) != 4:
print("Usage: rename_font.py <input_path> <output_path> <new_name>")
sys.exit(1)
rename_font(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])
EOF
python rename_font.py Tahoma.ttf Tahoma7.ttf "Tahoma7"
You can use Typograf for that.
Navigate to the folder where font is located, select .ttf file, click Properties. Properties window will appear:
Change font names (font family, full name, Postscript name etc) as required and click "Save as..." button.
Per this answer on StackOverflow:
- Import your font file in the online Glyphrstudio font editor
- Click the hamburger icon on the top left
- Select font setting and change title and meta data from there
The fastest way is to use a Python script to edit the .ttf files. This script here prepends, appends, or renames the font filename, the font name, and doesn't rename font files that have already been renamed. Use pip install fontTools and then run the script python rename_fonts.py inside the directory with font files. ctrl-f "Free", make your edits, and then batch rename all files in the directory where the script is.
# Example Usage
# python rename_font.py
# rename all .ttf font files in this directory and sub-directories to "Free {original name}" and the font name to "Free {og name}"
import os
import sys
from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont
def rename_font(input_path):
filename = os.path.basename(input_path)
dirname = os.path.dirname(input_path)
if filename.startswith("Free "):
print(f"Skipping already renamed font: {filename}")
return
font = TTFont(input_path)
name_ids_to_update = [1, 4, 6, 16, 17] # Update key name IDs
original_name = None
for record in font["name"].names:
if record.nameID == 1: # Family Name
try:
encoding = "utf-16-be" if record.platformID == 3 else record.getEncoding()
original_name = record.string.decode(encoding)
break
except Exception:
continue
if not original_name:
original_name = os.path.splitext(filename)[0]
if original_name.startswith("Free"):
new_filename = f"Free {filename}"
new_path = os.path.join(dirname, new_filename)
os.rename(input_path, new_path)
print(f"Renamed file to match font name: {new_filename}")
return # Skip further processing
new_name = f"Free {original_name}" # Prepend "Free"
for record in font["name"].names:
if record.nameID in name_ids_to_update:
try:
encoding = "utf-16-be" if record.platformID == 3 else record.getEncoding()
record.string = new_name.encode(encoding)
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error updating nameID {record.nameID} for {input_path}: {e}")
output_path = os.path.join(dirname, f"Free {filename}")
font.save(output_path)
print(f"Renamed font saved as: {output_path}")
def find_and_rename_fonts(directory):
for root, _, files in os.walk(directory):
for file in files:
if file.lower().endswith(".ttf"):
font_path = os.path.join(root, file)
rename_font(font_path)
if name == "main":
target_directory = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "."
find_and_rename_fonts(target_directory)
Microsoft Windows's Font properties editor is free and available at www.microsoft.com (no DKIM).
It will do the job.
It does not appear you can do this. I opened the tahoma.ttf file in a hex editor and the version information (including the font family name) is encrypted with something from VeriSign, Inc., specifically VeriSign Time Stamping Services CA. I see the files are different versions, but I can't visually see any difference.
