Loading A Font

Every call starts from a font, because a glyph outline only exists inside one. There are three ways in, and they differ in who chooses the file.

From a path

use Atelier\Text\SvgText;

$text = SvgText::fromFile(__DIR__.'/fonts/Inter-Regular.woff2');

You name the file. This is the right form when the font ships with your application, which is the common case for a logo, a chart label, or a social card.

fromFile() accepts a string or any \Stringable, and every format the installed alto/font supports.

From a collection

A .ttc or .otc file holds several faces in one file. The second argument picks one:

$bold = SvgText::fromFile(__DIR__.'/fonts/Family.ttc', faceIndex: 1);

The index is the face's position in the collection, counted from zero. Passing an index a single-face file does not have is an error, not a fallback.

From a query

When the font is chosen at runtime rather than written into the code, hand a finder a description of what you want:

use Alto\Font\FontFinder;
use Alto\Font\FontQuery;
use Atelier\Text\SvgText;

$finder = FontFinder::fromDirectories(__DIR__.'/fonts');

$heading = SvgText::fromFinder($finder, FontQuery::family('Inter')->weight(700));

fromFinder() also takes the short form, where the family is a string and the weight and style are separate arguments:

use Alto\Font\Descriptor\FontStyle;

$italic = SvgText::fromFinder($finder, 'Inter', weight: 400, style: FontStyle::Italic);

Both forms are the same call. Use the query object when the criteria grow past a family and a weight.

Reuse the instance

SvgText holds the parsed font. Parsing is the expensive part, so build it once and call it as often as you need:

$text = SvgText::fromFile(__DIR__.'/fonts/Inter-Regular.woff2');

foreach ($labels as $label) {
    $paths[] = $text->path($label, size: 14)->d();
}

font() hands back the underlying Alto\Font\Font when you need something the facade does not expose, such as the family name or the units per em.

Next: Path data.