Rename thousand+ font files

[ricardisimo]

Sorry to be such a newbie leach, but would someone be willing to write a script that would rename the skedillion fonts that I currently have in my .fonts folder. For unknown reasons, they have been names like "AC______.ttf" instead of whatever the real name is (in this case, "Acadian". Is it possible to write a script that would call up each font's actual name and use that info to rename the file?

Do linux filenames ever need to be contiguous? Which characters are forbidden? Thanks.

[slavik]

normally, you wouldn't use anything outside of a-zA-Z.-_ and sometimes @() and space

as for renaming a file, it is easy if there is a simple way to get the name of the font and what not.

[ricardisimo]

"Easy" is a relative term, I'm assuming. It's certainly easy for me to double-click on a font file and read the font name in the first line of Font Viewer. I wouldn't have the slightest clue how one would call up that information directly from the file, however. Any clues?

[unutbu]

ricardisimo, to avoid a tragic error (on my part), first backup your ~/.fonts folder. If you have the space, this would do:


rsync -a ~/.fonts/ ~/.fonts_bak/

Then save this script to ~/bin/rename_fonts.py


#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
from subprocess import Popen,PIPE,STDOUT

import optparse
usage = 'usage: %prog [options]'
parser = optparse.OptionParser(
usage=usage)
parser.add_option('-p', '--path', dest='path',
default='.',
help='path to font dir',
metavar='PATH')
parser.add_option('-x', dest='execute',
action='store_true',
default=False,
help='execute',
)
(opt, args) = parser.parse_args()

def uniquify(path,sep='_'):
path=os.path.normpath(path)
num=0
newpath=path
idx=path.find('.')
if idx>0:
part1=path[:idx]
part2=path[idx:]
else:
part1=path
part2=''
while os.path.isdir(newpath) or os.path.isfile(newpath):
newpath=part1+sep+str(num)+part2
num+=1
return newpath

def standardize_name(astr):
astr=astr.replace('\\','')
astr=astr.replace(' ','_')
return astr

cmd='fc-cat -v'
proc=Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=PIPE, stderr=open('/dev/null'))
output=proc.communicate()[0].split('\n')
filenames=[]
newnames=[]
for line in output:

# A line looks like this:
# "Phetsarath_OT.ttf" 0 "Phetsarath OT:familylang=en:style=Regular:stylelang=en:fullna me=Phetsarath OT:fullnamelang=en:slant=0:weight=80:width=100:fou ndry=unknown:index=0:outline=True:scalable=True:ch arset= |>^1!|>^1!P0oWQ |>^1!|>^1!|>^1!!!!%# !!71$!#>r1F3y?4!!K?& !!!)$ )KG/~ !!!.% 9WIlj !!!Q3 {y]9#8?/cS5fQdN !!#0GM>T@D#y#fx !!#eW !!#3H !!!!& !!#AL !!!W5 :lang=aa|ast|ay|bi|br|ch|co|da|de|en|es|et|eu|fi|f j|fo|fr|fur|fy|gd|gl|gv|ho|ia|id|ie|io|is|it|lb|lo |mg|nb|nds|nl|nn|no|nr|nso|oc|om|pt|rm|sma|smj|so| sq|ss|st|sv|sw|tn|ts|vo|vot|wa|xh|yap|zu:fontversi on=65536:capability=otlayout\\:lao :fontformat=TrueType:decorative=False"

if line.startswith('"'):
row=line.split('"')
filename,num,info_str=row[1],row[2],row[3]
_,ext=os.path.splitext(filename)
info_list=info_str.split(':')
common_name=info_list[0]
if common_name=='.dir':
continue
full_name=None
style=None
filenames.append(filename)
for info in info_list:
if info.startswith('style='):
style=info.replace('style=','')
if info.startswith('fullname='):
full_name=info.replace('fullname=','')
full_name=full_name.split(',')[0]
if full_name:
if full_name.startswith(common_name):
newname=standardize_name('%s%s'%(full_name,ext))
else:
newname=standardize_name('%s_%s%s'%(common_name,fu ll_name,ext))
elif style:
newname=standardize_name('%s_%s%s'%(common_name,st yle,ext))
else:
newname=standardize_name('%s%s'%(common_name,ext))
newnames.append(newname)

namedict=dict(zip(filenames,newnames))
os.chdir(opt.path)
filelist=os.listdir(opt.path)
errors=[]
for afile in filelist:
try:
print(afile,namedict[afile])
if opt.execute:
os.rename(afile,uniquify(namedict[afile]))
except KeyError:
errors.append(afile)

if errors:
print('These files are left unchanged:')
for error in errors:
print(error)

Make it executable:


chmod 755 ~/bin/rename_fonts.py

Run it like this:


rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts

This command does not rename anything. But you should see output like this:


('VeraMono.ttf', 'Bitstream_Vera_Sans_Mono.ttf')
('VeraMoIt.ttf', 'Bitstream_Vera_Sans_Mono_Oblique.ttf')
('VeraIt.ttf', 'Bitstream_Vera_Sans_Oblique.ttf')
('VeraMoBI.ttf', 'Bitstream_Vera_Sans_Mono_Bold_Oblique.ttf')
('shalosti.pfb', 'Shalom_Stick.pfb')
('boecklin.pfb', 'ArnoldBoecklin_ExtraBold.pfb')
('victoria.pfb', 'Victoriana_Display_SSi_Regular.pfb')
These files are left unchanged:
tempofon.license
crillee.license
carrickc.license

On each line of the form (A,B), A is the current file name, and B is the proposed new name. If the proposed new names are satisfactory, then run


rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts -x

This will rename the files.

Finally, run


fc-cache -f -v ~/.fonts

to make the newly renamed fonts available to the system

[Volt9000]

Ah crud... I spent all this time whipping up this bash script and someone beat me to it.

Oh well, here it is anyways, in case anyone's interested. Not as elegant as the Python solution, and a bit hacky, but dammit, it's one of my first real bash scripts and I'm bloody proud of it. :D



#!/bin/sh

for fontfile in *.ttf; do
echo -n Processing $fontfile...
font2c $fontfile temp.c > /dev/null
newfontfile=$(cat temp.c | grep 'char s_' | head -4 | tail -1 | awk -F '"' '{print $2}' | tr ' ' '_')
newfontfile=$newfontfile.ttf
if [ "$fontfile" = "$newfontfile" ]; then
echo "\t\tSkipping-- file is already properly named."
else
mv $fontfile $newfontfile
echo "\t\tDone."
fi
done

rm temp.c


Copy the above code into a file, chmod +x it and run. I tested this myself and it seems to work well.

[unutbu]

Thanks for posting your script, Volt9000. You used an interesting method I didn't know about.

[MichaelSammels]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but try GPRename:


sudo apt-get install gprename

[ricardisimo]

GPRename can't call up file info. Thunar is actually a better option for basic batch file renaming, in my humble opinion.

unutbu: To what does the tilde refer at the very start of your code? In other words, what folder is this: "~/bin/rename_fonts.py"? Is that just my /bin folder, or /usr/bin or is it suggesting that I should make a new "bin" folder within /home/ricardisimo? Thanks.

[unutbu]

ricardisimo, tilde (~) is an abbreviation for /home/ricardisimo. So ~/bin means /home/ricardisimo/bin. If you do not already have one, it is a good idea to make this directory, because any executable you put in there will automatically be "in your PATH".

Whenever you type a command into the shell (terminal), the shell searches for a program with that name in your PATH.

Thus, if you put rename_fonts.py in ~/bin, then you can run it from the terminal by simply typing


rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts

instead of the longer

/home/ricardisimo/rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts

or


/path/to/rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts

(depending on where you put it.)

[ricardisimo]

Cool. Thanks. Should it be ~/bin or ~/.bin? Hidden or not? Does it matter? Thanks again, and I'm going to try this out in a few moments.

[unutbu]

It must be ~/bin to have it be automatically put in your PATH.
Type


echo $PATH
to see what directories are in your PATH.

[ricardisimo]

:~$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
I don't see /home/ricardisimo/bin here. Is that because I have yet to chmod it?

[ricardisimo]

Something's off:

:~$ chmod 755 ~/bin/rename_fonts.py
:~$ rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts
bash: rename_fonts.py: command not found

[unutbu]

Close the gnome-terminal and open another terminal.
If ~/bin did not exist when gnome-terminal was launched, then ~/bin would not have been added to your PATH.

[MadCow108]

volt9000 bash script fails on some files on my pc.
In some files the line fetched with head -4 tail -1 is empty

a fix would be to use the output of font2c which probably finds the fontname with higher reliability:



#!/bin/bash
for ffile in *.ttf
do
echo "processing $ffile..."
output=`font2c $ffile temp.c`
newfontfile=`echo $output | sed -e "s/.*FontName is (\([^\)]*\).*/\1/"`
newfontfile=$newfontfile.ttf
if [ "$ffile" = "$newfontfile sds" ]; then
echo -e "\t\tSkipping-- file is already properly named."
elif [ "$newfontfile" = "" ]; then
echo "Extracting of fontname failed!!"
else
mv $ffile $newfontfile
echo -e "\t\tDone."
fi
done

rm temp.c

[Volt9000]

volt9000 bash script fails on some files on my pc.
In some files the line fetched with head -4 tail -1 is empty

a fix would be to use the output of font2c which probably finds the fontname with higher reliability:



#!/bin/bash
for ffile in *.ttf
do
echo "processing $ffile..."
output=`font2c $ffile temp.c`
newfontfile=`echo $output | sed -e "s/.*FontName is (\([^\)]*\).*/\1/"`
newfontfile=$newfontfile.ttf
if [ "$ffile" = "$newfontfile sds" ]; then
echo -e "\t\tSkipping-- file is already properly named."
elif [ "$newfontfile" = "" ]; then
echo "Extracting of fontname failed!!"
else
mv $ffile $newfontfile
echo -e "\t\tDone."
fi
done

rm temp.c


Ah, yes.
Well unfortunately my script isn't that robust. I did test it on all my font files and it seemed to work well, but of course, it relies on the fact that the format of the font files will be consistent (and for my files they were.)

Thanks for the heads up, though!

[ricardisimo]

On neither of my computers is /home/ricardisimo/bin mentioned when I run "echo $PATH". I've restarted the computers several times by now, so certainly if that folder was going to be in my PATH it should have happened by now. How do I force it to be so?

[unutbu]

Open the file ~/.profile. Does it have this code in it?


# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

If not, add it to your ~/.profile.
Later on in that file you should also have a line which says


export PATH

Save and exit the text editor. Log out, then log back in.
Open a terminal and type


echo $PATH

If ~/bin in still not in your PATH, please post your ~/.profile.

[ricardisimo]

It doesn't say "export PATH" anywhere. The code you cited is there, but that's the end of the text in .profile. Do I just add an extra line that says "export PATH"?

[unutbu]

Yes. Add


export PATH

to the end of your ~/.profile.

[MadCow108]

.profile is only read by login shells.
and only if no .bash_profile or .bash_login exist.

If you want it permanently in your path with your usual bash-shell you need to add it to the .bashrc

[unutbu]

~/.profile is read once when you log in to a GNOME desktop.
~/.bashrc is read each time you open a terminal.

Since the PATH need only be set once, it seems to make sense to define the PATH in ~/.profile.

[ricardisimo]

Yay! It's working! Thank you so very much.

The overwhelming majority of the fonts are being renamed to exactly what the name of the font is, which is what I was seeking. However, about 1% are returning either gobbledeygook which doesn't appear in it's title in Font Viewer, at least:

('aggstock.ttf', '\xc3\x84ggstock,\xc6\x92ggstock_\xc3\x84ggstock.t tf') and
('Bl?jbytesdep?.ttf', 'Bl\xc3\xb6jbytesdep\xc3\xa5,Bl?jbytesdep?_Bl\xc3\ xb6jbytesdep\xc3\xa5.ttf')
Or it's being renamed to several of its variants or just repeating itself:

('SIGNETRO.ttf', 'Signet_Roundhand_ATT,Signet_Roundhand_CE_ATT_Sign et_Roundhand_ATT_Italic.ttf')
Like I said, these are not the names that appear in Font Viewer.

Any thoughts? Honestly, it's few enough that I could easily go back and change them by hand in no time. I'm just curious if the script is doing what you thought it would do. Thanks again.

[unutbu]

ricardisimo, I'm glad to hear the script mainly worked for you.

I think I can modify the script to improve the renaming in the cases you posted.
Which would you prefer:


aggstock.ttf --> Äggstock.ttf
Bl?jbytesdep?.ttf --> Blöjbytesdepå.ttf

or


aggstock.ttf --> Aggstock.ttf
Bl?jbytesdep?.ttf --> Blojbytesdepa.ttf

In order to fix this, it would help to see some output from you. Please post:


fc-cat -v | grep ggstock
fc-cat -v | grep jbytesdep
fc-cat -v | grep Signet_Roundhand

[ricardisimo]

Wow. I had no idea there would actually be - basically - HTML options! If I had to choose, I'd say no special characters (in case I need some Mac or Windows user to install one of my fonts), first letter capitalized.

Tell me this: Is it also possible to add abbreviated extra info, like "B" for bold, "BI" for bold & italics, etc.? Not knowing how font files categorize themselves, I wouldn't know if that's info that could be called up or not.

Also, please tell me that this is at least fun for you. I'm very grateful, and one day, when the kids are older, I'd love to spend some time learning programming and code, but not for a while.


:~/.fonts$ fc-cat -v | grep ggstock
/usr/share/X11/fonts: No such file or directory
"aggstock.ttf" 0 "Äggstock,ƒggstock:familylang=en,en:style=Regular:s tylelang=en:fullname=Äggstock,ƒggstock:fullnamelan g=en,en:slant=0:weight=80:width=100:foundry=unknow n:index=0:outline=True:scalable=True:charset= bW.9^|>^1!>0{]q !!!!#!)pTF!9PXp!!!%# !!K?& !!!)$ !!!!j !!#0G !!.)# !!#6I !!!%# :lang=fj|ho|ia|ie|io|nr|om|so|ss|st|sw|ts|xh|zu:fo ntversion=65536:fontformat=TrueType:decorative=Fal se"
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-malayalam-fonts: No such file or directory

:~/.fonts$ fc-cat -v | grep jbytesdep
/usr/share/X11/fonts: No such file or directory
"Bl?jbytesdep?.ttf" 0 "Blöjbytesdepå,Bl?jbytesdep?:familylang=en,en:style =Normal,obyčejné,Standard,Κανονικά,Regular,Normaal i,Normál,Normale,Standaard,Normalny,Обычный,Normál ne,Navadno,Arrunta:stylelang=ca,cs,de,el,en,fi,hu, it,nl,pl,ru,sk,sl,eu:fullname=Blöjbytesdepå,Bl?jby tesdep?:fullnamelang=en,en:slant=0:weight=80:width =100:foundry=unknown:index=0:outline=True:scalable =True:charset= |>]~6P0oWP9WIli P2w[b(7y@T(7y@T!!!%#!#>r4!!7W3 !!!)$ #xwbC !!!.% 9WIlj !!#0G !!!W5 !!#6I !!!!W :lang=fj|ho|ia|id|ie|io|nr|om|so|ss|st|sw|ts|vo|xh |zu:fontversion=65536:fontformat=TrueType:decorati ve=False"
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-malayalam-fonts: No such file or directory

:~/.fonts$ fc-cat -v | grep SIGNETRO.ttf
/usr/share/X11/fonts: No such file or directory
"SIGNETRO.ttf" 0 "Signet Roundhand ATT,Signet Roundhand CE ATT:familylang=en,pl:style=Italic,Kursywa:stylelan g=en,pl:fullname=Signet Roundhand ATT Italic,Signet Roundhand CE ATT Kursywa:fullnamelang=en,pl:slant=100:weight=80:wid th=100:foundry=agfa:index=0:outline=True:scalable= True:charset= |>^1!|>^1!P0oWQ |>^1!|>^1!|>^1!!!!%#lTKe<Glr$9lZhN&OovPT!!K?& !!!)$ 9;*l$ !!#0GM>RAd#y#fx !!!W5 !!#3H !!!!& !!#6I!a(Q) !!#AL !!K?& !!+Qp!!!!5 :lang=aa|ast|ay|bi|br|bs|ch|co|cs|da|de|en|es|et|e u|fi|fj|fo|fr|fur|fy|gd|gl|gv|ho|hr|hu|ia|id|ie|io |is|it|lb|mg|nb|nds|nl|nn|no|nr|nso|oc|om|pl|pt|rm |sk|sl|sma|smj|so|sq|ss|st|sv|sw|tn|tr|ts|vo|vot|w a|wen|xh|yap|zu:fontversion=131072:fontformat=True Type:decorative=False"
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-malayalam-fonts: No such file or directory

[unutbu]

ricardisimo, I'd be glad to try to modify the script to get the renamings exactly as you'd prefer. I'll need your help to do so, however; see below. I should also warn you that there appear to be some inconsistencies in the way font information is represented in the output of fc-cat. Since my script is based on parsing the output of fc-cat, this might mean my script is incapable of coming up with renamings which are satisfactory in all cases. But anyway, I'm willing to try if you're interested.

First the easy parts:

Capitalization is no sweat.
Using just the first name before a comma: no sweat
Removing all accents: a little harder, but I think I know how to do it.

Now the hard part:

I could change all occurrences of "bold" or "Bold" --> "B", and and "Italics" --> "I", but then ArnoldBoecklin_ExtraBold.pfb would become ArnoldBoecklin_ExtraB.pfb, which looks a little strange to me. Perhaps ArnoldBoecklin_XB.pfb would be better, but down this road lies a slippery slope. Should ParkAvenue_Normal.ttf be renamed ParkAvenue_N.ttf? Should WindsorDemi_Regular.pfb become WindsorDemi_R.pfb? and then what about PostAntiqua_Roman.pfb?

There are so many choices, I'm not sure what would look best.

Could you run


rename_fonts.py -p ~/.fonts > output.txt

then edit output.txt to show (at least for some of them) how you'd prefer the renamings to appear, and then post output.txt as an attachment? Then run


fc-cat -v | bzip2 > fc-cat.out.bz2

and post fc-cat.out.bz2 as an attachment too.


Also, please tell me that this is at least fun for you.

Thanks for your concern. It is gratifying to help people. But rest assured, I wouldn't do it if I weren't also having fun. Most of the time I just hope I'm doing more good than harm :)

[seeminglee]

While bash script is always fun to write, I'd like to suggest an alternative solution. There's an AIR app called .merlin that will do exactly what you asked for and more.

The software can read and process OTF, TTF and Type1 (AFM, PFM, PFB, INF) files. In addition to automatically renaming fonts' filenames to match the font names, it includes toggleable user-options to check for font duplicates and will offer to group fonts with the same first-letter together in their own folder: i.e. for example, Bell Gothic, Bembo, Bodoni and Briem Script will be moved to a folder named "B" and you'll find Caslon, Chaparral and Clarendon in a folder named "C", etc.

Quick review of the app

I tried this app out quickly and let it run through the entire Adobe Font Folio OTF edition and some ancient Emigre PFB ruins and even some of my own creation from Fontographer and merlin processed all of them very quickly without a hitch.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
SML

The only thing that might bother some folks is how the renaming works when the type foundry's name is part of the fonts' name. All of the fonts with ITC prefix like ITC Officina, ITC Stone, ITC Isadora, for example, are renamed to Officina, Stone and Isadora respectively but kept the foundry's name with ITCAvantGarde, ITCFranklinGothic and ITCGaramond - which suggests that the software is smart enough to detect the potential for disasters, for example, if it had otherwise turned AdobeGaramond, ITC Garamond in addition to Monotype and Stempel into a single cut. gasp :)
What is unclear though is if the software has logic put to place to anticipate for these kinds of errors, or if it's simply a table that require / allow updates where necessary.

Overall, the software performs quite well does exactly as expected. Compared to Extensis FontDoctor (the prof app for Mac+Win), merlin's performance is quite good. It's built using AIR, so you can run it pretty much run it anywhere as well.

1. Download and install Adobe AIR

In order to run .merlin, you'll need the AIR runtime 1.5 or above. You can get and the installer for Linux is available at: .

http://get.adobe.com/air/

After the the download is completed, go to the folder where you've downloaded the file, change permission on the file and make it executable, then run the installer:



$ cd ~/Downloads
$ chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
$ ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin


Adobe AIR puts itself as the first item under Accessories, though in practice you rarely need to touch it.

2. Install .merlin

Go to http://blog.coursevector.com/merlin and click on the link that says Download Now (1.8.0)

When the download finishes (about 350k), the program will run automatically and an Adobe AIR prompt will ask if you wish to install the program, etc. It then installs itself under its own menu entry.

Uninstallation of AIR apps are done using the Aodbe AIR Uninstaller, which is in your Accessories menu.

A little bit OT but related: apowerful GUI renamer with metadata extraction and RegEx handling (works with EXIF, MP3 tags etc but wont' do fonts)

I recently had to rename thousands of files as according their metadata (mp3 tags, jpeg exif, folder location, etc). Because of the complexity fo the operation, I looked for a GUI tool that will do it and I found a nitfy one at that caled Métamorphose (http://file-folder-ren.sourceforge.net. The UI can use some improvements though the elements have been rearranged in version 2 (which is in beta right now) which makese it a tad bit easier.

It won't do any good i you are looking to manipulate fonts metadata, but I thought that it's worth mentioning since since I have been looking for something like it for a long time and only just found out about it a week ago.

[unutbu]

Thank you for this information regarding .merlin and Métamorphose, seeminglee.
It sounds a lot better than my ad hoc hackery. :)

[ricardisimo]

Oh, my goodness! I cannot believe that I never thanked unutbu and seeminglee for all of your help here. I realize it has been several years now, but this thread was very helpful and educational. A million thanks. Take care.