TFTOPL(1)                   General Commands Manual                  TFTOPL(1)

NAME
       tftopl - convert a TeX font metric (tfm) file to property list (pl)
       format

SYNOPSIS
       tftopl [options] tfm_file[.tfm] [pl_file[.pl]]

DESCRIPTION
       The tftopl program translates a (binary) TeX font metric file to a
       (plain text) property list file. Then you can view or edit the contents
       of the tfm file. It also serves as a tfm-file validating program, i.e.,
       if no error messages are given, the input file is correct.

       The pl_file is extended with .pl if necessary.  If pl_file is not
       given, standard output is used. Likewise, tfm_file is extended with
       .tfm if it lacks a suffix.

OPTIONS
       See tex(1) for details of command-line parsing.

       -charcode-format=format
              The argument format specifies how character codes are output in
              the pl file. By default (the historical behavior), ASCII letters
              and digits are output using the "C" code (i.e., as themselves),
              and other characters are output in octal; unless the font's
              coding scheme starts with "TeX math sy" or "TeX math ex", in
              which case all character codes are output in octal.

              If format is ascii, all character codes that correspond to
              graphic characters, besides the left and right parentheses, are
              output in ASCII.

              Finally, if format is octal, all character codes are output in
              octal.  (This option is the same as in vftovp.)

       -verbose
              By default, the program operates silently. With this option,
              some reports are printed on stdout.

       The standard -help and -version options are also supported.

ENVIRONMENT
       The program looks for tfm_file using the environment variables TFMFONTS
       and TEXFONTS, in that order. If neither are set, it uses the system
       default.

SEE ALSO
       pltotf(1),
       Donald E. Knuth, TeXware.

       Font utility topic on CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/font-util
       Package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/tftopl
       Section in the Web2c manual (with an example and summary of the pl
       format): https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#tftopl-invocation
       Typeset source code, including the tfm file format description:
       https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf

AUTHORS
       Donald E. Knuth wrote the program. It was published as part of the
       TeXware technical report from Stanford. Howard Trickey and Pavel Curtis
       originally ported it to Unix.

       Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/tex-k

Web2C 2026                      30 January 2026                      TFTOPL(1)