Using Custom Fonts with Mapnik

Doing this requires three steps:

1) Place custom fonts in Mapnik's font folder or register them in different location

Python

Find the location of Mapnik's special font folder and place new fonts in it: 

$ python -c "import mapnik;print mapnik.fontscollectionpath"

Or register a custom location: 

import mapnik
custom_fonts_dir = '/Library/Fonts/'
mapnik.register_fonts(custom_fonts_dir)

XML

We are planning to add registration support within XML in #168

  • Also, the wiki:Nik2Img allows you to pass the --fonts argument to register custom fonts when reading and XML

C++

mapnik::freetype_engine::register_font(std::string const& file_name)

...where file_name is the full path to the directory where the font is located (e.g., "/home/user/mapnik/fonts/unifont-Medium.ttf"). The c++ demo (source:trunk/demo/c++/rundemo) also provides an good example of how to add additional fonts.

2) Figure out the exact 'face_name'

  • Ask Mapnik to print all registered face names (note: this only will show fonts already auto-registered in the fontscollectionpath): 
    python -c "from mapnik import FontEngine as e;print '\n'.join(e.instance().face_names())"
DejaVu Sans Bold
DejaVu Sans Bold Oblique
DejaVu Sans Book
DejaVu Sans Condensed
DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold
[..snip..]
  • Or, register custom fonts and then show their face names: 
    from mapnik import register_fonts, FontEngine
custom_fonts_dir = '/Library/Fonts/'
register_fonts(custom_fonts_dir)
for face in FontEngine.face_names(): print face
... 
Al Bayan Bold
Al Bayan Plain
Andale Mono Regular
Arial Black Regular
[...snip...]

3) Pass the 'face_name' to the TextSymbolizer or ShieldSymbolizer

<TextSymbolizer name="FIELD_NAME" face_name="DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold" size="10" fill="black" />

Further references