Font viewer

A font viewer should separate file facts from browser rendering

A font file contains several different kinds of information. Its table directory and metadata describe names, outlines, encoded characters, variation axes, color capabilities, and embedding flags. A browser then interprets those bytes through its own font engine to shape and draw a preview. This viewer keeps those two results separate. The inspection receipt comes from the file; the specimen is an honest native preview in the desktop browser you are using now.

That distinction matters when two browsers draw the same font differently. Hinting, antialiasing, shaping, color-font support, fallback behavior, and rasterization are not required to produce identical pixels. The metadata and sorted Unicode coverage remain deterministic, while the specimen shows the rendering you can actually see here. If the parser succeeds but the browser refuses to load the face, the metadata remains available and the preview is labeled unavailable instead of quietly switching to a fallback font.

The TTF and OTF support boundary follows bytes, not filenames

V1 accepts one raw, single-face SFNT file. A TrueType signature must contain exactly the expected glyf outline path. An OpenType OTTO signature must contain exactly one CFF or CFF2 outline path. The tool checks the table directory and bounds before presenting results; changing an extension from .woff2 to .ttf does not change the format or make it supported.

WOFF and WOFF2 are compressed webfont wrappers and are explicitly unsupported here. TTC and OTC files are collections whose multiple faces require a separate face-selection contract. Type 1, EOT, FON/FNT, dfont, UFO, and ambiguous or mixed outline structures are outside this route as well. The viewer does not unwrap, convert, repair, or approximate them. A typed unsupported result is safer than a plausible specimen with the wrong face or incomplete tables.

Preview custom text, a waterfall, and variable axes

The editable specimen is for proofing the font you selected. Change the sample to a name, heading, sentence, numeral set, or language fragment that matters to the project, then compare it across the available waterfall sizes. The face is created temporarily from the local bytes with the browser's FontFace API. It is not installed on the computer and it is removed from the document when the viewer resets or a newer file replaces it.

A variable font exposes its verified fvar axes with exact minimum, default, maximum, and current values. Axis tags stay visible, hidden-axis flags are reported, and named instances remain file facts rather than being invented from slider positions. A setting such as weight or optical size can change the preview without changing the source file. A static face simply omits controls that would do nothing.

Glyph count and Unicode coverage answer different questions

The glyph count comes from the font's own maximum-profile data. Unicode coverage comes from supported cmap formats and lists the encoded code points in numeric order. The two totals are not supposed to match. A font can contain unencoded alternates, ligatures, components, or variation glyphs that shaping reaches indirectly; one encoded character can also select different glyphs in different contexts.

Coverage is paginated so a large CJK or symbol font does not create thousands of DOM nodes at once. The page reports cmap format 14 variation-sequence capability separately rather than pretending every variation sequence is an ordinary standalone character. For the vocabulary behind code points, grapheme clusters, and glyphs, read what Unicode is. When the job is to find and copy a canonical emoji sequence rather than inspect a font file, use emoji search.

Color tables are capabilities, not a promise of identical artwork

The inspection identifies color-font table families such as COLR/CPAL, SVG, CBDT/CBLC, and sbix when they are present. Presence says which representation the file carries. It does not promise that every desktop engine implements every version, paint operation, bitmap strike, or SVG behavior identically. The native preview is the compatibility result for this browser; the receipt does not rewrite a failed color render as success.

Likewise, a font family name is metadata supplied by the file, not proof that the file is authentic, safe to redistribute, or the same release as a similarly named font elsewhere. The selected names shown by the viewer remain untrusted file data. They are rendered as text, not executed as markup, and they are not treated as CreatorValet's endorsement of the font or its source.

Embedding flags are technical metadata, not legal advice

The OS/2 fsType field is shown as a raw hexadecimal mask with the technical flags represented by its bits, including restricted, preview-and-print, editable, no subsetting, or bitmap-only signals when present. Keeping the raw mask visible makes the receipt reproducible and avoids translating several simultaneous bits into one vague badge.

Those flags do not establish ownership or give a complete license verdict. They do not by themselves decide whether you may install the font, use it on a website, embed it in a PDF, modify its outlines, send it to a client, or distribute a derivative. The authoritative answer comes from the font's actual license and source. This viewer reports what the bytes say and stops there.

This is a desktop font viewer, not a converter or editor

The verified product requirement is current desktop Chromium and desktop WebKit. Mobile is not claimed from an emulated viewport, and a phone that happens to accept one fixture does not silently expand the support promise. The interface still avoids needless horizontal overflow, but the font-loading and memory lifecycle are desktop features until a separate physical mobile matrix proves otherwise.

There is no font download because the source file already belongs to the user, and there is no generated output to return. The tool does not convert TTF to OTF, WOFF, or WOFF2; it does not change quadratic outlines into cubic ones, subset glyphs, create a CSS kit, repair a malformed table, or install the face. Those operations have different fidelity and licensing contracts and should not hide behind a viewer button.

The font remains local and temporary

The file picker reads one binary file inside this tab. Parsing runs away from the main interface, and size advice appears before memory-heavy work without imposing an arbitrary file-size refusal. A newer choice cancels or supersedes the older result. Reset terminates the active work, removes the temporary FontFace, releases large buffers, and clears the specimen and receipt before another file is opened.

No font bytes, names, sample text, code points, or variation settings are sent to an upload endpoint, stored in the URL, or retained in browser storage. The only network activity a normal page load needs is CreatorValet's own fixed application code. If decorative Unicode text rather than a font file is the actual task, the fancy text generator changes characters locally and explains why that output is not a newly created font.