Python Pillow and Font Conversion - python-3.x

Question

I have just installed python pillow 5 on a raspberry pi. It installed fine, and works ok.
The issue i am having is finding a pilfont.py file.
I have several bdf fonts i need to convert and have been searching the web for how to do this.
All the information i have found points to the pilfont utility, but i cant find it on the pi.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where it is, I understand how to use it to convert the fonts, just can not activate it.
cheers

Answer 1

As of at least October 2018, the previous answer doesn't work anymore since the package does not include the pilfont utility. But it turns out you don't need to spend time hunting down an external utility, since pilfont is just a very simple script you recreate in just a couple of minutes.
Here's my own "pilfont utility" which converts all the .bdf and .pcf fonts in the current directory to .pil and .pbm:
#!/usr/bin/env python
# Author: Peter Samuel Anttila
# License: The Unlicense <http://unlicense.org, October 16 2018>
from PIL import BdfFontFile
from PIL import PcfFontFile
import os
import glob
font_file_paths = []
current_dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
font_file_paths.extend(glob.glob(current_dir_path+"/*.bdf"))
font_file_paths.extend(glob.glob(current_dir_path+"/*.pcf"))
for font_file_path in font_file_paths:
try:
with open(font_file_path,'rb') as fp:
# despite what the syntax suggests, .save(font_file_path) won't
# overwrite your .bdf files, it just creates new .pil and .pdm
# files in the same folder
if font_file_path.lower().endswith('.bdf'):
p = BdfFontFile.BdfFontFile(fp)
p.save(font_file_path)
elif font_file_path.lower().endswith('.pcf'):
p = PcfFontFile.PcfFontFile(fp)
p.save(font_file_path)
else:
# sanity catch-all
print("Unrecognized extension.")
except (SyntaxError,IOError) as err:
print("File at '"+str(font_file_path)+"' could not be processed.")
print("Error: " +str(err))
For those on a tight deadline:
You don't need the utility. Just use the following code to convert it yourself:
with open(font_file_path,'rb') as fp:
p = BdfFontFile.BdfFontFile(fp) #PcfFontFile if you're reading PCF files
# won't overwrite, creates new .pil and .pdm files in same dir
p.save(font_file_path)
It throws SyntaxError and/or IOError in case the file can't be read as a BDF or PCF file.

Answer 2

Seems you installed pillow 5 via pip3. I did this myself, too and it did not include the pilfont utility. Even did not find the file in the pillow git. Did not find a deprecated info either. Therefore I suggest this workaround:
create an empty dir and change into it.
Now:
apt-get download python3-pil
to download the raspbian package which includes pillow 4 including pilfont. This does not install the package.
Next extract your downloaded deb package. Filename may vary:
ar -x python3-pil_4.0.0-4.deb
After that you have some files one is data.tar.xz which you need to extract:
tar -xvf data.tar.xz
This gives you ./usr/bin/pilfont
Now you may copy it to /usr/bin/
sudo cp ./usr/bin/pilfont /usr/bin/pilfont
After that you can delete the downloaded archive and its extracted contents.