# Building FreeType

There are several ways to build the FreeType library, depending on
your system and the level of customization you need. Here is a short
overview of the documentation available:


## A. Prerequisites and dependencies

FreeType is a low level C library that only depends on the standard
C library with very few platform-dependent optimizations utilized at
build time. Any C99-compliant compiler should be able to compile
FreeType. System libraries, such as zlib, Gzip, bzip2, Brotli,
and libpng, might be used to handle compressed fonts or decode
embedded PNG glyphs.

FreeType auto-configuration scripts should be able to detect the
prerequisites if the necessary headers are available at the default
locations. Otherwise, modify `include/freetype/config/ftoption.h`
to control how the FreeType library gets built. Normally, you don't
need to change anything.

Applications have very limited control over FreeType's behaviour at
run-time; look at the documentation of function `FT_Property_Set`.


## B. Normal installation and upgrades

1. Unix and Unix-like systems

   This also includes MacOS, Cygwin, MinGW + MSYS, Mingw-w64 + MSYS2,
   and possibly other, similar environments.

   Please read [INSTALL.UNIX] to install or upgrade FreeType 2 on a
   Unix system. Note that you *need* GNU Make for automatic
   compilation, since other make tools won't work (this includes BSD
   Make).

   **GNU Make VERSION 3.81 OR NEWER IS NEEDED!**

2. Other systems using GNU Make

   On some non-Unix platforms, it is possible to build the library
   using only the GNU Make utility. Note that *NO OTHER MAKE TOOL
   WILL WORK*[1]! This methods supports several compilers on
   Windows, OS/2, and BeOS, including MinGW* (without MSYS*), Visual
   C++, Borland C++, and more.

   Instructions are provided in the file [INSTALL.GNU].

3. Other build tools and platforms.

   A few other tools can be used to build FreeType. You can find
   the corresponding instruction files in the FreeType root folder
   or the builds/ sub-folder.

   | Build Tool | Details                                   |
   |------------|-------------------------------------------|
   | CMake      | see [CMakeLists.txt] for more information |
   | Meson      | see [meson.build] for more information    |
   | MSBuild    | see [freetype.vcxproj]                    |
   | MMS        | see [vms_make.com] and [INSTALL.VMS]      |

4. With an IDE Project File (e.g., for Visual Studio or CodeWarrior)

   We provide a small number of 'project files' for various IDEs to
   automatically build the library as well. Note that these files
   are not actively supported by FreeType developers, they can break
   or become obsolete.

   To find them, have a look at the content of the `builds/<system>`
   directory, where <system> stands for your OS or environment.

5. From you own IDE, or own Makefiles

   If you want to create your own project file, follow the
   instructions given in the [INSTALL.ANY] document of this
   directory.


## C. Custom builds of the library

Customizing the compilation of FreeType is easy, and allows you to
select only the components of the font engine that you really need.
For more details read the file [docs/CUSTOMIZE][CUSTOMIZE].


## D. Standard builds with `configure`

The git repository doesn't contain pre-built configuration scripts for
UNIXish platforms. To generate them say

    sh autogen.sh

which in turn depends on the following packages:

    automake (1.10.1)
    libtool (2.2.4)
    autoconf (2.62)

The versions given in parentheses are known to work. Newer versions
should work too, of course. Note that `autogen.sh` also sets up
proper file permissions for the `configure` and auxiliary scripts.

The `autogen.sh` script checks whether the versions of the above three
tools match the numbers above. Otherwise it will complain and suggest
either upgrading or using environment variables to point to more
recent versions of the required tools.

Note that `aclocal` is provided by the 'automake' package on Linux,
and that `libtoolize` is called `glibtoolize` on Darwin (OS X).


## E. Alternative build methods

For static builds that don't use platform-specific optimizations, no
configure script is necessary at all; saying

    make setup ansi
    make

should work on all platforms that have GNU `make` (or `makepp`).

A build with `cmake` or `meson` can be done directly from the git
repository. However, if you want to use the `FT_DEBUG_LOGGING` macro
(see file [docs/DEBUG][DEBUG] for more information) it is currently mandatory
to execute `autogen.sh` in advance; this script clones the 'dlg' git
submodule and copies some files into FreeType's source tree.


---

[1] make++, a make tool written in Perl, has sufficient support of GNU
   make extensions to build FreeType. See

    https://makepp.sourceforge.net

   for more information; you need version 2.0 or newer, and you must
   pass option `--norc-substitution`.

---
```
Copyright (C) 2000-2023 by
David Turner, Robert Wilhelm, and Werner Lemberg.

This file is part of the FreeType project, and may only be used,
modified, and distributed under the terms of the FreeType project
license, LICENSE.TXT. By continuing to use, modify, or distribute
this file you indicate that you have read the license and understand
and accept it fully.
```

<!--------------------------------------------------------------------------->

[CMakeLists.txt]: ../CMakeLists.txt
[meson.build]: ../meson.build
[freetype.vcxproj]: ../builds/windows/vc2010/freetype.vcxproj
[vms_make.com]: ../vms_make.com
[INSTALL.VMS]: ./INSTALL.VMS
[INSTALL.ANY]: ./INSTALL.ANY
[INSTALL.GNU]: ./INSTALL.GNU
[INSTALL.UNIX]: ./INSTALL.UNIX
[CUSTOMIZE]: ./CUSTOMIZE
[DEBUG]: ./DEBUG