archimatetool / archimatetool/archi
[Feature request] Provide a way to use custom fonts and ship a default icon font
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- Dominant language
- Java
- Stars
- 1.3k
- Forks
- 342
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
I often use FontAwesome icons in Archi to produce better looking diagrams. This used to be a bit difficult in the past, but this has been simplified a lot with the new version of the FontAwesome OFT/TTF which now use ligatures to make it as easy as writing frogto get a frog icon: ![]()
The only issue is that this requires to install the font on every computer running Archi, which is, most of the time, not possible.
It seems that it is possible in JAVA to load a font and make it available to the applicationwithout having to install it in the OS. This would be a great solution in Archi.
I can see several ways of doing it:
- Ship FontAwsome by default in Archi so anyone using Archi can use it
- Add a configuration option inside preferences to select font(s) files to load when Archi starts. This would allow users to configure Archi (or create pre-configured packaged) to use needed fonts.
Note: it is easy to create a custom font nowadays, so we could imagine creating an ArchiMate font containing official notation icons, and use it in Archi (instead of code based version as now).
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the Java font-loading guidance linked in the issue, then inspect Archi's startup flow and Preferences entry points. Define whether the first scope is bundled FontAwesome, user-selected font files, or an ArchiMate icon font, and consider the work complete when the chosen fonts are available in Archi without OS installation.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- java
- Domain
- desktop
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100