Using `fontfile` with text input

Question about an existing feature

What are you trying to achieve?

I’m creating an image using the { text } input and want to use a custom font (not a system-installed font) via the the fontfile option, but can’t get it working. (Apologies in advance if I’m holding it wrong.)

When you searched for similar issues, what did you find that might be related?

#3778, #4523, and #4208. #4208 in particular seems to overlap a lot, but the discussion didn’t help me.

Please provide a minimal, standalone code sample, without other dependencies, that demonstrates this question

await sharp({
	text: {
		text: 'example',
		width: 800,
		height: 800,
		font: 'Relevant Font',
		fontfile: "/Users/user/repo/path/to/font.ttf",
	},
})
	.png()
	.toBuffer();

As an example, I downloaded this TTF font: https://github.com/propublica/weepeople/blob/master/weepeople.ttf
Set fontfile to point to it.
And tried various font values (WeePeople, WeePeople Regular, Wee People Regular, weepeople, etc.)
(The issue does not appear to be specific to this font file though, I’ve tried with various fonts with the same result.)

In all cases the fontfile appears to have no effect.

I tried setting FC_DEBUG=1 on the process running sharp. This caused FC_DEBUG=1 to be logged the first time sharp was called. But there was no other additional logging.

In case it’s relevant, some system info: Node.js 24.18.0 on macOS 15.7.7 (darwin-x64 versions of sharp/libvips via npm)

Please provide sample image(s) that help explain this question

Here’s what the code above produces, regardless of font/fontfile options:

Start by reproducing the standalone sharp text-input call with the supplied WeePeople TTF and the different font/fontfile combinations. Trace how the text input handles fontfile and compare the rendered output; done means a custom font file changes the generated image as requested.