115 stars · Apache-2.0 from the repository sidebar. · fontspector-v1.9.0, the release page reading '09 Oct 13:19' with no year and taken as 2026-10-09 because that date is in the past. A SIX-DAY DISAGREEMENT WITH THE MIRROR: ungh.cc gives pushedAt 2026-10-03, which is earlier than the release it should contain. Recency is not in doubt either way; the later reading is used and the disagreement is printed in the edition rather than smoothed over. · Track this in Scout
A command-line tool that runs a font quality checklist over font files and reports the failures, from the same organisation as the original it reimplements.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it does
You point it at one or more font files and it runs a profile, which is a named set of checks. Three profiles are built in: one for general OpenType correctness, one general-purpose profile, and one implementing Google Fonts' own submission requirements. Several more load at run time, including Microsoft's, Adobe's, Monotype's, Fontwerk's and one for the ISO 15008 legibility standard. It is a reimplementation in Rust of fontbakery, the Python checklist the same organisation has maintained for years, and it keeps a bridge so that fontbakery's Python checks can still run inside it. There is also a version compiled for the browser, hosted on the project's own page, so a font can be checked without installing anything. The newest release is fontspector-v1.9.0. What it does not do is fix anything. It is a checker, not an editor, and the repository page does not list the individual checks, so the only way to see the full list is to run a profile.
Why it matters
Who it suits. Anyone who ships a font file to somebody else — a type designer submitting to a library, a developer bundling a font into a product, a foundry with a release checklist. It is also the practical answer for anyone submitting to Google Fonts, because that profile encodes what the reviewers will ask for. Skip it if you only ever use fonts other people made; this checks the file, not the way you use it.
Verdict. A clean, fast rewrite of a tool that was already the standard, and the sensible default for new work. The reason to take it seriously despite 115 stars is who publishes it: this sits in the same organisation as fonttools and fontbakery, the libraries most of the type toolchain is built on. That is also the useful comparison. fonttools/fontbakery at 706 stars is the original, and its last code landed on 4 November 2025, eleven months before this was checked — it is quiet rather than finished, and this project is where the work is going. Two notes on dates: the release page prints "09 Oct" without a year, and the mirror used here reported the last code change as 3 October 2026, six days earlier, so the two readings differ and the release is the later one. The web version is the fastest way to try it.
- One command checks a folder of fonts, and it changes nothing, so it is safe to run on anything.
- A Google Fonts profile that encodes the actual submission requirements, plus Microsoft, Adobe and Monotype profiles.
- A browser version is hosted by the project, so a single font can be checked with nothing installed.
- The repository page lists no individual checks, so the only way to learn what it tests is to run it.
- Installing from source needs the Rust toolchain, which is a large download for a one-off check.
- 115 stars and a narrow audience, so searching for help with a specific failure will not find much.
fonttools/fontbakeryThe Python checklist this project reimplements, at 706 stars, whose last code landed on 4 November 2025.
Track this in Scout- fonttools/fonttools
The library that reads and writes the font files both checkers inspect, at 5,200 stars, under an MIT licence.
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brew install cargo-binstall cargo-binstall fontspector