Reading a ttf font file familyName returns a buffer

[ivantacca]

Hi, I am trying to read the familyName of every font in my library, and I noticed that the result is not always a string.

Take this as an example:

let fontkit = require('fontkit')
var font = fontkit.openSync('/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Zapfino.ttf');
console.log(font.fontName)

The code above is giving the following output

<Buffer 5a 61 70 66 69 6e 6f>

And this is happening for several font files, while the result for others is the actual family name.

Am I doing something wrong?

[devongovett]

That can happen if a string is in a non-standard (ie non Unicode) encoding. If you install iconv-lite, it should be able to decode it.

[ivantacca]

Thanks @devongovett, Actually it seems that even just .toString() does the trick. May I ask if this is made on purpose or a sort of exception we get from the library on certain fonts?

[devongovett]

If the text is in a non-standard encoding, then it may end up as a buffer if it is unable to be decoded. On my system, your example works and returns a string.