# Patens

> A type design tool that teaches as you draw. Sketch glyphs, trace to Bézier, audit your work against 94 type-design rules with plain-English fixes, ship real OpenType. Open source MIT, browser-native. Latin for "lying open" — root of *patent*, used here for the opposite.

Patens is a SvelteKit app that runs entirely in the browser. Every project lives in IndexedDB; nothing leaves the user's machine unless they choose to export (.font.json) or upload to a cloud-share path (Vercel Blob). The spine of the editor is a 94-code audit module covering contour shape, vertical metrics, OpenType invariants, brief completeness, multi-script coverage, kerning hygiene, and anchor naming — every code reaches five teaching surfaces (edit panel, audit page, release pre-flight, family hub, home page) through a single `describeAuditCode()` dictionary, and many issues offer one-click "Fix" actions. The audit is also distributed as a CLI (`npx patens audit my.font.json`) for CI pipelines and foundry lint workflows. The demo project ships 162 drawn glyphs spanning Latin (uppercase + lowercase + digits + punctuation + currency + math + brackets + composite ligatures), Cyrillic (17 look-alike letters reusing Latin builders + bespoke Я Ж Ф), and Greek (14 uppercase look-alikes).

Patens v1.5.2 is production-grade and hosted at patens.design. It is open source under the MIT License, maintained by Alejandro Vizio.

## Core resources

- [Live editor](https://patens.design/project/demo/edit): the demo project ready to open and edit
- [Demo specimen](https://patens.design/share/demo): designer-grade specimen sheet of the demo font
- [Source code on GitHub](https://github.com/alevizio/patens): MIT-licensed, contributions welcome
- [Architecture documentation](https://github.com/alevizio/patens/blob/main/docs/architecture.md): one-paragraph overview + deeper technical detail
- [Help / FAQ](https://patens.design/help): 20 common questions across 7 sections (getting started, sharing, export, editor, performance, AI, security)
- [About + credits](https://patens.design/about): what Patens is, what it's built on, who made it
- [Pronunciation](https://patens.design/pronunciation): how to pronounce Patens (PAH-tens), what it means, Latin origin
- [Release notes](https://patens.design/changelog): every version since v0.4, with [RSS feed](https://patens.design/changelog/rss.xml)

## Spanish marketing surface (es)

- [Inicio · Spanish landing](https://patens.design/es): qué es Patens, en español
- [Acerca de](https://patens.design/es/about): explicación + créditos en español
- [Pronunciación](https://patens.design/es/pronunciation): cómo se pronuncia "Patens"
- [Ayuda · FAQ](https://patens.design/es/help): preguntas frecuentes en español
- [La auditoría](https://patens.design/es/audit): el módulo diferenciador, en español
- [Comparación](https://patens.design/es/compare): Patens vs FontLab / Glyphs / Fontra / etc., en español
- [Aprender (índice)](https://patens.design/es/learn): índice de tutoriales (cuerpos siguen en inglés)
- [Privacidad](https://patens.design/es/privacy): política de privacidad en español
- [Seguridad](https://patens.design/es/security): postura de seguridad en español
- [Prensa](https://patens.design/es/press): kit de prensa en español

El editor y las descripciones técnicas de los 94 códigos de auditoría siguen en inglés
por ahora; la traducción completa está en el roadmap v1.7+. Cada página tiene hreflang
hacia su contraparte inglesa (canonical) y x-default apunta al inglés.
- [Setup guide for self-hosters](https://github.com/alevizio/patens/blob/main/docs/setup.md): per-platform instructions for optional integrations (Vercel Blob, GitHub OAuth, Anthropic API)
- [Roadmap](https://github.com/alevizio/patens/blob/main/ROADMAP.md): what's deferred and why

## Key capabilities

- **Pressure-sensitive sketch tool** with stroke weight and pressure; trace to cubic-Bézier contours via boolean union + Schneider curve fitting
- **Direct contour editing** with smooth ↔ corner points, nudge, multi-select, affine transform
- **Variable fonts**: multiple masters at distinct axis locations, named instances, 2D variation explorer for ≥2-axis projects
- **OpenType features**: auto-detected from glyph-name suffixes (`.ss01`, `.smcp`, `.onum`); real ligature substitution (`f_i` → fi); live HarfBuzz.js shaping preview
- **Kerning + classes**: pair editor, class system, silhouette-distance auto-kern, family-wide kerning resolution
- **Color fonts**: COLR v0/v1 + CPAL palettes; live color-plan rendering
- **Anchors + composites**: GPOS mark-positioning rig with `top` / `_top` anchor convention; component composites with offset resolution
- **94-code audit module**: contour shape, vertical metrics, OpenType invariants, brief completeness, multi-script coverage, kerning hygiene; one-click fixes for fixable codes; also runs from the terminal via `npx patens audit` for CI integration
- **Export**: OTF + WOFF2 (in-browser via opentype.js), TTF (Pyodide + ttfautohint), UFO, designer-bundled .zip, portable .font.json
- **Specimen**: print stylesheet that strips chrome and emits a PDF-ready foundry-grade specimen sheet
- **PWA**: service worker for real offline support; install via web app manifest
- **Accessibility**: WCAG 2.0 + 2.1 + 2.2 A/AA enforced via axe-core in CI across 31 routes

## Positioning vs other type editors

Patens is differentiated by being **the only browser-native type editor designed as a teaching tool**. The 94-code audit + five teaching surfaces (edit panel, audit page, release pre-flight, family hub, home page) is its unique angle. Patens is not a FontLab or Glyphs replacement — those tools are deeper, faster, and built for professionals shipping commercial families. Patens is for designers between sketches and shipping: when you've drawn a logo and want to make a full font from it, when you're learning type design and need an editor that explains its audit warnings, when you want to share a specimen without making someone install software.

| Tool | Where it fits | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| FontLab 8 | Pro / industry, desktop-only | $499 lifetime |
| Glyphs 3 | Pro / Mac-only | $299.90 lifetime |
| RoboFont | Pro / Python-scripted, macOS only | ~$400 |
| Fontra | Variable-fonts focus, Google-backed, browser + Python | Free |
| Glyphr Studio | Hobbyist, browser-based, JS-only | Free |
| typlr.app | Modern browser editor | Free |
| **Patens** | **Teaching-first, browser-native, open source, multi-script** | **Free** |

## Pronunciation

Patens is pronounced **PAH-tens** (Latin pronunciation), like *father* + *tens*, not *PAT-ens* (English plural of *paten*). The word means "lying open, accessible" in Latin — the etymological root of English *patent*.

## Tech stack

SvelteKit 2 + Svelte 5 runes, Tailwind CSS v4, TypeScript strict mode, `idb-keyval` for IndexedDB project storage, `opentype.js` for OTF + WOFF2 export, Pyodide + fontTools + ttfautohint for TTF export, HarfBuzz.js for live OpenType shaping, polygon-clipping for boolean contour ops, perfect-freehand for pressure-sensitive sketch, satori + resvg-js for per-project OG image rendering, Vercel Blob for cloud share, service worker for offline.

## License

[MIT License](https://github.com/alevizio/patens/blob/main/LICENSE). The demo project's glyph data is part of the codebase under the same license. Designers retain full ownership of fonts they draw and export with Patens.

## Contact

- General: hi@patens.design
- Security disclosures: security@patens.design
- X: [@patenstype](https://x.com/patenstype)
- Bluesky: [@patens.design](https://bsky.app/profile/patens.design)
- GitHub: [alevizio/patens](https://github.com/alevizio/patens)