Get a font filepath from name and style in C++/Windows

Question

I'm currently implementing FreeType 2 in a project of mine and thus need the filepaths for Fonts on my system. I need a solution that only takes the fonts name and the desired font style (eg. bold or italic) and then returns the filepath for the font.

I already tried the answer from this Stack Overflow question, but it doesn't work on Windows 7 (and probably neither on Vista), but obviously I need a solution that works on these systems and future systems as well.

Answer 1

May I ask why do you need the path to a physical file?

• If you just need the binary data of the font, you can use GetFontData.
• If need the metrics of the font, you can create an HFONT, select the HFONT into an font holder HDC, and use GetOutlineTextMetrics.
• If you need information about font linking, take a look at my project: font_link.cpp.
• All above are pure GDI functions. If you really need the font path, and not mind using DirectWrite, take look at IDWriteFontFile::GetReferenceKey and IDWriteLocalFontFileLoader::GetFilePathFromKey. This would give you more future insurance than GDI.