fc-query

Query font file

$ fc-query [font.ttf]

$ fc-query --format '%{family}\n' [font.ttf]

$ fc-query --format '%{=unparse}\n' [font.ttf]

$ fc-query --index [0] [font.ttc]

fc-query [options] font-file

fc-query extracts and displays information from font files without installing them. It's part of fontconfig and shows font properties like family, style, weight, and supported languages.
The tool queries individual font files directly rather than the system font cache. Format strings allow extracting specific properties. For font collections (.ttc), specific fonts can be selected by index.
fc-query is useful for examining fonts before installation or scripting font management tasks.

FONT-FILE

Font file to query (.ttf, .otf, .ttc).

Output format string.

Font index in collection.

Verbose output.

Display help information.

Only reads single files, not directories. Format string syntax requires learning. Some fonts may have incomplete metadata.

fc-query is part of fontconfig, the font configuration library created by Keith Packard for X.org. It provides programmatic access to font metadata used by the fontconfig system.

fc-scan(1), fc-list(1), fc-cache(1)