01 ↘
Bring your own font
Place each unpatched family, with its license, in fontsrc/FontName/. Regular, Bold, Italic, and other faces stay together.
OPEN FONT PATCHING WORKFLOW FOLLOWING NERD FONTS RELEASES
Your font.
More symbols.
Same character.
Add Nerd Fonts icons to the typefaces you already use. Keep the source faces, patch every style, validate the result, and get a separate ZIP for each family.
Built around the official Nerd Fonts patcher · TTF and OTF input · local script or Docker Compose
PATCH SESSION VERSIONED
01SOURCE FONT.TTF / .OTF
Ag&
＋ ◈ ⌘ ⧉ ✦
02PATCHED FONTNERD FONT
Ag✦
fontsrc/→patched/→releases/*.zip
01ZIP per font family
TTF + OTFNested source files welcome
NF ↗Tracks upstream releases
✓Glyph coverage checked
INSIDE THE PATCH
What actually changes
inside a font?
A font file maps codepoints to drawn shapes called glyphs. The patcher reads the source font, adds icon glyphs from Nerd Fonts collections, writes their mappings, and saves a new font file. Your original file is kept untouched.
01 ORIGINAL FONT fontsrc/
Ag?_··
Your letters and existing glyphs
02 NERD FONTS ICON SOURCES src/glyphs/
⌘◈✳▣◆✦
Versioned icon shapes and codepoints
03 PATCHED FONT patched/
Ag?_◈✦
Letters remain; new icons become available
A
Shapes
Icon outlines come from the release's glyph files. The Python patcher decides where and how to place them.
B
Codepoints
Each icon gets a codepoint so applications can request it, just as they request a letter.
C
Spacing
Width rules decide whether an icon fits one terminal cell, overhangs, or takes proportional space.
D
Validation
The build checks that thousands of icon codepoints exist before packaging the family.
THE WORKFLOW
From clean source
to terminal-ready.
No manual FontForge session. The repo keeps the patcher, glyph assets, patched faces, and ZIPs in predictable places.
02 ↘
Run the guided script
Use the host script or Docker Compose. Select families and confirm the Nerd Fonts version. The same versioned patcher and glyph archive powers either path.
03 ↘
Take the results
Validated faces appear under patched/. Each selected family mode receives a ZIP under releases/ with available font and glyph license notices.
TWO WAYS TO RUN
Choose, confirm,
patch.
Run on Debian/Ubuntu or Homebrew, or use Docker Compose on Windows, Linux, or macOS. Both paths call the same script and create the same outputs. JuliaMono also builds its separately configured Forced variant.
Read the full quickstartterminal — nerdified-fonts⌘
# Local: guided family selection
$ ./scripts/patch_fonts.sh# Container: same guided workflow$ docker compose run --build --rm patcher✓ fonts validated✓ family and variant ZIPs in releases/THE ICON FINDER
Find the icon.
Copy its name.
Use your font.
Nerd Fonts' official Icon Finder / Cheat Sheet is the index for the icons added by the patcher. Search by a word such as “branch” or “terminal,” then inspect the icon name and codepoint. Copy the glyph or codepoint into a compatible prompt, editor, or application while selecting your patched font.
01 Search an idea
02 Choose a glyph
03 Use your patched font
The finder reflects Nerd Fonts' icon sets. Check the version of your installed patched font when an icon does not render.
⌕branchSEARCH ICONS
⑂
nf-oct-git_branchOCTICONS · ICON NAME⌁
nf-dev-git_branchDEVICONS · ICON NAME◇
nf-md-source_branchMATERIAL DESIGN · ICON NAMEicon name→your prompt or editor
A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING
Sources in.
Ready-to-use fonts out.
The upstream patcher and icons stay in a local cache. Generated output is ignored by Git and can be rebuilt from your source files.
fontsrc/
Your original font families and their licenses. Keep these files clean and unpatched.
fontsrc/FontName/.cache/
The release ZIP, FontForge patcher, and versioned glyph source files.
.cache/nerd-fonts-X.Y.Z/patched/
Every validated face, ready for local installation and inspection.
patched/FontName/releases/
One ZIP per family, including the available licensing notices.
FontName-vX.Y.Z.zipKNOW YOUR WIDTH
The name tells
part of the story.
Upstream Nerd Fonts distinguishes standard, Mono, and Propo styles by how added icons occupy space. This repo's default auto mode chooses between normal and mono patching from the source face.
NAMEICON WIDTHGOOD FOR
NF Nerd FontCan overhangLarger terminal icons
NFM Nerd Font MonoOne cellStrict terminal grid
NFP Nerd Font PropoVariableGUI and documents
“Forced” is this repo's conflict policy, not an upstream width variant. Propo is not currently exposed by this wrapper.
ONE ICON, THREE LAYOUTS
Width changes where
the next character lands.
NFstandard
│││││
◆AB
Large icon may overhang a following cell.
NFMmono
│││││
◆AB
Icon scales to fit one fixed cell.
NFPpropo
│││││
◆AB
Next character follows the icon's actual width.
Simplified diagrams; real spacing depends on the source font and application. This repo currently builds NF/NFM style modes, not NFP.
TEST BEFORE YOU COMMIT
Not every “mono” font
draws the same grid.
Use Programming Fonts to test a source face with your own code and box characters before patching. Look beyond the family name: check vertical strokes, intersections, ligatures, and whether the next character lands where you expect.
Test fonts on Programming Fonts01 / ALIGNED PREVIEW
JetBrains Mono
The vertical edges meet the horizontal box strokes in this browser preview.
02 / VISIBLE DRIFT
Lekton
In this preview the Unicode box strokes and the letter cells have different advances; vertical borders step between rows.
↗
What to inspect: the top-left corner and the vertical bar beneath it should share an x position. In the Lekton capture they do not. The browser preview measured a Latin M at about 10.5 px and a box-drawing │ at about 12.6 px at this size; JetBrains Mono measured both at about 12.6 px. These captures show unpatched source fonts in one browser, not a verdict on every platform or patched output. A missing glyph may be supplied by a fallback font. Test the final patched font in your own terminal too.
A NOTE ON LICENSES
Patch what you can use.
Share what you can distribute.
The scripts and docs use MIT. Source fonts retain their own terms, and Nerd Fonts glyph sources carry their own notices. Some fonts permit personal patching but prohibit redistribution of modified copies. Check each source license before committing fonts or publishing ZIPs.
READY WHEN YOU ARE