Adding New Icon Sets

Relevant source files

• bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py
• bin/scripts/gotta-patch-em-all-font-patcher!.sh
• bin/scripts/standardize-and-complete-readmes.sh
• src/archive-font-patcher-readme.md
• src/glyphs/README.md
• src/svgs/README.md
• src/svgs/icons.tsv
• src/svgs/zsh_nf.svg

This page is a contributor guide for adding new glyphs to the Seti and Original icon set — the SVG-sourced icon set that is the only one in this repository built from raw SVG files. The full pipeline goes from SVG source → icons.tsv → original-source.otf → patched fonts.

For information about the existing icon sets and their codepoint ranges, see Icon Sets. For how glyph shell variable files like i_seti.sh work and are consumed by the patcher, see Glyph Definitions.

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Pipeline Overview

The Seti and Original icon set is unique among Nerd Fonts glyph sources: rather than tracking an upstream font binary, it is built from individual .svg files checked into the repository. All other icon sets (Font Awesome, Devicons, Octicons, etc.) are tracked as pre-built .otf/.ttf files directly in src/glyphs/.

Pipeline: SVG source glyphs → font binary

Sources: src/svgs/README.md bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py1-30

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Step 1 — Prepare the SVG File

Place the new SVG file in src/svgs/. Two naming conventions apply depending on the icon's origin:

Origin	Naming convention	Example
Original / custom (not from Seti-UI)	Append _nf suffix	zsh_nf.svg
Seti-UI upstream	No suffix	rust.svg

This naming distinction exists to avoid collisions between the two sources, as noted in src/svgs/README.md

SVG constraints:

• The script scales each glyph to fit within a target bounding box of [53, 0, 947, 900] in font units (see dBB in addIcon, bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py105). Any aspect ratio is handled automatically.
• Every push triggers Inkscape simplify-path optimization via optimize-original-source.sh. Be aware that path complexity will be reduced.
• SVGs must be valid outlines. The FontForge importOutlines call (bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py108) will silently fail on malformed files.

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Step 2 — Update icons.tsv

src/svgs/icons.tsv is the authoritative mapping file that controls codepoint assignment, glyph names, and file associations. It is read by generate-original-source.py at bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py157

File format (tab-separated):

# comment lines start with #
# offset<TAB>name<TAB>filename.svg
offset    name_in_i_seti_sh    filename.svg

• offset — zero-based integer offset from start_codepoint (0xE4FA). Offsets must be kept consecutive with no gaps.
• name — the variable name emitted into i_seti.sh. Must match [a-zA-Z0-9_] only; invalid characters are replaced with _ by the script.
• filename — the .svg file in src/svgs/. Omit this field on alias lines (see below).

Concrete example from icons.tsv:

191    i_custom_zsh    zsh_nf.svg

This assigns zsh_nf.svg to offset 191 (codepoint 0xE4FA + 191 = 0xE5B9). After the codepoint_shift of 0x0100, the final codepoint in patched fonts is 0xE6B9.

Adding Aliases

An alias is an additional name for the same glyph at the same offset. Add a new line with the same offset number, a different name, and no filename:

191    i_custom_zsh    zsh_nf.svg
191    i_seti_zsh

The addLineToData function (bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py49-61) appends the new name to the existing codepoint's name list rather than creating a duplicate entry.

Codepoint Range Limits

Variable	Value	Description
start_codepoint	0xE4FA	First codepoint in original-source.otf
end_codepoint	0xE5FF	Last permitted codepoint (262 slots total)
codepoint_shift	0x0100	Shift applied by font-patcher during patching

The generator will exit(1) if any entry falls outside [start_codepoint, end_codepoint] (bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py161-163). As of the current icons.tsv, offsets go up to 191, leaving approximately 70 slots free.

Sources: src/svgs/icons.tsv1-14 bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py17-26 bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py49-89

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Step 3 — Run generate-original-source.py

From the src/svgs/ directory:

python3 ../../bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py

The script is configured with relative path constants at the top (bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py21-27):

Variable	Value	Purpose
vector_datafile	icons.tsv	Glyph database
vectorsdir	../../src/svgs	SVG source directory
fontfile	original-source.otf	Output font file
fontdir	../../src/glyphs	Output font directory
glyphsetfile	i_seti.sh	Output shell variable file
glyphsetsdir	lib	Output directory for shell variable file (relative to script)

What the script does:

The output i_seti.sh is autogenerated — do not edit it manually. It will contain one shell variable assignment per glyph at the shifted codepoints.

Sources: bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py103-119 bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py121-132 bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py135-179

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Step 4 — Run optimize-original-source.sh

This script runs Inkscape's path simplification on SVGs in src/svgs/. It is automatically triggered by CI on every push, but should also be run locally before committing:

bash bin/scripts/optimize-original-source.sh

Be aware that Inkscape simplify-path is destructive: it modifies the SVG geometry in-place. Review the diff of your SVG after running this. The CI will apply this automatically for pull requests, as described in src/svgs/README.md

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Step 5 — Verify the Output

After running generate-original-source.py, verify:

1. src/glyphs/original-source.otf has been regenerated (check file modification time).
2. bin/scripts/lib/i_seti.sh contains a new variable for your glyph name.
3. The script output shows no Gap at offset N warnings — these indicate non-consecutive offsets in icons.tsv.
4. The script output shows no FATAL: We are leaving the allocated codepoint range error.

The hasGaps function (bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py28-34) checks for discontinuities in the assigned codepoints and prints a warning if any exist.

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Relationship to font-patcher

The regenerated original-source.otf is already referenced in font-patcher's patch_set under the "Seti-UI + Custom" entry. No changes to font-patcher are required when adding glyphs to the existing SVG icon set, because the patcher reads the font file at patching time.

Data flow from SVGs to a patched font:

Sources: bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py17-19 bin/scripts/generate-original-source.py170-178

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Adding a Non-SVG Icon Font

To add an entirely new external icon font (e.g., a new upstream icon font shipped as a .otf or .ttf):

1. Place the font binary in src/glyphs/.
2. Update src/glyphs/README.md with the upstream source, version, and license.
3. Add a new entry to font-patcher's patch_set list, specifying the font file, codepoint range, and any scaling parameters.
4. Add a corresponding i_<name>.sh shell variable file in bin/scripts/lib/ mapping each codepoint to a shell variable name.
5. Update bin/scripts/lib/i_all.sh to source the new file.

This process is analogous to how Font Awesome, Devicons, Octicons, and similar sets are integrated. See Glyph Definitions and Icon Sets for the complete details on i_*.sh files and existing patch_set entries.

Sources: src/glyphs/README.md1-28

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CI Automation

When a pull request includes changes to src/svgs/, the CI pipeline:

1. Runs optimize-original-source.sh (Inkscape path simplification).
2. Runs generate-original-source.py to rebuild original-source.otf and i_seti.sh.
3. Commits the regenerated files back to the PR branch.

This means contributors do not need to run generate-original-source.py locally, but running it locally allows validation before pushing. See Development Workflow for details on the full CI pipeline.

Sources: src/svgs/README.md11-13