Fix Consolas's line-height on OS X

fixconsolas

#!/bin/bash
#
# Requires ftxdumperfuser from http://developer.apple.com/textfonts/download/
#
# Usage: fixconsolas [files ...]
#   When called with no arguments, it attempts to operate on every TrueType
#     file in the current directory.
#
# References:
#   http://bandes-storch.net/blog/2008/12/21/consolas-controlled/#comment-2042
#   http://lists.macromates.com/textmate/2009-March/028282.html

# test for ftxdumperfuser in PATH
ftxdumperfuser &>/dev/null
if [ $? -eq 127 ]; then
	echo "The ftxdumperfuser utility was not found!"
	echo "Please download and install to continue:"
	echo "    http://developer.apple.com/textfonts/download/"
	exit $?
fi

# protect against spaces in filenames
# hat tip Alexey Blinov
# and http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html#IFSH
IFS=$'\n'

if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
	# when no arguments passed,
	# set positional parameters
	# to ttf in current directory
	set -- $(ls *.[Tt][Tt][Ff])
fi

unset IFS # reset to default

E_NOARGS=85
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "Error: No TrueType font files found!"
	echo "Usage: `basename $0` [Consolas.ttf]"
	exit $E_NOARGS
fi


ASC="1884" # ascender
DSC="514"  # descender, already negative in file
GAP="0"    # lineGap

D='[0-9]\{1,\}' # BRE equivalent of PCRE \d+

# iterate through positional parameters
for font
do
	# error-checking, what a concept
	if [ ! -e "$font" ]; then
		echo "$font does not exist."
		continue
	fi

	# dump hhea table
	ftxdumperfuser -t hhea "$font" | \
	# replace desired values
	sed \
		-e "/ascender=/s/$D/$ASC/" \
		-e "/descender=/s/$D/$DSC/" \
		-e "/lineGap=/s/$D/$GAP/" | \
	# fuse hhea table back into font
	ftxdumperfuser -F -t hhea "$font"

	echo "Fixed $font"
done

exit $?

In case anyone wants a python solution, this worked for me

import os
import sys

from fontTools import ttLib

def run(argv):
    if len(argv) != 2:
        print("USAGE: %s <font-file>" % argv[0])
        sys.exit(1)

    fontpath = argv[1]
    tt = ttLib.TTFont(fontpath)
    tt['hhea'].lineGap = 0
    tt['hhea'].ascent = 1884
    tt['hhea'].descent = -514
    tt.save(get_nolinegap_filepath(fontpath))

def get_nolinegap_filepath(fontpath):
    fontpath_list = os.path.split(fontpath)
    font_dirname = fontpath_list[0]
    font_basename = fontpath_list[1]
    basepath_list = font_basename.split(".")
    outfile_basename = basepath_list[0] + "-nolinegap." + basepath_list[1]
    return os.path.join(font_dirname, outfile_basename)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    run(sys.argv)

Save as file and install dependency:

pip install fonttools

Will save the output <font-file>-nolinegap.ttf

In case anyone wants a python solution...

Awesome, that fixed consolas for me in Emacs/X11, where the glyphs appeared shifted upwards, touching the top of the mode line.
I prefer the following parameters, which fix the shift and only slightly increase the line height:

shift_down = 100
extra_ascent = 100
tt['hhea'].ascent += shift_down + extra_ascent
tt['hhea'].descent += shift_down
# tt['hhea'].lineGap in unchanged