Shift is free and open source, and runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It stays responsive with large glyph sets and many sources, and it's designed to be easy to pick up.
[!WARNING]
Work on copies of your fonts and keep backups. Workflows and file details will change between alpha releases.
Download
Download Shift for macOS, Windows, and Linux from shift.graphics or GitHub Releases. On Linux, install from the APT or DNF repositories to get updates. For the latest development build, use Shift Nightly.
Shift requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, Windows 10 or later, or a Linux distribution with glibc 2.27 or later (Ubuntu 18.04, RHEL 8, or newer).
AI agents
Connect Claude Code, Codex, or another MCP client to fonts open in Shift using the one-time MCP setup guide. Agents can read and render fonts, control what a Shift window shows (tool, page, open glyph, zoom, selection, view commands), and write the proof text on the canvas and its Text caret, but cannot change fonts or files; use shift-cli for saved files that are not open in the app.
Themes
Shift's colors live in plain files you can edit and keep in your dotfiles; every save applies live. See the theme guide, and contrib/omarchy to follow your Omarchy theme.
Status
| Area | Status |
|---|
| Drawing and editing outlines | ✅ |
| Variable fonts: axes, sources, instances | ✅ |
| Components | ✅ |
| Import: UFO, Designspace, Glyphs | ✅ |
| View: TTF, OTF | ✅ |
| Export: TrueType, including variable | ✅ |
| Kerning | Planned |
| Text proofing | Planned |
Found a bug? Use Help → Report a Problem in the app, or ask on Discord.
Development
Shift is an Electron app with a TypeScript editor and a Rust core. You need Node.js 24, pnpm 11, and stable Rust.
git clone https://github.com/shift-editor/shift.git
cd shift
pnpm install
pnpm dev
| Command | What it does |
|---|
pnpm dev | Build the native addon in debug mode and start the app |
pnpm dev:release | Same with a release build, for performance work |
pnpm test | Run the test suites |
pnpm check | Lint, typecheck, dead-code checks, and tests; run before a PR |
pnpm package | Build an installable app |
Repository layout
apps/desktop: Electron app and React UIpackages/editor: tools, rendering, and editor statecrates/shift-bridge: native bridge between TypeScript and Rustcrates/shift-workspace: open documents and editing sessionscrates/shift-engine: the editing session over a partly loaded font, shared by native and the renderercrates/shift-font: the font model and editing behaviorcrates/shift-store: .shift files and recoverycrates/shift-backends, crates/fontsrc: importing and exporting UFO, Designspace, Glyphs, and TrueType
See docs/architecture for how the code is organized.
Security and signing
Windows releases are currently unsigned while Shift applies for open-source code signing. See the code signing policy for the signing scope, release controls, team roles, and network/privacy disclosures.
Security vulnerabilities can be reported privately to Kostya Farber.
License
Shift is dual-licensed under either of
at your option. Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution you submit for inclusion in Shift is licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.
Third-party fonts, data, and code bundled with Shift keep their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
