META
text/plain
Magic Bytes
Offset: 0
54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 54 65 58 2C
The META file format is a text-based resource associated with the TeX typesetting system, originally created by Donald Knuth for high-quality digital typography. These files typically contain font metric definitions, configuration metadata, or precompiled macro instructions used during the document compilation and rendering process. As a plain text format containing typesetting directives, it is considered safe for processing, though it represents a legacy method of font generation in modern publishing workflows.
Validation Code
How to validate .meta files in Python
Python
def is_meta(file_path: str) -> bool:
"""Check if file is a valid META by magic bytes."""
signature = bytes([0x54, 0x68, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x54, 0x65, 0x58, 0x2C])
with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
return f.read(12) == signatureHow to validate .meta files in Node.js
Node.js
function isMETA(buffer: Buffer): boolean {
const signature = Buffer.from([0x54, 0x68, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x54, 0x65, 0x58, 0x2C]);
return buffer.subarray(0, 12).equals(signature);
}
Go
func IsMETA(data []byte) bool {
signature := []byte{0x54, 0x68, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x69, 0x73, 0x20, 0x54, 0x65, 0x58, 0x2C}
if len(data) < 12 {
return false
}
return bytes.Equal(data[:12], signature)
}API Endpoint
GET
/api/v1/meta
curl https://filesignature.org/api/v1/meta