Armorer

An engine for parsing heraldry blazons.

Blazon structure

Data is parsed into a standard blazon data format, described below with examples using PHP array syntax.

The base element in all blazons is the field, which can have the following sub-elements: either a tincture or a partition (e.g. per fess) + fields (individual partitions), and optionally charges or ordinaries. Ordinaries may have their own charges. Charges generally have a charge, number, and tincture, and optionally a position. Most elements can also have modifiers (e.g. complex lines of partition, a charge's posture or position, tincture patterns, etc).

Due to the potential for complex arrangements, tinctures, partitions, charges, and modifiers are generally encoded as arrays, with array order important.

Examples

Azure, a lion passant argent.

[
    'field' => [
        'tincture' => ['azure'],
        'charges' => [
            [
                'charge' => 'lion',
                'number' => 1,
                'modifiers' => ['passant'],
                'tincture' => ['argent'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

Per fess wavy argent and azure, in the first a hammer proper.

[
    'field' => [
        'partition' => [
            'per-fess',
            'modifiers' => ['wavy'],
        ],
        'fields' => [
            [
                'tincture' => ['argent'],
                'charges' => [
                    [
                        'charge' => 'hammer',
                        'number' => 1,
                        'tincture' => ['proper'],
                    ],
                ],
            ],
            [
                'tincture' => ['azure'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

Fretty argent and sable, an eagle displayed gules langued azure.

[
    'field' => [
        'tincture' => [
            'argent',
            'sable',
            'modifiers' => ['fretty'],
        ],
        'charges' => [
            [
                'charge' => 'eagle',
                'number' => 1,
                'modifiers' => ['displayed'],
                'tincture' => [
                    'sable',
                    'langued' => 'azure'
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

Vert, a bend sinister invected sable between two mullets Or.

Note: due to the ordinary's position between relative to the charges recorded in the blazon, the charges are separated and given absolute positions dexter-chief and sinister-base respectively.

[
    'field' => [
        'tincture' => ['vert'],
        'ordinaries' => [
            [
                'ordinary' => 'bend-sinister',
                'modifiers' => ['invected'],
                'tincture' => ['sable],
            ],
        ]
        'charges' => [
            [
                'charge' => 'mullet',
                'number' => 1,
                'position' => 'dexter-chief'
                'tincture' => ['or'],
            ],
            [
                'charge' => 'mullet',
                'number' => 1,
                'position' => 'sinister-base'
                'tincture' => ['or'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],