syn vs ttf-parser

Short answerBy steady daily use, syn is bigger: 8,378,886 real downloads a day against 357,445 for ttf-parser (23.4x). 18,848 crates depend on syn and 456 on ttf-parser. syn last shipped 12 days ago, ttf-parser 23 months ago.

syn

Foundational

Foundational and steady.

18,848 crates depend on it; downloads don't spike on releases.

Parser for Rust source code

ttf-parser

Established

Established and steady.

456 crates depend on it; no release in the last 90 days, so its count is all steady use.

A high-level, safe, zero-allocation font parser for TrueType, OpenType, and AAT.

synttf-parser · 100% = that crate's normal quiet day, so a spike to 300% is triple its usual traffic

Every number, side by side

Same window, same method	syn	ttf-parser
Real downloads a day	8,378,886	357,445
Crates that depend on it	18,848	456
Last release	3.0.9, 12 days ago	0.25.1, 23 months ago
Trend vs the field	+4%	+7%
Release-window share	11.9%	0.0%
Downloads in the window	765,996,823	34,096,935
All-time downloads	2,771,519,207	124,224,939
Versions published	362	49
License	MIT OR Apache-2.0	MIT OR Apache-2.0
MSRV	1.71	1.63.0
First published	Sep 7, 2016	Jun 18, 2019

Which to pick

Downloads tell you what is common, not what fits. Each crate's own description above says what it is for; when the jobs differ, pick by the job.
When both fit, prefer the one more crates depend on (syn, 18,848 dependents): more eyes, more answered questions, and you may already have it in your tree.
Check the release dates against your own pace: syn 12 days ago, ttf-parser 23 months ago.

Also in this space

strumWidely usedHelpful macros for working with enums and strings1,901,257 a day, 5,075 dependents litrsPulled inParse and inspect Rust literals (i.e. tokens in the Rust programming language representing fixed values)....718,877 a day, 96 dependents pin-project-liteWidely usedA lightweight version of pin-project written with declarative macros3,270,978 a day, 1,708 dependents pin-projectWidely usedA crate for safe and ergonomic pin-projection1,484,314 a day, 1,406 dependents

Compare 4 of them side by side →

Method

Real downloads = the median day with no release that day or the day before, from the crates.io API (Jul 27, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026). Raw crates.io counts include CI and bots and run high (why); the method is from our 90-day study.

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