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Bitmap Fonts

(27 posts) (7 voices)

Started 2 years ago by Barry
Latest reply from finefin

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Barry
Member

I was testing the registerBitmapFontFromFile method of sparrow, but I can't get it to work correctly.

I used http://slick.cokeandcode.com/demos/hiero.jnlp to generate the bitmap font (I am on OS X, maybe someone has any hints about some other bitmap generator?), but I keep getting the error:

uncaught exception: could not parse bitmap font xml menu.fnt. Error code: 4, domain: NSXMLParserErrorDomain
2009-02-11 14:43:37.950 Test[78379:207] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'FileInvalid', reason: 'could not parse bitmap font xml menu.fnt. Error code: 4, domain: NSXMLParserErrorDomain'

EDIT: I just noticed that hiero does not generate correct xml for the .fnt file.

Is there any os x application that I can use to create correct bitmap fonts?

Posted 2 years ago #
Holger
Administrator

Hi Barry,

unfortunately i do not know of any bitmap font generator running on OSX that works with Sparrow.
For PenguFlip we were using AngelCode's awesome font generator ( http://www.angelcode.com/products/bmfont ), of course running within a Windows VM.

I have to admit that this is cumbersome, but once set up, it works perfectly fine.

Posted 2 years ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Hi Barry!

Good news: I just created a Ruby script that converts the output of "Hiero" to the format that is required by Sparrow. Thus, you can now easily use it with Sparrow.

To get this utility, check out the latest Sparrow version (I just added the information how to do this on the Download-page), and look into to "sparrow/util" directory. The README file explains how it works.

For perfect results, I recommend you add at least 1 pixel padding in "top" and "left" directions in Hiero.

BTW, the guys that created Hiero also have a fine tool for creating a texture atlas. It's called "Packer". In the "util"-directory you will find a converter for its file format, as well.

Daniel

Posted 2 years ago #
Jule
Member

Hi,
is there any way to measure the bitmap font letters in a text field, not the number of characters, but the actual width of the letters.
For example I have changing languages in my game and my button width should depend on the width of it's label, which is written with bitmap font, and changes depending on the language selected.
Thanks,
Jule.

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather
Hi!

Hm, unfortunately, that feature is still missing in Sparrow. It's on the todo-list, though.

However, I can offer a small hack that should do it for now. I can't promise that it will work in all future versions of Sparrow, because it depends on the inner structure of text fields (which might change). However, as that feature is planned anyway, that should not be too much of a problem.

What you have to do is extend the SPTextField class via a category. Add the following method:
```
- (SPRectangle *)textBounds
{
    if (mRequiresRedraw) [self redrawContents];    

    if (mIsRenderedText)
        return mContents.bounds;
    else
        return [(SPDisplayObjectContainer *)mContents childAtIndex:1].bounds;
}
```
Now you can get the text width the following way:

float width = [[myTextField textBounds] width];

Beware, though: this code will only work if you are using a bitmap font.
If you need help creating the category, just come back here =)
Posted 1 year ago #
Jule
Member

Thanks a lot Daniel, it works great.
Regards,
Jule.

Posted 1 year ago #
finefin
Member

when I use Heiro to generate a glyph png, the png is flipped upside down.
therefore the xml doesn't match with the png.
I have to flip the bitmap font image manually to make it work properly.

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Hi,

I've had a lot of trouble with Heiro, too
So currently I always using the AngelCode tool Holger writes about above. If you have access to a Windows Computer (e.g. via VirtualBox), I recommend you try that instead -- except somebody else here in the forum has found another alternative?

Posted 1 year ago #
finefin
Member

just fired up my windoze pc and used AngelCode's BMFont to generate a bunch of beautiful bitmap fonts. by comparison, all other tools i found are not useful at all...

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

That's exactly the experience I had ...! Perhaps Sparrow will get its own font generator one day. However, I guess this would quite a bit of work *g*. Don't expect that to happen too soon

Posted 1 year ago #
baike
Moderator

I'm also using this great tool, but I am wondering: is it OK to use these fonts without paying some kind of royalties? Who owns them and how does Apple feel about including them in your game even if they're in bitmap form rather than including a ttf file in your distribution? It'd be a real pain to have to create my own font to avoid any legal issues.

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Hm, I've never heard of someone getting in trouble because of that, though I'm not entirely sure of the legal issues here, either.

When you are in doubt, I recommend this web page for finding fonts:

http://www.dafont.com

You can download a lot of fonts there, and it displays the license for each font -- many of them being free or in the public domain.

Posted 1 year ago #
baike
Moderator

Wow, what a great site! Thank you for the suggestion.

Posted 1 year ago #
finefin
Member

Some font families are really really expensive!
Just take a look at http://new.myfonts.com/ and you'll know what I mean

however, legal actions against non-licenced usage of fonts are very rare and
are usually concerning "corporate identity theft".
but as you can see on http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/
big brands also often use (modified) well-known fonts.

http://www.dafont.com is a very nice collection of free and commercial fonts
and I use it very often to get new types.

If you are looking for clear pixel fonts...
I love the fonts by Orgdot, which are free for private and commercial use:
http://www.orgdot.com/aliasfonts/

cheers

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Thanks for the Orgdot-Link -- those are very useful fonts!

Posted 1 year ago #
Jule
Member

Hi, does anyone know a software that creates a bitmap font but has more options to set up, like the font's anti-aliasing, or maybe some plug in for photoshop that once you modified the font's anti-aliasing can export a bitmap font. Or maybe some other tool that can be use to modify .tff files in the appearance of the font and then use that file to create bitmap font.
Thanks

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

If I'm not mistaken, you can add some filters on fonts with the Hiero tool mentioned above -- perhaps you can make use of one of them. Other than that, I don't know of any such tool.

Posted 1 year ago #
Jule
Member

Thanks, I think I found a solution in the bmfont software from angelcode. Cheers!

Posted 1 year ago #
enbr
Moderator

Hi, are there any specific instructions on how to create bitmap fonts from ttf files for both regular and retina displays? I'd like to use them to save memory because I'm using the ttf directly now. Can someone provide clear instructions on how to do this?
Thanks,
enbr

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

You just have to create it 2 times, using twice the font size for the retina texture. Have a look at the demo project, it contains such a font in 2 resolutions. Just open up the font xml files if you need to know how to name the texture, and how to reference it.

If you need more help, come back here, and I'll see what I can do!

Posted 1 year ago #
enbr
Moderator

Twice the font size? Should I say that the size is the largest font I have (my title) and then scale it down for everything else?
The reason I really decided to do this was so I could use SPComiledSprite to save some memory but now I'm not sure what the tradeoffs are between loading a ttf file, loading a bitmap font, or not using SPCompiledSprite.

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

If it's the game title you're talking about, and it does not change, I would create a texture with the complete title and display that instead. Then you can save the bitmap font in the size it is used at other parts of the game (which is probably smaller). The best image quality is achieved if you use the bitmap font exactly in the size you've created it. (assign 'SP_NATIVE_FONT_SIZE' as the font size for that.)

As soon as you use a bitmap font, it is displayed as a compiled sprite. That will not gain you any memory, though: compiled sprites are just rendered faster. What's saving you memory, though, is the fact that you're using a bitmap font, because that means Sparrow won't have to create a new texture (taking memory) for every rendered text.

If you have only small text fields that don't change often, you might still be better off using a normal font. (Just compare the size of the font texture with the size of the texts you have on the screen simultaneously. By rule of thumb, whatever is smaller uses less memory.

Posted 1 year ago #
enbr
Moderator

Does the Sparrow font size property and the bitmap font generator size values match up evenly?
For example does
textField.fontSize = 30;
display the same size font as SP_NATIVE_FONT_SIZE when
setting the size to 30 in AngelCode's generator?

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Yes, those two lines will lead to the exact same output. 'SP_NATIVE_FONT_SIZE' is just a convenience so you don't have to remember the value yourself.

Posted 1 year ago #
finefin
Member

btw, I found an unlimited source of fonts: yourself!

http://www.myscriptfont.com/

print the template, fill out the form, scan it, upload, start processing...
and download your own handwriting font! it works like a charm and it's free!

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Primary Feather

Wow, that's cool!
Thanks for sharing!

Posted 1 year ago #
finefin
Member

okay. this seems to become my library of font related links
please tell me if you want me to stop...
... but wait! here's something cool, trust me!

it's a small collection of classic monospaced system fonts in TTF format:
http://damieng.com/blog/2011/02/20/typography-in-8-bits-system-fonts

have fun

Posted 1 year ago #

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