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Font Studio bitmap font generator supports CEGUI

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 20:10
by Nitrogen
*EDIT: moderators, feel free to move this to the tools forum which I didnt see first time* :oops:
Hello the forums!

I've been recently playing around with Ogre3D, and hence CEGUI, and I saw the lack of a nice bitmap font generator for use with CEGUI.

Well, it just so happens that I have a nice bitmap font generator, with a convenient plugin system, so I spent a short while writing a CEGUI exporter for FontStudio my bitmap font generator.

(Apologies in advance for the large images!)

Specifically, This exports the three files needed to describe a bitmap font: .font, .imageset and .png . After trawling the CEGUI messageboards and wikis I managed to get kerning information into the font description, so fonts are rendered as accurately as normal OS fonts would be.

I see that CEGUI already renders out ttf files, so users will probably use Font Studio for the effects it can add to your fonts:

Image
Image

For instance, I rendered out this font with Font Studio:
Image

And heres a screenshot of it running in Ogre3D:
Image


Font Studio can be downloaded from here:
Font Studio Bitmap Font Generator

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 21:05
by scriptkid
Hi and welcome! :)

[edit] No worries about the location, but i have moved it to Tools indeed.[/edit]

This looks like a very cool utility to me. The options (drop shadows and such) are really slick :)

It also shows some cool benefits over using ttf fonts directly, it seems.

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 21:11
by CrazyEddie
Hey! :)

Very cool indeed. I think we might make use of this to create some more 'intersting' looking text in some new CEGUI demos.

CE.

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 21:34
by Pompei2
I really, REALLY appreciate! thanks for sharing!

I tought bitmap fonts are dead, but now I don't think so anymore! I will look into using it in our game :P Great news, really!

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 21:51
by Nitrogen
Cool guys!

Hope you can get some joy out of it...

I've been working on my bitmap font generator off and on since 2003, so it's constantly evolving... Just at a very slow pace :P

Currently I find the effects a tad bit limiting, so the next version will probably revamp the effects completely into something more like what photoshop layer effects give you.

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 22:00
by Nitrogen
Oh and some general tips for using it:

- If you making straight text with no effects, always choose the SAME text colour and the background colour, so that only the alpha channel describes the outline of the font and not the colour channel as well which can lead to the characters having some of the background bleed through around the edges.

- Drop shadows can be used as glows by changing the background colour.

- For smaller fonts, 12pt and below, play with the antialiasing settings. Some fonts look better using Cleartype and some look better using Smooth antialiasing, you just have to choose the one that looks the best to you.

- Double-clicking on the preview area will allow you to set it's background colour. Useful for checking out how the font will look on bright and dark backgrounds.

Re: Font Studio bitmap font generator supports CEGUI

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 01:28
by earthsruler
Really cool dude! I didn't even know we could do that with font files :S.

And here i've been using monochromatic fonts like a sucker!

Thanks for the sweet tool!

Re: Font Studio bitmap font generator supports CEGUI

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 08:25
by scriptkid
I didn't even know we could do that with font files.


To give more exposure to this neat tool, i've added a link to the toolset page:
http://www.cegui.org.uk/wiki/index.php/ ... _a_Toolset

Re: Font Studio bitmap font generator supports CEGUI

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 20:26
by Rincevent
The website seems to be dead.
Does somebody have a copy of this sotfware that he could mirror?

Thanks,

Rincevent