Pixel fonts, also known as screen fonts or bitmap fonts, are fonts consisting of small pixels. Pixel fonts display the texts in simple blocks instead of elaborate curves as most regular fonts do. So the obvious advantage of pixel fonts over regular fonts is that texts using pixel fonts can still look crisp and clear in very small sizes. I dragged the desyrel.png in the shoebox bitmap font generator and it does the same thing. It reads the whole png as 1 letter. Like there just one border for the entire bitmap(not like in their tutorial where it creates border for each letter). They did not say changing any settings in their tutorial before it recognize the png. Hmmm not sure what I did wrong.
The program is freeware and open source, but a donation is greatly appreciated.
If you don't have an image viewer capable of reading TGA, PNG, or DDS files, I recommend PUPP, another free product from AngelCode.
Downloads
download installer for v1.13 (358KB)
download installer for v1.14 beta (551KB)download 64bit executable for v1.14 beta (1.53MB)
Features
- Support for complete Unicode 8.0 character set, as well as 8 bit OEM character sets
- Optimal use of texture space, i.e. as little unused area as possible
- Support for kerning pairs
- Easy to use file format, either normal text file or xml files. Binary format is available for those that prefer that
- 8bit or 32bit texture output (TGA, PNG, and DDS files)
- Option for packing 4 layers of font images into 1 32bit texture. Needs special shader to render with, but saves a lot of memory
- Anti-aliasing, both through Windows native font smoothing and super sampling
- Configurable padding and spacing between characters
- Select characters from text file, supports both UTF8 and UTF16 encoded files
- Generate bitmap font from command line
- Import colored images as characters, supports: bmp, jpg, tga, dds, png
- Optional outline to font characters
- Optional packing of characters with outline into 1 channel. Needs special shader to unpack during rendering, but saves a lot of memory
- Use TrueType fonts directly from the file without installing them first
Documentation
The manual is installed with the tool, but for those who wish to take a look at it without installing the tool first it is also available here. The manual describes both how to use the tool and the file format of the generated files.Source code
The source code is available under the widely known zlib license. The svn repository is hosted at SourceForge.netGet the code by pointing your svn client at: http://svn.code.sf.net/p/bmfont/code/trunk.
If you want any support with the code, then please visit the forums.
Observation on virus alert
Avira anti-virus has been known to give a virus alert when scanning bmfont.exe or the installer. This is a false positive generated by their heuristic functions that tries to predict and catch unknown viruses. I've already reported this false positive to Avira a few times and each time they recognize it as a false positive, however for some reason the problem comes back months later (presumably when they update the heuristic functions).
If anyone has any idea what I need to change in the code to prevent this false alert I would very much like to know.
Tutorials & Resources
Here are a some links to other resources that provide information or tools that are useful for those interested in bitmap fonts.
- Bitmap Fonts by Andreas J�nsson
- Bitmap Fonts by Chad Vernon
- Quick tutorial: Variable width bitmap fonts by Promit
- BMFont OpenGL Implementation by legolas558
- bmfont BlitzMax module by Mike Wiering
- C# XML serializer for font loading by DeadlyDan
- BMFont to C source code converter by Lars Ole Pontoppidan
- PlayOnLinux - can be used to run BMFont on Linux
- GlyphCombiner - a Mac OS X tool by Binary Blobs for combining multiple bitmap fonts into a single atlas
The following are some other tools that also generate output in the same format that I came up with for BMFont and that is widely used in the industry today.- Littera - free web application
- Glyph Designer - paid app for Mac
- ShoeBox - free tool written with Adobe Air
- Hiero - open source tool written in Java
Pixel fonts, also known as screen fonts or bitmap fonts, are fonts consisting of small pixels. Pixel fonts display the texts in simple blocks instead of elaborate curves as most regular fonts do. So the obvious advantage of pixel fonts over regular fonts is that texts using pixel fonts can still look crisp and clear in very small sizes. Pixel fonts are very popular over the Internet due to its clearness and crisp look, especially in websites that require text legibility in small sizes such as flash websites.
Because pixel fonts are usually designed to fit pixel by pixel with the computer screen, it will be best displayed at a specified size. Thyme Nu created by Michel Troy is a typical font family of pixel style. The family contains six fonts, and they are perfect for both small screen resolutions and outputs at larger sizes.
Thyme Nu by Michel Troy
To download free pixel fonts, you can take a look at our collection of pixel fonts. If you are looking for professional pixel fonts with good kerning, alternates, broad character support, have a look at pixel fonts at MyFonts.com. If you don’t want the hassle of downloading and installing fonts, but just want to use pixel fonts fonts online, you should check our text generator tool below.
Font Generator Copy And Paste
Create text images with pixel fonts
Bitmap Font Tool
You can use the following tool to generate text images based on your selection of colors, text effects and sizes using pixel fonts in seconds. You can then save the image, or use the EMBED button to get image links. If you want to modify the image further such as rotating, bending or blurring, you can use our image tools.
ENTER FONT SIZE