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SoCoder -> Showcase Home -> Apps and Utilities

 
chaos51
Created : 15 February 2009
Edited : 05 July 2009
System : Windows
Language : C#

Bitmap Font Creator

Create Bitmap fonts with a few mouseclicks

BFC_1.7.1.zip
Screenshots
It's a free bitmap font creator utility with demo Blitz library on how to use it in your onw Blitz programs. Download Here Happy Fontmaking ;o)

ps. The source code it includes is not for the program itself, but for demo rendering libraries. Which one of them has kindly be provided by Erebel55

Latest Update

1.1.0 First version
1.6.0 Second release. Added some features, fixed some bugs.
1.7.0 Update release. Added textures, more example library code (Blitz Max, C++), and a colourshift option for rendering. more colourfull fonts.
1.7.1 Contains a little trouble shooting text file. Helping to make it work, in some cases it did not work. (Windows setting)

 

Comments
Sunday, 15 February 2009, 08:52
Jayenkai
 		Neat.
Loads them up nice and quickly, does the job, well done!

And, welcome to the forum
Monday, 16 February 2009, 07:17
TazzMan47
 		Downloaded the Bitmap Font Creator. Great program, very useful. Thanks.
Monday, 16 February 2009, 10:52
chaos51
 		Thanks guys. I hope someone finds some use to it.
Some fonts unfortuanatly wont render properly. I think it's the vector fonts. I am not sure why that is just now.
Thursday, 26 February 2009, 09:25
Erebel55
 		I ported this to bmax..works like a charm for me in that too now

Thanks for the app man

Here is the link to my bmax port of the code. I don't know how crappy the host is but w/e. Hopefully someone else finds this useful.

Blitz Max Version
Saturday, 28 March 2009, 10:50
chaos51
 		Hi ERebel55,

Can I include your library into the next version of BFC?
If so, pls tellme how you would like to be mentioned. v Any links to your website, email, real name, or just handle.

-C51
Saturday, 28 March 2009, 17:39
chaos51
 		There is an update right now, I just recompiled it.

It's at www.lodgia.com/index.php?_r=d&_fn=BFC_1.7.1.zip...

Things fixed:

-Layout pretty much free now, from 1x256 all the way through 256x1, the same for 128x1 till 1x128. The "old" modes are still there, as they are saving on bitmap memory.

-Bright button. Sometimes the fonts where a bit dark. The extra bright button is a easy way to fix that.

-Author. Now you can put your name in the font file from the gui.


-Neon. New render type. Now fonts look like, well, as if they are neon letters. (As the name implies :o)

-It remebers the last font you selected, so if you want to browse from your last font selection, that will work ok now. (was a bit anoying in the previous version)


Things not fixed

Apparently it crashes on some machines. I have not found out why, as i does not on my machine. Any hints and tips regarding that are apreciated.


Why it took so long

I had to rebuild the whole project from scratch, as visual C, somehow made the project unbuildable, after I added a button to the dialog. And of course, making backups is for sissies ;o)

So.......


Have fun, and please feel free to comment and suggest improvements.
Monday, 30 March 2009, 09:57
Erebel55
 		Yeah, please include it in your next release. Just mention me as Erebel55 that's it Thanks.
Saturday, 20 June 2009, 16:05
chaos51
 		Updated. Please see comments behind version 1.7 in the top description.
Sunday, 05 July 2009, 05:00
chaos51
 		Update: The 1.7.1 version contains now a troubleshooting.txt file. It explains why on some computers it seems to cras, and how to fix that.

Also, I am working on a PHP library/script for using the fonts on your website. (Actually it's done, I'm just polishing it up)
Sunday, 05 July 2009, 05:09
Jayenkai
 		Cool stuff.
Not sure about the PHP, though. Use it too much and you'll be using up CPU like crazy.

Cache it a bit..
If you save "FontName_Size_Text.png" every time you use the php file. Then if file exists, use that instead of redrawing it every single time.
Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 03:00
chaos51
 		Yup I agree on the CPU concern in PHP, but I just try it, and see what happened.

Caching is a good idea. I had vaguely that idea as well, but I am trying to find out some good scheme for the filenames. Text could have lots of characters hat are not alowed in a filename ;o) I suppose I just escape them.

Otherwise, I suppose I do a filestat on the font files, and the cache files, to see if the fonts have not changes since the cache wascreated. Just to make sure the cache is up to date.

Another though I had was, a bitmap for the complete text, or a single one for each letter. (Which is probably a lot more load on the network)