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Socoder -> Blitz -> Font and resolution issues

Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 04:59
LostUser
I'm experiencing problems with 2 fonts,

1) "Small Fonts" (REF: SMALLE.FON, I don't recall where I got this) and

2) G.B.BOOT font as found at;
> https://www.dafont.com/gb-boot.font
> Reference: "gbb__.ttf"

Problem 1: Small fonts looks awful in Blitz
----------

In my Photoshop mockup at NES screen resolution 256x240, the font looks clear at 9 pixels, but if I try to do 9 pixels in Blitz it looks awful and totally unlike the Photoshop mockup.

Photoshop mockup (256x240)


Blitz mockup (320x240)


I tried everything from 7-11 pixels, but regardless of what I choose they look nothing like the actual mockup.

Q1. Why is this, and how do I fix it?

Problem 2: How do I load the G.B.BOOT font into Blitz?
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I've tried everything, including the direct path to the TTF, typing it as G.B.BOOT, but it never loads.



Question 2: How do I load the G.B.BOOT font?

Thanks.
Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 05:04
shroom_monk
If I remember, the old Windows 'Small Fonts' font only ever went up to 8pt, although I don't see why that would stop it from working...

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Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 05:10
Jayenkai
You need to be sure that the font's name is 100% the same as Windows sees it, before Blitz will see it..

eg, if you open the font with explorer, you should rename it to the title shown in the font preview.


Once you've done that with both fonts, then we'll come back to issue #1, because I'm not entirely convinced that it's loading the right font, either.

-=-=-
''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 08:06
Scherererer
RE: Problem 1:

The reason for this difference in appearance is that Photoshop will anti-alias the fonts, whereas blitz does not. Zoom in really close on both those pictures in paint and you'll see what I'm talking about, notice the Photoshop version will have little grayish pixels that gradient between the characters and the background, whereas the blitz version will just go from white to black. There are different rendering schemes for fonts in Photoshop, and you can easily toggle them about (I think there's the option of clear, smooth, none, and something else), then you can better simulate the final appearance of the font.

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Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 08:12
LostUser
Just to clarify, "small fonts" does work, I'm wondering why it doesn't look the same as it does in Photoshop with the exact same size pixel?

Even if I reduce my desktop screen size to 800x600 it still doesn't look the same.

If I increase the size of small font to say 20, it becomes clearly viewable but it becomes too big to use as a Base Font for the 256x240 screen size.

Here is a screenshot of the G.B.Boot via Windows Fonts;



I'm going to attempt a test with a Bitmap fonts output of the small fonts at size 9. If this is clearer, then I will use that.

Thanks.
Wed, 15 Apr 2009, 08:55
LostUser
I've done some tests. GB Boot doesn't work properly in various Bitmap font generators I've tried.

I'm abandoning GB Boot and will be using something uni 05_53 as this is much closer to my original.

Now the problem is the text and resolution scale issue.

|edit|

Turns out if I use Small Fonts at size 11 it looks the same as my photoshop mockup. But what's really weird is it that only looks the same if I have the game Windowed and if I use full screen mode it looks out of place.

I will just use a Windowed method instead.
Thu, 16 Apr 2009, 06:41
Evil Roy Ferguso
Something that can be tricky to work with is that font sizes in Blitz are given in Pixels, but in everything else ever on Windows, they're given in Points. On a Windows system, a point is 1.33 pixels or so, for some reason.

You might actually get the results you want by setting the font size higher than 11 -- since that's only about 8 point. Also keep in mind that Bitmap fonts can't scale -- if a size isn't contained in the font, you can't use it in Blitz. I think Photoshop can apply black magic on that front, but Blitz does not.
Thu, 16 Apr 2009, 07:34
LostUser
Oh I see. That probably explains it. Okay. Thanks.