Custom font support for GrafX2

[Psiweapon]

Hey, I had to make a couple of ascii bitmap fonts for one of my game
projects, in 8x16, 16x32 and 32x64 formats (At first I wanted to go
with a 1x1'5 format, rather than 1x2, but that didn't work out well)

How do I format them so the text tool can use them?

I can see that the bitmap fonts that come with the program are laid
out in a single line, but I don't know what kind of spacing do they
take, or if they have any size constraints, or really anything.

Also, if the game dev is okay with it (I can't think any reason why he
wouldn't) would you consider distributing them with the program, or is
it out of the question?

[pulko...@pulkomandy.ath.cx]

On 2011-09-27 at 16:29:29 [+0200], Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey, I had to make a couple of ascii bitmap fonts for one of my game
> projects, in 8x16, 16x32 and 32x64 formats (At first I wanted to go
> with a 1x1'5 format, rather than 1x2, but that didn't work out well)
>
> How do I format them so the text tool can use them?
>
> I can see that the bitmap fonts that come with the program are laid
> out in a single line, but I don't know what kind of spacing do they
> take, or if they have any size constraints, or really anything.

We use a slight variant of the SFont format.
If yo ulook at the font carefully, you'll notice some pixels on the first
line. The very first pixel define the separator color. Any pixel using the
same color index on the first line will separate twh chars. You can't
change the order of characters in your font.

the second pixel defines the transparent color. This one will be ignored in
the whole font so you can have holes in your characters.

You're free to use as much colors as you want. PNG, PCX and GIF are known
to work, other formats may work too, I don't remember.

>
> Also, if the game dev is okay with it (I can't think any reason why he
> wouldn't) would you consider distributing them with the program, or is
> it out of the question?

We need itto be under the GPL v2, or any licence less restrictive than
that. And it needs to look nice, too :).

--
Adrien.

[Yves Rizoud]

About font license : So far I have only included fonts whose authors state that they won't claim any copyright on works that make use of their fonts, without any more requirements (non-commercial only, credits required...).

Yves

2011/9/27 <pulko...@pulkomandy.ath.cx>

[pulko...@pulkomandy.ath.cx]

On 2011-09-27 at 21:24:52 [+0200], Yves Rizoud <yri...@gmail.com> wrote:
> About font license : So far I have only included fonts whose authors state
> that they won't claim any copyright on works that make use of their fonts,
> without any more requirements (non-commercial only, credits required...).

Yes, sorry, that makes more sense for fonts that may be reused by other
people in their own work. The GPL restriction would be for skins and GUI
fonts, but that's another problem.

So, as long as you're fine with other people reusing your font without
getting credit, we can bundle it in the default install. If you want to keep
more control on it, we can add it to the website with a proper notice (like
we have a palette repository on the website).

--
Adrien.

[Psiweapon]

Well, after all the game dev wants an unique font for the game =/

If I come up with a font just for this purpose I'll tell you here.

Still, thanks for the font file format info, it'll come in handy.

Looking good, well, that's probably the hardest part :P it's not like I'm a good fontmaker. I can make usable fonts but I can't really think outside the box regarding font creation X_D

In the event that I do make a font for this, of course I don't want any claim on works people do with the font! That's what I would be making a font for, people using it with no strings attached.

[pulko...@pulkomandy.ath.cx]

On 2011-09-27 at 21:37:21 [+0200], Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, after all the game dev wants an unique font for the game =/
>
> If I come up with a font just for this purpose I'll tell you here.
>
> Still, thanks for the font file format info, it'll come in handy.
>
> Looking good, well, that's probably the hardest part :P it's not like I'm a
> good fontmaker. I can make usable fonts but I can't really think outside the
> box regarding font creation X_D
>
> In the event that I do make a font for this, of course I don't want any
> claim on works people do with the font! That's what I would be making a font
> for, people using it with no strings attached.

Ok, feel free to come back anytime.

Note we'll happily put a link to your pictures and your game on GrafX2
website if you want :)

Thanks for using GrafX2 !

--
Adrien.

[Psiweapon]

Since one of my main projects is still lacking a website, I'll bring the issue up again when the website is up (I guess that'll take a couple of weeks or so? I'm not in charge of that).

And thanks to you all, for giving an awesome tool a much needed revival.

Also, bear in mind, I'm not very experienced in pixel art, I did pixel art on and off for some years without taking it very seriously, and since last february or so I'm taking it perhaps a little *too seriously*, which means that almost everything I do is for some project or another, I rarely do "for fun" pieces nowadays. There is a motivation in doing graphics for a project that I just can't find in doing a piece just for it's own sake.

[Psiweapon]

Hey, could you take a look at this little font and give me some feedback/suggestions?

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k149/Psiweapon/3x5_minimal_recognizable.png

I guess it has been done to death by fontmakers, but I always wondered into how many few pixels could I fit readable letters... for upper case regular characters it soon seemed obvious that 3x5 pixels would suffice, although the #, & and ~ suffer *a lot*. I've been pixelling this font by hand on GrafX2 for years, when I wanted to include a little note or something in a piece. Never tried with lower case letters before, though.

Now I don't need to pixel it by hand any longer :D

[Psiweapon]

THREAD NECROMANCY!

Here is a font I made in GrafX2 format, I use it to make notes and labels in my spritesheets, tilesets, etc.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k149/Psiweapon/3x5_minimal_recognizable.png

I guess it has been done to death by fontmakers, but I always wondered into how many few pixels could I fit readable letters...

The characters are 3 pixels wide and 5 pixels high at most.

I wonder. What color value does the font need to be so that GrafX2 can recolor it on the fly?

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Psiweapon]

bloop double post X_D 

[Yves Rizoud]

For truetype fonts Grafx2 automatically activates Alpha mode, but it
doesn't do it for bitmap fonts which could be multi-colored.
To make the text change color depending on your selected color, you
have to activate the "monochrome brush mode" after the text is
rendered : right-click the Paintbrush icon (top-left icon) or press
the shortcut, shift+F4 by default.

Maybe grafx2 should count the colors of the font, and activate this
mode systematically when the font is 2-color...

2012/9/7, Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com>:

> bloop double post X_D
>
> On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 12:41 AM, Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> THREAD NECROMANCY!
>>
>> Here is a font I made in GrafX2 format, I use it to make notes and labels
>> in my spritesheets, tilesets, etc.
>>
>>
>> http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k149/Psiweapon/3x5_minimal_recognizable.png
>>
>> I guess it has been done to death by fontmakers, but I always wondered
>> into how many few pixels could I fit readable letters...
>>
>> The characters are 3 pixels wide and 5 pixels high at most.
>>
>> I wonder. What color value does the font need to be so that GrafX2 can
>> recolor it on the fly?
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Psiweapon <psiw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Since one of my main projects is still lacking a website, I'll bring the
>>> issue up again when the website is up (I guess that'll take a couple of
>>> weeks or so? I'm not in charge of that).
>>>

>>> And thanks to *you all*, for giving an awesome tool a much needed