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Current Version : FontTool Version 0.9c

FontTool Version 0.9c

30th October 2000.

The source code for FontTool is here for all those interested.

A few notes on the source.

FontTool is my first effort at using the MFC and C++ together. The code is reasonably well commented, but is by no means well written. It is not an exersize in C++ or MFC so don't treat it a such, so send all your gripes / moans to someone else ;) It was written using Microsoft VC++ 6.0 and was initially completed in about 2 days (after trawling the net for info on antialiasing windows fonts.) Its not rocket science, the program just creates a bitmap structure and uses the TextOut() call to print the characters to it. The only tough bit was working out the really *poor* way windows uses CompatibleBitmaps() and Device Contexts. Nasty. The bitmap structure is then converted to a windows BMP file. Enjoy.

Steve.

29th October 2000 (6pm).

After numerous requests, and against my better judgement, I've added a kind of anti-alias. I've allowed the program to use the "Smooth Edges Of Screen Fonts" setting, available in the Display Settings -> Effects tab. That kind of effect was supposed to be done in something like PhotoShop. Ah well...

This is how you get the anti-alias to work.

1. Right click on your windows background and click on properties.

2. Select the 'Effects' tab.

3. Then make sure that that the 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' is ticked.

4. Click on OK.

Thats it. Once you start FontTool the fonts will be rendered with smoothing on. The only side effect of this is that the preview will show the font anti-aliased even in monochrome mode. Dont worry though, the actual output will only be anti-aliased in colour modes. The smoothing actually looks remarkably good in 16 & 256 colours, you can barely tell the difference between them and 24 bit mode.

BIG CAVEAT (Feature?)

If you try and create a HUGE font (eg 48 point) then you'll probably get an "Out of Video Memory" error. It is exactly as it says. The program cant get enough memory to create your font (remember, the screen takes up VRAM too). If you want to use massive fonts, use Version 0.9b, which does not use antialiasing, but allows full sized fonts. Anyone usung massive point sizes is probably doing something wrong anyway...

FontTool Version 0.9b

I was using a shared DLL instead of a static lib. This meant the DLL was not being included in the program. It would work on computers that already has the DLL (most game developers), but not on other machines. It is now part of the .EXE

FontTool Verstion 0.9a

Initial release version.