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Using FontTool.
Using FontTool is very straight forward.
After launching the program a dialog bog will be displayed with a few options.
Simply click on Select Font to select the desired font. A preview of the font will then be show.
Once you are happy with your conversion options, click Convert to save your font as a bitmap.
Conversion options.
These options govern the output format of the converted font.
Bitmap granularity.
The width and height of the final bitmap is based on the size of the characters within the font. The font is reproduced in a grid of 16 x 16 characters. This grid will remain the same, regardless of the bitmap granularity selected. There are 3 options available.
2 pixel.
The resulting bitmap image will enclose the 16 x 16 grid in the smalled possible rectangle divisible by 2 pixels.
For example, a 253 x 123 font will become a 254 x 124 bitmap image.
This format is suitable for certain games consoles and 3D cards with no real texture restrictions. As this may save memory, it is the format of choice if your hardware allows it.
Powers of 2.
The resulting bitmap image will be enclosed by the smallest possible rectangle with dimensions that are a power of 2.
(eg 2, 4, 8, 16... etc).
For example, a 253 x 123 font will become a 256 x 128 bitmap image. This format is used on some next generation consoles and 3D cards. It may result in wastage if your font is just over a power of 2 boundry.
Powers of 2 (Square)
The resulting image will be enclosed by the smallest possible power of 2 square. The largest of the 2 dimensions (width or height) is rounded to a power of 2, and is used for both the width and height.
For example, a 253 x 123 bitmap will become a 256 x 256 image.
This is used on some of the more restricted gaming platforms / 3D cards, and can lead to large texture wastage.
Pixel Format.
This specifies the number of Bits Per Pixel (BPP) used to represent the output image. The font is always rendered white on black in just those 2 colours. This option is useful if you want to quickly test your font in your game and your game only supports a certain bit depth. If your happy with your font, the artists can then do their fancy artwork on the font. The pixel format of the font directly effects the amount of memory needed to store the font. Think very carefully before you select a 24 bit font, do you really need it?
The following options are available:
1 BPP (2 colours)
4 BPP (16 colours)
8 BPP (256 colours)
24 BPP (Millions of colours)
Font Info.
This gives some basic information regarding the currently selected font.
Name : The face name of the font, Eg Arial, Terminator, Times Roman.
Char Size : The size of the cell used to enclose every single character. This is basically the size of the largest character in the font.
Bitmap dimensions : The size of the resulting bitmap - This is effected by the 'Bitmap granularity' option.
Bitmap memory : The size (in KBytes) of the resulting font.
