How to create Custom Fonts?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

I am reading this Developer Guide on Custom Fonts and it is so awesome that Corona supports both of these font files. Now, I use this font file creator site to create my custom fonts but my problem is it only saves in .fnt .txt and .font file types and I haven’t been successful at finding online font file converters to convert .fnt to .ttf or .otf

How do you guys create your custom font files? What programs/process/sites do you use?

I have attached a screenshot of the custom font I am using right now and for some reason the last character of each line is cut off (1, E, S). I’m not sure why that’s happening, has anyone seen this issue before or know what is causing it?

Thanks!

#2

That tool is for making bitmapped fonts.  This is not the same as a TTF or OTF

You need a library for making text ‘objects’ with that:

https://github.com/ponywolf/ponyfont

Note: These won’t actually be Corona text objects.  They will be a collection of display objects.

PS - I’ve never even considered creating a TTF from bitmapped fonts, and that doesn’t seem like it would work since the bitmapped font includes color and other info.

Still you could google it with this search ‘convert bitmap font to ttf’

Good luck, but I think you’re going in the wrong direction with that idea.

#3

I had a sense that I was going in the wrong direction.

What is the right direction in creating and using custom fonts?

How do people normally make custom .ttf or .otf font files?

Thanks for the reply!

#4

As far as the letters getting cut off, it could be to the extreme italics of the font and some font metrics that may not be right inside the font’s metadata. One of the things you will find with fonts found on the Internet is they are not always of the best quality.  Some foundry’s like Adobe and BTS will properly QA their fonts, but someone making fonts in their basement may not be coding all the information correctly.

You can try and add some space on to the end of the strings to see if it will fix the cutoff issue. You might want to find some font conversion software to re-process the font and maybe fix some issues. If all else fails, look for an alternative.

Rob

#5

That tool is for making bitmapped fonts.  This is not the same as a TTF or OTF

You need a library for making text ‘objects’ with that:

https://github.com/ponywolf/ponyfont

Note: These won’t actually be Corona text objects.  They will be a collection of display objects.

PS - I’ve never even considered creating a TTF from bitmapped fonts, and that doesn’t seem like it would work since the bitmapped font includes color and other info.

Still you could google it with this search ‘convert bitmap font to ttf’

Good luck, but I think you’re going in the wrong direction with that idea.

#6

I had a sense that I was going in the wrong direction.

What is the right direction in creating and using custom fonts?

How do people normally make custom .ttf or .otf font files?

Thanks for the reply!

#7

As far as the letters getting cut off, it could be to the extreme italics of the font and some font metrics that may not be right inside the font’s metadata. One of the things you will find with fonts found on the Internet is they are not always of the best quality.  Some foundry’s like Adobe and BTS will properly QA their fonts, but someone making fonts in their basement may not be coding all the information correctly.

You can try and add some space on to the end of the strings to see if it will fix the cutoff issue. You might want to find some font conversion software to re-process the font and maybe fix some issues. If all else fails, look for an alternative.

Rob