How to implement different font colors and font shadows

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Take a look at this screenshot from Farm Heroes Saga

I count about 6 or 7 different combinations of font colors, shadows, stroke colors, etc. I guess my question is what is the most efficient way to implement multiple font effects like that?

I know that I can use software like BMGlyph to add strokes and shadows to a font, but what if I want a dark green stroke for the font on my play button, and a dark blue stroke for the font on my FaceBook button? Will I have to create 2 separate bitmap fonts, which in turn would need twice the texture memory?

Is it possible to set the stroke color on a bitmap font in Corona?

#2

I would suspect that most of those (Required, Play, Facebook, etc.) are rendered graphics from Photoshop or some other image creation software.  The text is added directly in the image.  Places where there are values that change, they are using bitmap fonts. 

You would only need BMGlyph images for those things that change.  Do everything else in Photoshop.

Rob

#3

You can’t set the stroke colour  ; you can set the text colour and if you use bitmap fonts you can tint the bitmaps.

#4

Thanks guys!

@Rob, that makes the most sense and I think that’s what I’ll end up doing.

@paulscottrobson, I’m actually using your bitmap font library and I just discovered the tinting functionality. Cool stuff! Just curious, I was looking at the source code but didn’t find this answer. Does the library not support contstraining the text to a certain width so that it handles line breaks automatically? Or will I have to manually include line breaks?

#5

No, it doesn’t. It’s not really designed for text-editing type scenarios, more for text labels - headings and so on. 

#6

I would suspect that most of those (Required, Play, Facebook, etc.) are rendered graphics from Photoshop or some other image creation software.  The text is added directly in the image.  Places where there are values that change, they are using bitmap fonts. 

You would only need BMGlyph images for those things that change.  Do everything else in Photoshop.

Rob

#7

You can’t set the stroke colour  ; you can set the text colour and if you use bitmap fonts you can tint the bitmaps.

#8

Thanks guys!

@Rob, that makes the most sense and I think that’s what I’ll end up doing.

@paulscottrobson, I’m actually using your bitmap font library and I just discovered the tinting functionality. Cool stuff! Just curious, I was looking at the source code but didn’t find this answer. Does the library not support contstraining the text to a certain width so that it handles line breaks automatically? Or will I have to manually include line breaks?

#9

No, it doesn’t. It’s not really designed for text-editing type scenarios, more for text labels - headings and so on.