Bitmap Font Generator

This program will allow you to generate bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts. The application generates both image files and character descriptions that can be read by a game for easy rendering of fonts.

The program is freeware, but a donation is greatly appreciated.

If you don't have an image viewer capable of reading TGA, PNG, or DDS files, I recommend PUPP, another free product from AngelCode.

Downloads

download installer for v1.13 (358KB)

Features

• Support for complete Unicode 5.1 character set, as well as 8 bit OEM character sets
• Optimal use of texture space, i.e. as little unused area as possible
• Support for kerning pairs
• Easy to use file format, either normal text file or xml files. Binary format is available for those that prefer that
• 8bit or 32bit texture output (TGA, PNG, and DDS files)
• Option for packing 4 layers of font images into 1 32bit texture. Needs special shader to render with, but saves a lot of memory
• Anti-aliasing, both through Windows native font smoothing and super sampling
• Configurable padding and spacing between characters
• Select characters from text file, supports both UTF8 and UTF16 encoded files
• Generate bitmap font from command line
• Import colored images as characters, supports: bmp, jpg, tga, dds, png
• Optional outline to font characters
• Optional packing of characters with outline into 1 channel. Needs special shader to unpack during rendering, but saves a lot of memory
• Use TrueType fonts directly from the file without installing them first

Tutorials & Resources

Here are a few tutorials/demos that show how to render text with bitmap fonts generated by BMFont.

• Bitmap Fonts by Andreas Jönsson
• Bitmap Fonts by Chad Vernon
• Quick tutorial: Variable width bitmap fonts by Promit
• BMFont OpenGL Implementation by legolas558
• bmfont BlitzMax module by Mike Wiering
• C# XML serializer for font loading by DeadlyDan

Changes

• 1.13 - 2012/08/12
  • Added option to export fonts using fixed cell heights for easier post processing.
  • Improved support for exporting kerning pairs for true types that use the GPOS table instead of KERN table.
  • Kerning pairs are no longer exported for char ids that have been overridden with imported icons.
  • Improved glyph packing when there are large out of proportion images.
  • The final texture no longer has boxes around glyphs when a channel is inverted or set to one.
  • Fixed subpixel clipping in supersampled glyphs.
  • Implemented an alternative glyph rasterization based on the true type outline.
  • The rasterization from true type outline doesn't clip glyphs that extend above or below cell height.
  • Allow disabling hinting when rasterizing from true type outline.
  • Re-added option for rendering with ClearType with native Windows font engine.
  • Fixed bug where saved XML format sometimes didn't close the 'kernings' tag if there were no kerning pairs.
  • Fixed bug with duplicate kerning pairs in non-unicode font output.
  • Fixed problem where double-clicking in file dialog would sometimes change the selected characters under the mouse.
  • Enabled run-length encoding for TGA output.
  • Added option to force xoffset and yoffset to 0, and xadvance to width.
  • It's now possible to open the app directly with a configuration file from the file explorer.
  • When loading a bmfc file the characters are now selected accordingly.
  • The font dialog no longer lists rotated fonts, i.e. those prefixed with @.
  • Added support for working with a font from a file so it is no longer necessary to install it first.
  • Imported images are now stored with a relative path in the configuration file.
  • Fixed clipping that could occur on left and right edges when generating a font in italic mode.
  • Kerning pairs can now be optionally left out in case they are defunct in the TrueType font.
  • The save and load configuration dialogs will now initiate where the last configuration file was loaded or saved.

• 1.12 - 2009/08/02
  • Added presets to the export options to aid choosing the correct values for the texture channels.
  • Fixed bug when generating font from command line where the page files in the font descriptor would have the incorrect name.
  • Added ability to invert individual texture channels for more export options.
  • Added command line tool that will wait for the generation to complete before exiting.
  • Fixed the yoffset when the font height was scaled.
  • Fixed bug in select chars from file for non-unicode with characters above ASCII 127.
  • The number of digits for the page id in the texture files is now adapted to the number of generated pages.
  • Added support for adjusting xoffset, yoffset, and advance for imported icons.

• 1.11b - 2009/03/08
  • Fixed a bug in the select chars from file with UTF16 encoded files.
  • Fixed a bug in the packing routine that could make characters overlap in rare situations.
  • Fixed the selection of unicode ranges by clicking on the check mark in the list.

• 1.11a - 2008/12/06
  • Fixed the subpixel misalignment in the glyph height caused by supersampling.
  • Worked around a bug in GDI where the returned glyph height is smaller than the actual glyph bitmap.

• 1.11 - 2008/10/11
  • Fixed a freeze that could happen while selecting characters from file.
  • Fixed cropping in some true type fonts.
  • Fixed the 'Select All Chars' option in ASCII mode.
  • Added option 'Output invalid char glyph'.
  • Removed the 'Disable unavailable chars' option.
  • Fixed problem where characters not defined in the unicode standard could be selected when selecting chars from file.
  • An indicator is now displayed in the character grid where images are imported.
  • Fixed bug where main window is moved behind other windows when closing image manager.
  • Fixed bug where cancelling the icon image dialog would still effectivate the changes.
  • It's now possible to select font size by character height, rather than line height.

• 1.10b - 2008/06/15
  • Fixed the channel indicator in the font descriptor for colored icons.
  • Fixed cropping of characters in small fonts.
  • Fixed bug with black 8bit textures when the check box for pack chars is checked.

• 1.10a - 2008/06/08
  • Corrected the documentation in regards to the block size value in the binary file format.
  • Fixed a bug with the 'Select chars from file' where some character might be skipped between reading blocks of 1kb.
  • Fixed a rounding problem with supersampling that made the exported line height be one less than the largest character height.
  • Removed the external dependency on the Microsoft DLLs.
  • Upgraded libpng to 1.2.29.

• 1.10 - 2008/05/11
  • Selecting characters from file now supports both UTF-8 and UTF-16, with automatic detection via byte-order-mark.
  • Fixed a bug where unicode subsets where not shown when disable undefined characters was unselected.
  • Status bar shows character id for the character under the mouse cursor.
  • Added ""clear all"" option.
  • Preview window is now automatically resized to fit the texture when scaling.
  • Added support for unicode characters above 0xFFFF.
  • Added support for generating textures with DXT1, DXT3, and DXT5 compression.
  • Split the font settings dialog in two dialogs, one for the font graphics and one for export options.
  • The content of each texture channel can now be customized.
  • File format updated to accomodate new feature.

• 1.9c - 2007/11/16
  • Fixed the reversed spacing values in the font settings dialog.
  • The font generation can now be aborted while the characters are being added to the texture.
  • Greatly improved the speed of generating textures.

• 1.9b - 2007/10/28
  • Fixed the padding
  • Improved documentation

• 1.9a - 2007/09/16
  • Allowing unicode for all fonts, even fonts that have only one code page
  • Fixed the status messages when generating fonts

• 1.9 - 2007/08/19
  • Added support for importing colored icons
  • Supported input image formats are: bmp, tga, png, jpg, dds
  • Added support for giving a black outline to characters
  • Characters with outline may be encoded in 1 channel to save space
  • Outline is generated with rounded corners
  • Increased the binary file version because there is new information

• 1.8c - 2007/01/25
  • Fixed a bug where the font saver got confused with the 4 chnl packed flag set, even though saving in 8bit format

• 1.8b - 2007/01/06
  • Fixed kerning amount in binary file format when using super sampling

• 1.8a - 2006/11/23
  • Fixed alignment bug with 8bit TGA and DDS files with non-power-of-4 widths
  • Fixed crash on Windows with installed Input Method Editors, e.g. Japanese and Chinese Windows

• 1.8 - 2006/11/11
  • Added support for binary font descriptor file
  • Added support for saving PNG texture files
  • The application now remembers the configuration from last execution
  • Improved useability for selecting characters in unicode mode
  • Added option to select all characters from a text file
  • Kerning pairs with amount 0 are no longer output
  • XML font descriptor file now groups the pages, chars, and kerning pairs
  • The font configuration can be saved to disk, and later reloaded
  • Added support for generating fonts via command line using a saved configuration.
  • Added support for saving DDS texture files (no compression)

• 1.7a - 2006/09/12
  • Fixed the creation of non-unicode fonts

• 1.7 - 2006/09/08
  • Added the standard xml header
  • Added support for unicode charsets
  • Added the option to pack monochrome characters into each of the 4 channels of a 32 bit texture
  • Added tag with texture file names in the font descriptor file
  • The generation of textures is now done in a background thread

• 1.6 - 2006/02/18
  • It's now possible to choose between XML and text for the format of the font descriptor file.
  • Fixed kerning sizes with super-sampling

• 1.5 - 2005/10/01
  • Implemented stretching so that fonts can now be non-uniformly scaled (only works on Win2K or later).

• 1.4a - 2005/08/26
  • Non-TrueType fonts, such as Script and System, are now supported as well.
  • Minor fix to rendering when padding is used.

• 1.4 - 2005/07/17
  • The preview window now shows the page number in the title.
  • Characters without a defined glyph may now be automatically removed (only works on Win2K or later).
  • Kerning pairs are now saved as well.
  • Added support for chooseable charset, e.g. arabic and hebrew fonts.

• 1.3 - 2005/05/08
  • Added support for italic fonts.
  • Application no longer crashes when visualizing with no characters selected.

• 1.2 - 2005/03/09
  • User can now choose to generate the bitmap font with or without font smoothing.
  • Font smoothing is now done without ClearType, so that artifacts are no longer generated in the output texture.
  • Added program icon.

• 1.1 - 2005/03/05
  • User can now choose to save in 32bit and 8bit TGAs.
  • The spacing between characters can now be manually set.
  • Fixed the bug where some fonts weren't visible in the font list.

• 1.0a - 2004/11/27
  • Fixed a problem with values that where not adjusted to compensate for antialiasing level.

• 1.0 - 2004/02/14
  • First public version.

Special thanks to

• CodeMasters
• Idolminds
• Krome Studios
• Naughty Dog
• Pyramid Inc
• Sucker Punch
• Trinigy
• WizarBox

Work in Progress

Some of the things that will be implemented in future versions:

• Improved font generation
  • Support for drop shadow.
  • Support for blurring.
  • Colored glyphs.
• Improve the useability.
  • Add a help command that opens the manual installed with the application
  • Add tooltips for dialogs and controls
  • Selecting characters from a file could support a drag-and-drop interface.
  • Importing images over characters could also support a drag-and-drop interface.
  • Add logfile output for missing glyphs when scanning text files for used characters.
  • Allow selecting font from the windows common font dialog
  • Support unicode font file names (many asian fonts have unicode in the names, and don't show up right in the dialog)
  • Automatic choice of smallest texture that is capable of containing all glyphs.
• Add font preview
  • Allow user to write text and see the outcome. It should be possible to encode special characters as icons are usually imported over non-visible glyphs
• Improve icon import
  • Allow importing grayscale images into a single channel, rather than full 32bit.
  • Warn if imported icon is larger than output texture.
  • Context menu in character window to import directly to a specific character.
• Add plugin support for output formats.
  • Allow the plugins to format both font descriptor and image files.
• Signed distance fields for improved quality zooming on bitmap fonts. Here's a tool that convert BMFont output to distance field fonts.
• option for exporting with pre-multiplied alpha
• Support multiple fonts and different font sizes in a single output.