| | 1 | == Usage == |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | 1. Choose a ''primary font'', which will be used for as much as it can be used for. |
| | 4 | 1. Optionally, choose a different ''secondary font'' which is used when the primary font is missing certain characters - for example, Trebuchet doesn't include any Greek/Cyrillic/Hebrew characters, so these will be taken from Arial Unicode MS (by default) instead. |
| | 5 | 1. Use the ''Preview font'' button to see what the font looks like by rendering the contents of the textbox. Adjust the font settings until perfection is attained. |
| | 6 | 1. Choose a desired ''character list'' - a text file containing all the characters that must be in the final font. The standard files are `latin.txt` (containing ASCII plus some accented characters, mainly useful for non-localised text) and `standard.txt` (containing Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew characters, for text that could be in any language). |
| | 7 | 1. Click ''Generate texture'', and select a name for the `.fnt` file. A `.tga` texture will also be generated, in the same directory with the same name. Depending on several random coincidences, the texture generation might be very fast or might take quite a while. When it finishes, the excitingly patterned texture will be displayed. |
| | 8 | 1. Save your settings through the ''File'' menu so that you can easily recreate the font later. |
| | 9 | |
| | 10 | == Unicode fonts == |
| | 11 | |
| | 12 | The font builder is intended to be used with Unicode characters. Unfortunately, most fonts aren't. The font builder tries to use ''Arial Unicode MS'' by default: this seems to be installed by some versions of Microsoft Office, or can be downloaded from locations such as [http://wildfiregames.com/~code/libraries/fonts/arialuni.exe this] (12MB self-extracting 7-Zip). It's probably worth getting, since it includes almost every Unicode glyph that you could wish for. |
| | 13 | |
| | 14 | Another potentially useful Unicode font is Bitstream Cyberbit (available from Netscape's FTP server [ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/extras/fonts/windows/Cyberbit.ZIP here], 6MB). |
| | 15 | |
| | 16 | All fonts must be installed into Windows before you can use them in the font builder. |
| | 17 | |
| | 18 | == Font settings == |
| | 19 | |
| | 20 | * '''Size''' - size of the font in arbitrary units. |
| | 21 | * '''Boldness''' - if you don't have a proper bold variation of the font, the boldness setting fakes it by drawing the character several times. |
| | 22 | * '''Italicness''' - if you don't have a proper italic variaton, the italicness setting slants it in 5-degree increments. Negative values slant the other way. |
| | 23 | * '''Tracking''' - extra spacing in pixels added between every non-zero-width glyph. |
| | 24 | * '''Leading''' - extra spacing in pixels between lines of text. |
