Font Studio 4.02 is here!

[Nitrogen]

It's taken more time than I care to think about, but I've finally finished Font Studio 4.0!

It's better in every way than anything before it, and I'm pretty safe in saying that it's one of the best bitmap-font generators out there that I've seen!

I'm pushing it out tonight, still hot out of the ide. The unit for loading the font files is also written, it just needs a font demo worthy of it, so that should be coming in the next few days.

In the mean time, you can grab the Studio itself here: http://www.nitrogen.za.org/projectinfo.asp?id=12




Font Studio is now version 4.0 which comes with the following changes:

* Multithreaded
* Unicode support!
* Drop Shadows and Outlines!
* Characters are packed into the texture optimally, with customisability
* Project files are now separate from exported Font files.
* Exports textures as JPG, BMP, TGA, with a separate alpha file, or as a 32 bit TGA.
* Exports font data as INI, XML or FNT file, which can be attached to the texture file.

*UPDATE*

I've added small font support, cleartype support and no texture size constraint, among other small changes.

AND, I've updated the XML export, so it writes both XNA style xmls and my own style which are a little easier to integrate into your own code.
New version is avaliable for download using the link above.

[Nitrogen]

The main difference from what you may have seen before is the export functionality.

It can output to 6 different file formats over 3 files, or pack all the data into one file...

Oh and theres' an easter egg in it too

[LP]

I would like to include support for fonts generated by Font Studio in the next snapshot of Asphyre eXtreme II, but unfortunately, there are still numerous bugs to be fixed.

First, it would be good if you could specify any texture size, not just those that are predefined (for instance, 128x64). Besides, two options "512x256" and "256x512" are pretty redundant, which gives very little room for freedom.

Second, when the program starts - it freezes for 30 seconds saying "Getting current font dimensions..." Apparently, this happens whenever "Arial Unicode MS" is selected, which is selected by default (maybe using Tahoma or Times New Roman by default would be a better choice).

Finally, "Drop shadow" doesn't seem to work at all. Screenshot:


Notice that there are huge blank spaces between letters. Is that intentional?

Using ClearType for antialiasing seems to mess up font slightly and since "smooth" doesn't work for small fonts, the only choise is to not use antialiasing for small fonts at all.

I think it's counterproductive that you test and put default values in Font Studio for very large font sizes (e.g. 32) since after playing for a while I couldn't get a decent output with Tahoma in size 8 (see the screenshot above). I haven't tested it with large fonts though because they are rarely needed.

Sorry for raining with this bug report. Font Studio seems to be progressing quite well, keep up good work!

[Traveler]

Nice! I'll going to give this a try later today!

[savage]

This looks great, though I need for find some time to play with it.

Do you happen to know if this format is compatible with XNA's bitmap font format - http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar/archi...ts-in-xna.aspx?

If not it would be another nice string to your Font Studio bow.

[Nitrogen]

First, it would be good if you could specify any texture size, not just those that are predefined (for instance, 128x64). Besides, two options "512x256" and "256x512" are pretty redundant, which gives very little room for freedom.

Fair enough.

Second, when the program starts - it freezes for 30 seconds saying "Getting current font dimensions..." Apparently, this happens whenever "Arial Unicode MS" is selected, which is selected by default (maybe using Tahoma or Times New Roman by default would be a better choice).

If you had used the program for more than a short while, you would notice that it saves your preferences so next time it'll start up exactly the way you left it.

Also that Getting current font dimensions is the windows API taking it's sweet time, and nothing to do with my program. If you open that font file with microsoft's font viewer, you'll see it go very slowly. Just the way the cookie crumbles!

But I'll consider Arial for default as good practice..

Finally, "Drop shadow" doesn't seem to work at all. Screenshot:

Notice that there are huge blank spaces between letters. Is that intentional?

Yes it's necessary for the dropshadow and outline. uncheck those and you'll have a much smaller border between chars.

The small fonts are a bit of a problem if you need antialiasing... I didnt realise that the smooth fonts stop being smooth at around 10pt. I'll have a look at making it work properly with Cleartype.

I think it's counterproductive that you test and put default values in Font Studio for very large font sizes (e.g. 32) since after playing for a while I couldn't get a decent output with Tahoma in size 8 (see the screenshot above). I haven't tested it with large fonts though because they are rarely needed.

I do test with smaller fonts, but I used a REALLY small font which doesnt have any rounded edges so I didnt pick up on the rounded edges needing AA. Should be fixable.

[Nitrogen]

This looks great, though I need for find some time to play with it.

Do you happen to know if this format is compatible with XNA's bitmap font format - http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar/archi...ts-in-xna.aspx?

If not it would be another nice string to your Font Studio bow.

No, it's not the same format. If you can give me a technical document describing the layout/format of their XML, I could adapt mine to work.

[LP]

If you had used the program for more than a short while, you would notice that it saves your preferences so next time it'll start up exactly the way you left it.

I restarted the program several times and it took long to start, but of course, I didn't change the font so it remembered the bad option - only later I realized it only happened with this font. Weird stuff.

Yes it's necessary for the dropshadow and outline. uncheck those and you'll have a much smaller border between chars.

So any reason why shadow doesn't work? It doesn't seem to change whether I use outline or not.

I do test with smaller fonts, but I used a REALLY small font which doesnt have any rounded edges so I didnt pick up on the rounded edges needing AA. Should be fixable.

I focused a lot on this topic because most of the time I'm using small fonts, especially for GUI. Normally it is "Tahoma" both with and without bold style enabled. Generally ClearType is pretty ok, especially when converted to grayscale.

Also, I've found several fonts that don't get antialiased no matter what flags you use. You can only antialias these fonts by supersampling them, using Quincunx, for instance. Maybe this can be added in new version?

[Nitrogen]

So any reason why shadow doesn't work? It doesn't seem to change whether I use outline or not.

They DO work! You are not looking at the Mask tab (which is where the shadow is actually applied) and also the background colour is grey (default) which is used for the shadow colour, so you wouldnt see it very well on a default windows form background.

[Setharian]

is there a reason why the source in unavailable? are you planning to sell it?