Bitmap Texts

Fonts are considered as resources in Stencyl. It will let us  import or create fonts for use in our games when drawing text.

We have two types of Font:
Regular Fonts
Bitmap Fonts

What do you think is the extension name of the two?

Regular font is the one that we are commonly using, the one that we are downloading and being used for our word processing.

Bitmap fonts are based off images that you need to import and defines the character data.
+
 They look consistent regardless of device or hardware.
 They draw quickly
 They can make on many more shapes and forms.

-
 You can't grow them at runtime without ruining the quality.
 Sometimes, they take more disk space.


The picture below has a difference between the two. What is it?

It is much advisable to use a bitmap font when drawing text to your game. They are pre-rendered to pixels, meaning, the style and form of characters were much more consistent to the audience's view.

Unfortunately, Stencyl do not support/provide tools that renders the font. But, I have here suggestions of different tools that you can utilize to render your ttf fonts.
1. BMFont Generator - it is a Windows-supported tool.  
2. Littera - a free online -web application that lets you import, extract and export the font, without worrying the OS of your computer.
3. Glyph Designer - It is an iOS app that requires payment.
4. Shoebox - free tool written in Adobe Air
5. Hiero - open source tool written in Java

Right now, I've only tried the Littera, it is much more convenient to use because it is available online, though the edit buttons were limited. What about you, have you tried the other tools? Kindly comment your experiences (pros and cons) for the other tools that you used to render your fonts for your game.

How to Create a Bitmap Font:
Littera
1. Open the link
2. On the left side panel, import your font (.ttf) at Select Font
3. Scroll down the left side panel for more edit.
4. If you are done, on the centered-top most part of the website, edit the name of the font and click Export > Start > Download File.
5. A zip file will be saved. (Extract it and open the folder)

Importing to Stencyl
Open your game.
Go to Dashboard > Fonts > Create New
Import Font from Image > Import Image > Choose font's image and locate the .png file to your folder.

Wow! Thank you for this infos! I learned a lot from this.

Nice info!

can I import fonts from my desktop to Stencyl?

thenextavenger wrote:can I import fonts from my desktop to Stencyl?

Yes you can! Actually, there's a specified place on dashboard for that.

Unique wrote:

thenextavenger wrote:can I import fonts from my desktop to Stencyl?

Yes you can! Actually, there's a specified place on dashboard for that.

You can import a .ttf fonts (the one that you are downloading and installing on your desktop) to your stencyl:
Go to your dashboard's fonts > then click the box that has a Click here to create a new font.
Enter a Name
Under the Font (below the characters) click Choose... and locate the .ttf fonts on your PC.
Edit and Modify the Font Style, Color and Effects
If you are finish, you can close the tab of your font on the dashboard. This will automatically save your work.

Jungkook wrote:

Unique wrote:

thenextavenger wrote:can I import fonts from my desktop to Stencyl?

Yes you can! Actually, there's a specified place on dashboard for that.

You can import a .ttf fonts (the one that you are downloading and installing on your desktop) to your stencyl:
Go to your dashboard's fonts > then click the box that has a Click here to create a new font.
Enter a Name
Under the Font (below the characters) click Choose... and locate the .ttf fonts on your PC.
Edit and Modify the Font Style, Color and Effects
If you are finish, you can close the tab of your font on the dashboard. This will automatically save your work.

If I declared my font size to be just 20, does it mean that if I used it later on to my game, it will be constantly be 20 only?

Is this user friendly?

jazz wrote:

Jungkook wrote:

Unique wrote:

thenextavenger wrote:can I import fonts from my desktop to Stencyl?

Yes you can! Actually, there's a specified place on dashboard for that.

You can import a .ttf fonts (the one that you are downloading and installing on your desktop) to your stencyl:
Go to your dashboard's fonts > then click the box that has a Click here to create a new font.
Enter a Name
Under the Font (below the characters) click Choose... and locate the .ttf fonts on your PC.
Edit and Modify the Font Style, Color and Effects
If you are finish, you can close the tab of your font on the dashboard. This will automatically save your work.

If I declared my font size to be just 20, does it mean that if I used it later on to my game, it will be constantly be 20 only?

Yes. So it is much better to declare the font size in a much readable and your mostly desired one.