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AppGameKit Classic Chat / Free Bitmap Font Creator for the AGK community

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Hubdule
22
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2002
Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 02:37 Edited at: 21st Sep 2011 04:27
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Hi AppGameKit users

Today I was in the need for some custom bitmap fonts and I couldn't find a
tool that works without problems so I wrote my own.

As I think it's now working without errors so far I give it to the
community. Hope you like it. Only requirement for the tool is .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

Here's a screenshot of it:




And here's the download:

http://www.flipheads.net/download/BitmapFontCreator.zip (~4.8MB)

Enjoy!


[update]
And here's a screenshot of a demo with the new font ...



[update]
New version is up:
1.0.1 - 10.09.2011:
- background color of preview can be changed now
- removed system color tabs of color picker
- added new icon
- signed final exe

Also corrected the download link.

[update]
New version is up:
1.0.2 - 10.09.2011:
- improved text rendering mode
- added drawmodes
- added cleartype rendering

[update]
New version is up:
1.1.0 - 10.09.2011:
- added support for custom brush types. They can be generated with VB.NET source code that compiles at runtime!

[update]
New version is up:
1.1.1 - 12.09.2011:
- added new "update" button to update the current preview (usefull for custom brushes)
- added new placeholder for AppPath to custom brush code compiler
- updated texture sample of custom brushes

[update]
1.2.0 - 21.09.2011:
- added "power of 2" export option
- added character offset setting (sometimes characters need more space then calculated, depends on used font)
- added "show size rectangles" in preview window
- added tabs to mainview -> more space for new options
- changed the overall skin
- experiments with outline fonts currently produce errors -> disabled until stable

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Jimmy
21
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Joined: 20th Aug 2003
Location: Back in the USA
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 05:38
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Download link doesn't work

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mr_d
DBPro Tool Maker
17
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Joined: 26th Mar 2007
Location: Somewhere In Australia
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 05:38
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same here

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XanthorXIII
AGK Gold Backer
13
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Joined: 13th May 2011
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Posted: 10th Sep 2011 06:11
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Try http://www.flipheads.net/download/BitmapFontCreator.zip
that worked for me.
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Redostrike
21
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Joined: 9th Feb 2003
Location: Belgium
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 09:19
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Thanks this is great, a good tip would be to have a button where you can change the background color of the preview field to white cause there are times that i use black text or black shadow

Only heroes live forever
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Hubdule
22
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2002
Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 11:29
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Oh, it was quite late yesterday so I put the wrong link into my post. It's corrected now. I reuploaded a newer version where you can change the backcolor of the preview. All changes documented in the first post.

Enjoy

Life is good!
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Rich Dersheimer
AGK Developer
15
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Joined: 1st Jul 2009
Location: Inside the box
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 13:44 Edited at: 10th Sep 2011 13:49
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This looks good, except for two minor complaints...

Using the font at larger sizes shows the fringing (see below) from the .png your program creates. If you can improve that, the characters would look a lot sharper. Of course, creating the font really big in your program to start with helps a bit.

I like the fact that you give the characters lots of extra space, AppGameKit has a command to adjust the spacing, but... your "space" character doesn't seem to have the extra width, so adjusting the kerning with AppGameKit makes the spaces really narrow. Example:



Notice how the spaces between the words "adjusted" and "spacing" and "at" are almost non-existant?

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Hubdule
22
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2002
Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 15:17
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Hi Rich,

I just updated it and now you can specify the widht of the space character. Also the text rendering should now be improved. Give it a try

Life is good!
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Conjured Entertainment
AGK Developer
19
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Joined: 12th Sep 2005
Location: Nirvana
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 15:59
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This looks great, and it is very generous of you to share with us.
I'll give it a try.

Thanks

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Rich Dersheimer
AGK Developer
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Posted: 10th Sep 2011 18:13
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I like the changes! But the png files are all coming out with a black background instead of transparent. Is it broken? Or am I doing something wrong?

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Hubdule
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Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 10th Sep 2011 19:11
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Hi Rich,

I've tested it on some machines here and it worked all the time. The exported images have a transparent background.

Try the new version. There it's possible to create your own custom brushes ... now you can create fonts with gradients, textures etc.

Life is good!
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Rich Dersheimer
AGK Developer
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Posted: 10th Sep 2011 20:02
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Sweet! I'll give it a try.

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Rampage
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Location: New Zealand
Posted: 11th Sep 2011 08:44
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Works perfectly! Amazing product. Thanks

Regards,

Max
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Hubdule
22
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Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 12th Sep 2011 10:19 Edited at: 12th Sep 2011 10:20
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Updated the custom brush stuff a bit. Now it's easier to use custom textures.
And here's another custom brush code (See first post).
Just open the custom brush code.
Copy/Paste this code in, then save. Close the code window and choose the custom brush from the combolist.



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JHA
20
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Joined: 30th Dec 2003
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Posted: 12th Sep 2011 18:51
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Now THAT is SWEET!!!!

Thank you for this tool. It's awesome!!

JHA
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Hubdule
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2002
Location: Gundelsheim
Posted: 21st Sep 2011 04:33
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Added some new stuff to the tool. Now you can save "power of 2 images". Fine tune character space. And show the size rectangles of the characters (for debug and info) ...

I tried some new code to create outline fonts but it's quite buggy at the moment so I disabled it for now. Will come to that later.

Is there something that should be implemented? With the new GUI there's plenty of room for new stuff

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Impetus73
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Joined: 28th Aug 2011
Location: Volda, Norway
Posted: 21st Sep 2011 20:36
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In the AMIGA days we created outlined text, by pasting the text on the screen 5 times, first x+1,y then x-1,y then x,y+1 then x,y-1 then in another color at x,y. This created an outline around the text

----------------
AGK user - novice
Did Amiga / AMOS programming in the 90's, just started programming again with AGK.
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JRNTexas
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Joined: 24th May 2011
Location: Austin, Texas
Posted: 17th Oct 2011 03:13
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Hubdule -

Great job! Great tool. I've used it to create several fonts.
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Hubdule
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Posted: 17th Oct 2011 08:49
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Thanks JRNTexas! I use it in my own game too and the next step will be to add more styles like outlines etc.

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halley
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Joined: 27th Apr 2011
Location: China
Posted: 29th Oct 2011 19:19
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Thanks. the font image is perfect.

give my best
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JRNTexas
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2011 17:26
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Keep us posted on enhancements!

This is a great tool!
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Mnemonix
21
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Joined: 2nd Dec 2002
Location: Skaro
Posted: 8th Feb 2012 11:19
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Great work Hubdule, I used this for my project Maybe a tool to add a border round characters might be cool (I just did this in photoshop)
but what would be really cool and useful is the ability to add extra space in the bounding box for each character for external modifications to be made easily

Join us at www.devhat.net and in #lobby at irc.devhat.net
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Ched80
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Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 17th Feb 2012 18:25
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This is an amazing tool. Saved me so much time!

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KareDev
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Joined: 6th Feb 2012
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 11:42
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This didn't work for me. I exported an image from the program, but when I loaded it into my app and used setDefaultTextFontImage to get it working, but all I got was this:



The top image shows what happens when I have the new font turned on, the lower image shows what happens when I comment out those lines of code and use the default front.

The "blocks" of text in the upper image do "flicker" when they should change, so something is happening - but I've no idea what.

Anyone else had this? Have I missed something obvious here?
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baxslash
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 13:46
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Did you include the sub images text file in the same folder as the image?

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KareDev
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 14:24
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Quote: "Did you include the sub images text file in the same folder as the image?"


Yes - in my media folder, I have "acefont.png" and "acefont subimages.txt". Both files look correct when I open them in Photoshop/notepad. I load them in using the following two statements:



Did I miss a step?
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Paul Johnston
TGC Developer
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 21st Feb 2012 15:31
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try splitting the line



into



as I don't think the compiler likes expressions in declarations
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KareDev
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 21:29
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Ah great, that fixed it thanks
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Baraka
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 21:48
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Any way to use extra characters like characters with accent?

üéâäàåçêëè

and much more.
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kamac
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Posted: 21st Feb 2012 22:10 Edited at: 21st Feb 2012 22:10
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They are in extended ASCII characters, which will be added in the nearest AppGameKit update I presume.

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Ancient Lady
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 19:02
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Thank you for such a nice tool!

Cheers,
Ancient Lady
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AgentSam
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Posted: 8th May 2012 02:43
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Nice looking tool.

Haven't had the time to test this yet - but I was wondering, is the source included?

If it's not currently included, any chance that it might be in the future?

-- AgentSam
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kamac
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Posted: 8th May 2012 22:01
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Not that I want to sue you on anything, but your application tries to connect with the internet when you start it up. Weird.



Follow me on twitter! @kamac496
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Scary Little Rabbit
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Posted: 9th Aug 2012 11:20
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looks great.

error #0101:
- english language conflicts with a brains of this rabbit.
free fonts for your AGKs!
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7RS
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Posted: 6th Oct 2012 17:51
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We are using this tool but we have some problem, sometimes when we try to reduce the space between charcaters we can't go down as we need, do you think is possible to improve it ?
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2D Analyst
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Posted: 21st Oct 2012 22:29
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First, I would thank you the person for creating this tool!

I've exported a bitmap font with 14 font size and red color.

When I use PRINT command, it shows red font color.
When I use SETTEXT command, it shows black font color.

Do I need to add an extra command when using SETTEXT command to show the original font color?
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