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 and open source, 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)
download installer for v1.14 beta (551KB)
download 64bit executable for v1.14 beta (1.53MB)

Features

• Support for complete Unicode 8.0 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

Documentation

The manual is installed with the tool, but for those who wish to take a look at it without installing the tool first it is also available here. The manual describes both how to use the tool and the file format of the generated files.

• Online documentation

Source code

The source code is available under the widely known zlib license. The svn repository is hosted at SourceForge.net
Get the code by pointing your svn client at: http://svn.code.sf.net/p/bmfont/code/trunk.
If you want any support with the code, then please visit the forums.

Observation on virus alert

Avira anti-virus has been known to give a virus alert when scanning bmfont.exe or the installer. This is a false positive generated by their heuristic functions that tries to predict and catch unknown viruses. I've already reported this false positive to Avira a few times and each time they recognize it as a false positive, however for some reason the problem comes back months later (presumably when they update the heuristic functions).
If anyone has any idea what I need to change in the code to prevent this false alert I would very much like to know.

Tutorials & Resources

Here are a some links to other resources that provide information or tools that are useful for those interested in bitmap fonts.

• Bitmap Fonts by Andreas J�nsson
• 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
• BMFont to C source code converter by Lars Ole Pontoppidan
• Discussion on legality of bitmap fonts
• Tool for converting bitmap fonts into distance fields
• Another tool for converting bitmap fonts into distance fields
• PlayOnLinux - can be used to run BMFont on Linux
• GlyphCombiner - a Mac OS X tool by Binary Blobs for combining multiple bitmap fonts into a single atlas

The following are some other tools that also generate output in the same format that I came up with for BMFont and that is widely used in the industry today.

• Littera - free web application
• Glyph Designer - paid app for Mac
• ShoeBox - free tool written with Adobe Air
• Hiero - open source tool written in Java