Game Development Community

Implementing a custom font

by rwillis · in Torque X 2D · 06/29/2008 (8:37 pm) · 2 replies

After I have a new custom font installed on my system, how do I go about adding it to TorqueX so that I can use it? Do I need to use something like XNAExtras at http://blogs.msdn.com/garykac/articles/749188.aspx which converts the font file into a png and XML? Do I need to create a spritefont file?

#1
06/30/2008 (4:21 am)
You need to create a file like Impact Regular 30.spritefont:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
This file contains an xml description of a font, and will be read by the XNA
Framework Content Pipeline. Follow the comments to customize the appearance
of the font in your game, and to change the characters which are available to draw
with.
-->
<XnaContent xmlns:Graphics="Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics">
  <Asset Type="Graphics:FontDescription">
 
    <!--
    Modify this string to change the font that will be imported.
    -->
    <FontName>Impact</FontName>
 
    <!--
    Size is a float value, measured in points. Modify this value to change
    the size of the font.
    -->
    <Size>30</Size>
 
    <!--
    Spacing is a float value, measured in pixels. Modify this value to change
    the amount of spacing in between characters.
    -->
    <Spacing>2</Spacing>
 
    <!--
    Style controls the style of the font. Valid entries are "Regular", "Bold", "Italic",
    and "Bold, Italic", and are case sensitive.
    -->
    <Style>Regular</Style>
 
    <!--
    CharacterRegions control what letters are available in the font. Every
    character from Start to End will be built and made available for drawing. The
    default range is from 32, (ASCII space), to 126, ('~'), covering the basic Latin
    character set. The characters are ordered according to the Unicode standard.
    See the documentation for more information.
    -->
    <CharacterRegions>
      <CharacterRegion>
        <Start>&#32;</Start>
        <End>&#126;</End>
      </CharacterRegion>
    </CharacterRegions>
  </Asset>
</XnaContent>

add it to your project in data/fonts/Impact Regular 30.spritefont with content importer and processor Sprite Font Description - XNA Framework. In your code, load the font with:
Resource<SpriteFont> _impact30 =
         ResourceManager.Instance.LoadFont(@"data\fonts\Impact Regular 30");
#2
06/30/2008 (6:50 pm)
Worked great. Thanks.