How do I make a bitmap font system with an image background

SDL Development
1

Maybe it won’t be a problem with a static font, but what if I wanted to
make a dinamyc font system (eg. the font can be moved around, can be
lengthened or shortened in runtime, can animate like flashing font,
etc.)??

Salvatore Di Fazio wrote:

I can suggest to you to use a transparent surface for the font or and
for the surface where you will put the character.

2006/7/17, @benang_at_cs.its.ac <@benang_at_cs.its.ac>:

Hi, actually I’ve written this question before along with my reply. But
since nobody answered it, I decided to send it in a separate mail.

I’ve looked at Marius Andra and Lazy Foo’s tutorial on a bitmap font
system. The tutorials only explained about fonts without any background
behind the string (or simply a background with one color as in Lazy
Foo’s
tutorial). When I implemented the system in my application, it didn’t
work
as I planed because behind it there’s a huge background image. Should I
treat the string as a sprite (like saving and updating the background
behind it like the sprite did in Marius Andra’s tutorial)? What about an
everchanging string that can be lengthened or shortened upon an event
(eg.
a graphical typewriter game?)?

Thanks in advance,
Bawenang R. P. P.

I don’t think it’s there anymore. There’s a 404 error.

Neil White wrote:>

take a look at crazeeman code, i think there is a half assed font non ttf
system you might find usefull in there,
http://www.cloudsprinter.com/crazeeman/

2

Hi there,

I haven’t seen the link you pointed initially (your mail client doesn’t honor
threads and I don’t feel like searching for your early message), but probably
the examples are using pixmap fonts. Bitmaps fonts (arrays of 0 and 1) are
much better to do some visual tricks on like applying gradients, outlined
them, whatever. Generally, people use SDL_TTF that outputs a surface with
just 2 colors (a bitmap font, that is) and then apply some effects to make it
more pretty.

You may also want to explore code rendered fonts, where you just keep
information on the code about each character and render them using
primitives. If you don’t understand, checkout:
http://rpmcruz.planetaclix.pt/repository/graphical/#steadyfeet

Anyway, nothing beats some profissional quality pixmap fonts.

Cheers,
RicardoEm Ter?a, 18 de Julho de 2006 05:50, o benang at cs.its.ac.id escreveu:

Maybe it won’t be a problem with a static font, but what if I wanted to
make a dinamyc font system (eg. the font can be moved around, can be
lengthened or shortened in runtime, can animate like flashing font,
etc.)??

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The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid
prejudice.
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