Tutorial 2

How to create a simple OKF font with post processing.

In this tutorial you will learn how to generate a nicer looking OKF font than in Tutorial 1, from a TrueType font. To achieve that, you will learn how to generate an intermediary bitmap that you will post process with your favourite image processor to apply an outline to the font.

1. Open GPFontMaker.

2. Select the font properties (name, size, color, weight, ...),  using the toolbar or the 'Fonts format' and 'Fonts properties' dialog boxes.

3. Select Font \ Charset \ Set menu option to define the character set of the font.

4. As we want to outline our font, we need more space between characters. Select Font \ Postprocessing properties menu option or press F5 or click Postprocessing properties toolbar button to open the 'Postprocessing properties' dialog box.
Check the first checkbox to activate post processing properties and make the post processed characters 2 pixels wider and taller as the outline for the font will be of 1 pixel.

As you can see, the display of the main window has changed to reflect the new options:

5. Select Font \ Export menu option or press F6 or click Export font toolbar button to call the Export font dialog box.

6. Because of the settings of the 'Postprocessing properties' dialog box, you have the possibility to generate a bitmap with all the characters of the font. We will use this bitmap to post process it and make the font nicer.
Activate the 'Generate bitmap(s) for postprocessing' option and specify the filename for the bitmap.

7. Click OK to generate the bitmap. Here is an example of the resulting bitmap:

8. Now leave GPFontMaker as is, and execute your image processor to post process the bitmap. Here is an example with a new outline:

If you look closely, you can see that now characters are no more separated by 2 pixels. If we hadn't reserved space in step 4, the outline would have overlapped over contiguous characters.

9. Save the new bitmap and return to GPFontMaker. If you left it untouched after step 7, you will find it in this state:

As you can see, GPFontMaker has automatically switched to the second step to generate the OKF font. Theorically, all filenames have been initialized according to the bitmap filename and path.

10. Specify all the options you need and click OK to generate the OKF font and eventually the C source file(s).

11. Easy, isn't it?