[Suggestion] Sprite Font Plugin .fnt/.xml Support

Honestly, I'm gonna have to put this out here: the sprite font plugin as it is, quite honestly, quite tedious to work with in order to get the bitmap font set up in the first place. It mainly has to do with how the sprite font files are formatted.

Nobody makes sprite fonts in a uniform grid. No-one at all. And quite frankly, there's a good reason they don't. There are already standard formats for bitmap/sprite fonts, one notable one being Angelcode's Bitmap Font Generator format, .fnt, which is supported by multiple notable engines already, and it can also be generated in an XML format. ShoeBox can also generate bitmap font files for fonts hand-made in image programs, as well, and can also generate it in XML.

And then there's some bitmap fonts out there that use the format used by the Bitmap Font Writer.

I really do think sprite fonts are great, but the problem is, the way the plugin is set up right now just makes it far too tedious to actually set up a sprite font properly, especially with the knowledge that there are far easier methods of achieving the same result.

Have you tried the tool here?

http://www.scirra.com/forum/sprite-font-generator_topic72160_page1.html

Also it seems like the only benefit from using what you suggested is those pre-made fonts. That's fine and all, but don't you loose the ability to edit them graphically?

Have you tried the tool here?

http://www.scirra.com/forum/sprite-font-generator_topic72160_page1.html

Also it seems like the only benefit from using what you suggested is those pre-made fonts. That's fine and all, but don't you loose the ability to edit them graphically?

I haven't used that tool yet, but it's not really what I want either.

And no, you don't really lose that ability to edit them, all you really need to do is throw the modified bitmap font image into ShoeBox to create a new .fnt/.xml file. Not exactly rocket science.

Might want to check out the thread where Ashley posted the specs.

http://www.scirra.com/forum/official-paid-plugin-contract-sprite-font_topic69126.html

Most of that is because we are working with Html5 with all its advantages, and disadvantages.

Its not rocket science either, but it can get close at times.

It is interesting to look at. I know an XML-based system would admittedly be somewhat trickier to implement, but it's still based on a single image, but rather than in a uniform grid, the characters are packed together and split via information retrieved from the XML. I'd honestly say that using a format generated by, say, ShoeBox, for example, would be easier to fit within a power of two image without actually needing to fiddle with fitting all the characters into a suitably sized grid.

I'd really like to be able to use something like this without needing to go to all the trouble of assembling it into a grid manually:

<img src="http://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/boxy_bold_font_4_0.png" border="0">