jme3-freetype-font

Freetype bitmap font plugins for jMonkeyEngine3.

structure

source code:

app: The jme3-font-tool application
lib: The jme3-freetype-font library

resources:

font: Fonts used for testing and demo
preset: Preset font properties

framework

Library	Usage
FreeType	font raster library
Harfbuzz	text shaping library
ICU	unicode support
Fontconfig	find best match font

algorithms

Algorithm	Usage
rectangle bin packing	how to pack small font bitmap into large texture atlas
SDF	signed distance field font generation and shading
MSDF	multi-channel signed distance field font generation and shading

https://github.com/juj/RectangleBinPack

feature

Core (in plan):

Load *.ttf fonts and render them with the support of freetype. The backend now is lwjgl-freetype.
Generate a BitmapFont of your desired size on the fly.
Seamless integration with the original BitmapFont and BitmapText. This is mainly to allow Lemur to use the new font directly, and other jME3 user projects can also easily replace the font.
A font editor tool like hiero, in pure jME3 way. User can preview the font, save and load font presets with it.

Other important features(in plan):

Emoji 🐒!!
Support generating SDF fonts and rendering them correctly.
Support font fallback. Users can set the priority of fonts like CSS style sheets.
With the support of harfbuzz, correctly handle glyphs and accurately recognize languages with different writing script.

How to use

dependency

maven:

<dependencies>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.github.jmecn</groupId>
        <artifactId>jme3-freetype-font</artifactId>
        <version>0.1.2</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.lwjgl</groupId>
        <artifactId>lwjgl-freetype</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.2</version>
        <classifier>natives-windows</classifier>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

gradle:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    implementation "io.github.jmecn:jme3-freetype-font:0.1.2"
    implementation "org.lwjgl:lwjgl-freetype::natives-windows:3.3.2"
}

usage

Use FtFontKey and FtFontLoader, you can specify many parameters to load a font.

public void simpleInitApp() {
    assetManager.registerLoader(FtFontLoader.class, "ttf", "otf");
    FtFontKey key = new FtFontKey("fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf", 16);
    // set the payload characters. It's optional.
    key.setCharacters("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");
    // enable real-time glyph generation.
    key.setIncremental(true);
    BitmapFont font = assetManager.loadFont(key);
    BitmapText text = new BitmapText(font);
}

Use FtBitmapFont to create a font quickly. All parameters ara default.

public void simpleInitApp() {
    FtBitmapFont font = new FtBitmapFont(assetManager, "fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf", 16);
    BitmapText text = new BitmapText(font);
}

Use FtFontGenerater and FtFontParameter to create a font manually.

public void simpleInitApp() {
    FtFontGenerater generater = new FtFontGenerater(new File("fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf"));

    FtFontParameter params = new FtFontParameter();
    params.setSize(16);
    params.setIncremental(true);
    params.setRenderMode(RenderMode.MONO);
    params.setMagFilter(Texture.MagFilter.Nearest);
    params.setMinFilter(Texture.MinFilter.NearestNoMipMap);

    params.setBorderWidth(1);
    params.setBorderColor(ColorRGBA.Black);

    params.setShadowOffsetX(3);
    params.setShadowOffsetY(3);
    params.setShadowColor(ColorRGBA.DaryGray);

    FtBitmapCharacterSet charSet = generater.generateData(params);

    BitmapFont font = new BitmapFont();
    font.setCharSet(charSet);
}

Use Distance-field font. You need to change the default MatDef to any other SDF font support shader. I copied on from freetype-gl as a default MatDef.

DON'T set BorderWidth or ShadowOffsetX/Y with SDF font.

public void simpleInitApp() {
    assetManager.registerLoader(FtFontLoader.class, "otf");
    FtFontKey key = new FtFontKey("Font/NotoSerifSC-Regular.otf", 64, true);
    key.setRenderMode(RenderMode.SDF);// specify the render mode
    key.setSpread(8);// specify the spread, range in [2, 32]
    key.setMatDefName("Shaders/Font/SdFont.j3md");// specify the Shader
    key.setColorMapParamName("ColorMap");
    key.setUseVertexColor(false);// SdFont currently doesn't support vertex color, so turn it off
    BitmapFont fnt = assetManager.loadAsset(key);
}

Enjoy yourself.

Note

version

As this library depends on lwjgl-freetype, it's a module of lwjgl3. User should use jme3-lwjgl3 instead of jme3-lwjgl for jme3 application.

For jme3 version 3.6.1-stable, the jme3-lwjgl3 module depends on lwjgl3 3.3.2. So the version of lwjgl-freetype now is 3.3.2 too.

If your jme3-lwjgl3 version is newer or older, you should check the version of lwjgl-freetype, keep it the same to lwjgl3 version.

runtime natives

lwjgl3 support natives for windows, macos and linux. You can find the natives at https://www.lwjgl.org/customize