Font Tutorial

Creating Fonts

Bitmap Fonts

Creating Custom Font

Create texture that corresponds Unreal texture rules, it should be size MxN, where M or M is power of two(2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024) and image should be indexed(8-bit color) Download reference textures (at the bottom of this page) and draw your fonts in order like on MedFont texture.

NOTE: empty cells in grid are characters too

All chars should be in grid like on reference textures. Make sure that grid's color is last (255th, if count from zero) color in image palette. Make it light green or something like that, but be sure not to use this color in your font! First (zero) color in palette is masked color. This color will be transparent in game. Save file as pcx or bmp

Using in Game

Export font in your class:

#exec Font Import File=Textures\MyFont.pcx Name=MyFont

TODO: Write how to draw text

Creating Localized Fonts

First, you need base fonts to make yours.

I created fonts imported from Unreal with grid.

It's SmallFont, MedFont, BigFont, LargeFont and WhiteFont

Download Fonts

NOTE: Grid might be incorrect, report if you find mistake.

Editing

You need to explore which position corresponds each character from your charset. And just substitute glyph with your symbol's glyph. But obey order!

Importing

Save this text in text file and place it into your System/ directory. Remember to change it for your purposes.

Font Import File=texture0.pcx PACKAGE="MyFonts" Name=SmallFont
Font Import File=texture1.pcx PACKAGE="MyFonts" Name=MedFont
Font Import File=texture2.pcx PACKAGE="MyFonts" Name=LargeFont
Font Import File=texture3.pcx PACKAGE="MyFonts" Name=BigFont
Font Import File=texture7.pcx PACKAGE="MyFonts" Name=WhiteFont
OBJ SAVEPACKAGE PACKAGE="MyFonts" FILE="..\Textures\MyFonts.utx"

When type exec <you_file_name>.txt in UnrealEd to import fonts into Unreal!

Using in game (227g+ only)

Find section [Fonts] in your Engine.??t and replace fonts with yours.

Example:

[Fonts]
WhiteFont=MyFonts.WhiteFont
MedFont=MyFonts.MedFont
LargeFont=MyFonts.LargeFont
BigFont=MyFonts.BigFont
SmallFont=MyFonts.SmallFont

Known Problems

Some troubles with font mapping using UTF-16

TrueType Fonts

Base

You can use your system fonts as a base for in-game fonts.

Editing

Edit fonts in font editor by copying your set of characters to first 255 entries.

With 227g you can edit the fonts while in editor; type in following command:

OBJ EXPORTFONT NAME="LargeFont"

That will create a folder in Unreal\System\LargeFont\... containing BMP files for all of the font textures used.
Now you can edit the textures the way you want (make sure you do NOT rescale or change offsets of the characters).
Once you're done you can go back to editor and type in following command again:

OBJ IMPORTFONT NAME="LargeFont" FORMAT="bmp"

That will update the font textures from the newly created folder.

Importing

Use this script to import TrueType fonts to Unreal

new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=Tahoma10 FontName="Tahoma" Height=10 AntiAlias=0
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=Tahoma20 FontName="Tahoma" Height=20 AntiAlias=1
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=Tahoma30 FontName="Tahoma" Height=30 AntiAlias=1 CharactersPerPage=32
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=TahomaB10 FontName="Tahoma Bold" Height=10 AntiAlias=1
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=TahomaB20 FontName="Tahoma Bold" Height=20 AntiAlias=1 XPad=2
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=TahomaB30 FontName="Tahoma Bold" Height=30 AntiAlias=1 CharactersPerPage=32 XPad=2
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=UTFont12 FontName="Verdana" Height=12 AntiAlias=0
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=UTFont24 FontName="Arial Narrow" Height=24 AntiAlias=1
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=UTFont40 FontName="Arial Bold" Height=40 CharactersPerPage=32 AntiAlias=1
new TrueTypeFontFactory PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" Name=RedTahoma10 FontName="Tahoma" Height=10 AntiAlias=0 UseGlyphs=1 R=255 G=0 B=0 
OBJ SAVEPACKAGE PACKAGE="UWindowFonts" FILE="..\Textures\UWindowFonts.utx"

• The Package parameter specifies the file font should go to.
• The Name parameter specifies the name of the font.
• The FontName parameter specifies the Windows name of the font to be imported. For example "Comic Sans MS", "Arial" or "Earth Normal".
• The Height parameter is the height of the font in pixels.
• If AntiAlias is 1, the TTF importer requests an anti-aliased font from Windows with the ANTIALIASED_QUALITY flag to CreateFont().
• The CharactersPerPage parameter specifies the number of characters per 256x256 pixel font texture. The default is 64. The TTF importer will give you an error if it runs out of space when drawing characters on the font pages. If you get the error "Font vertical size exceeded maximum of 256", you should half the CharactersPerPage parameter.
• Two other parameters - XPad and YPad, add extra space between characters. These default to 1. Some fonts require extra space between characters, as Windows doesn't report their actual spacing requirement correctly.
• v. 227g/h: For colored fonts: R, G and B. Valid values are between 0 and 255.

Save it as text file, launch UnrealEd and write in command field exec <text_file_name>.txt

Known Problems

Fonts Tahoma and Arial Bold don't import on some System, but successfully import in Wine. TTFontImport in 227g should work correctly.

Links

Reference Textures

Epic:True Type Font Import