calref/cboe

Update fonts

Opened this issue · 1 comments

CelticMinstrel commented

Currently Blades of Exile ships with 3 fonts that came with the original game:

  • MaidenWord.ttf, which was used by the Windows version for NPC dialog.
  • Dungeon.ttf, which was used by the Mac version for NPC dialog.
  • Plain.ttf and Bold.ttf, which were originally copies of Geneva from my system but were replaced with free fonts in 9463ecf.

MaidenWord.ttf was directly released with the source code, so it might be fine to continue using it. However, it does have some issues, so it might be nice to obtain a new font with the same aesthetic.

Dungeon was also directly released with the source code, inside the Macintosh resource file. I am unsure if it's fine to continue using it – it is currently unused except in the New Party dialog to render the PCs' names. Ultimately I'd like to add a preference to toggle NPC dialog between Dungeon and MaidenWord, so it might be nice to obtain a new font with the same aesthetic.

In addition to potential issues of whether we are allowed to use them, and kerning issues that occur with MaidenWord, there is also the question of anti-aliasing. Blades of Exile was released before anti-aliased text became the norm, and there are some people who prefer it to retain that aliased look. As such, it may be nice to obtain bitmap fonts for each of these uses, rather than regular TrueType fonts. Alternatively, if there's a way to disable anti-aliasing with a TrueType font, that would also be acceptable. I think this is something worth adding a preference for though – while some people may prefer the retro aliased look, others might prefer the text to be smooth.

CelticMinstrel commented

From what I can tell, SFML does not allow for any way to disable anti-aliasing on fonts, but it's possible to do it with a small patch to the library if we're okay using a customized build of SFML.

I also went font-diving to see if there were any free bitmap fonts that might be suitable. The results were… not the best, but better than I expected. None of the fonts I fount look like they support italics, however, which could be an issue especially for the fancier fonts.

Possible substitutes for Geneva Regular (currently using DejaVu Sans, I think):

Possibly substitues for Geveva Bold (currently using Capriola):

Possible substitues for MaidenWord:

Possible substitutes for Dungeon (which on closer inspection is basically just a serif font with extra-heavy serifing):