Fontloader for the FreeType 2 Library Unveiled

Posted Jul 27, 2006 at 3:32AM by QJ Staff Listed in: Homebrew Development Tags: fonts, Insomniac197, Psilocybeing, PSPGL, virtual pet
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Fontloader

You may have heard of homebrew developer, Insomniac197. Well, if you aren't familiar with the guy, he is the one who is venturing on a homebrew project called AniMate -- which is basically Tamagotchi for the PSP, but the only difference is that instead of just feeding or playing with your virtual pet, it will have built in mini-game's action to make for a more dynamic experience. So far, that game is still in development, so instead, we focus on another Insomniac197 creation.

Recently, the developer released in our forums the Fontloader, a simple interface for making use of the freetype2 library. If freetype2 library sounds like something that could make you sleep in a jiffy, well let us give you some info about it. freetype2 is a software font engine that is designed to be small, efficient, highly customizable, and portable while capable of producing high-quality output. It can be used in graphics libraries, display servers, font conversion tools, text image generation tools, and many other products as well, including homebrews.

So if the freetype2 library already exists, what is this app for? Well, learning to use the freetype library can be very confusing. Apps such as Insomniac197's Fontloader makes the utilization of the freetype2 library easier. So if you want to use a specific font for a homebrew game or app you are working on, apps like this one would be a great help to you. So with that aptly stated, here are some of its features:

-- Supports multiple fonts
-- Smooth anti-aliased font appearance
-- Fonts cached for faster access


For his future plans about this app, Insomniac197 said that "in the 'Samples' directory within this archive there is example code on how to integrate Fontloader. Currently there is only an example using Psilocybeing's graphic library, but I intend to create examples for GU and possibly even PSPGL." The good developer would also like to thank Samstag for flib and inspiring him to create this app and to Shine because, according to the dev, "the code in Fontloader is based heavily on the freetype2 implementation in LuaPlayer so 99% of the credit for Fontloader should go to him."

Download: [Fontloader]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

 
 
 

Comments [refresh]

by Dan - 2006-07-26 22:53
» WOW

FIRST COMMENT ever again!

by Gimlyly - 2006-07-27 02:07
» !!!

I'm going to shoot you.

by dude - 2006-07-27 02:27
» aliasing

The 2nd Font looks pretty jagged to me

by SamuraiX - 2006-07-27 02:52
» Cached loading!

I can definitely use this library to reduce memory for hardcoded fonts in my app. Great Job Insomniac197 !!!

by Insomniac197 - 2006-07-27 08:00
» Aliasing et al

Aliasing is fine in reality (the image shown is only a 3kb gif).



The two fonts are displayed using different methods however - which the sample code illustrates.



Glad you appreciate it SamuraiX.

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