Adventure Game Studio

Creative Production => Critics' Lounge => Topic started by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 12:10:12

Title: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 12:10:12
I just finished transferring a TTF font to a SCI font for my game.  I had to hand tweak some areas.  I wanted to know if you think it is readable and comfortable to look at.  Please forgive any spelling errors.  Nothing has been proof read yet. ;)  And I'd like to change the overhead text to speech bubbles as soon as I know enough about AGS to do it.

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontTest.jpg)

Please let me know what you think.  Thanks
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: G on Sat 11/04/2009 13:04:30
I find it quite nice and readeble. Nice work with it.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Takyon on Sat 11/04/2009 14:28:42
It's a bit narrow but apart from that it's fine.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Ubel on Sat 11/04/2009 16:07:17
Maybe I'm used to wider fonts but I feel it's too squished together. I personally find it difficult to read. It might help if there was a small gap between the letters.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 16:25:42
Spacing was my concern too.  I'll see if it looks better or worse with an extra pixel after each character.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Galen on Sat 11/04/2009 16:43:34
It looks fine to me. Infact, better then most fonts I've seen.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Takyon on Sat 11/04/2009 17:10:44
This game looks like an rpg? Any info on it?
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Kastchey on Sat 11/04/2009 17:29:20
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37228.0

And as for the font, it's a bit eye tiring to me, but I think the speech bubbles might make it better.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 18:22:35
Could it also be the amount of text that is shown?  Perhaps I need to wrap to a shorter width and show less text.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: zabnat on Sat 11/04/2009 18:56:43
I wouldn't like to read such a narrow and tight font. Makes my eyes hurt.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Takyon on Sat 11/04/2009 20:18:02
The game looks great can't wait to play it.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sat 11/04/2009 22:12:16
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=36937.msg487535#msg487535

That what the font reminds me bloody of.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 23:02:34
The name of the font is called Lady Ice.  http://www.dafont.com/lady-ice.font (http://www.dafont.com/lady-ice.font)  It is a free font from dafont.com.  I trimmed the tales off of some of the letters because they didn't look good when reduced to such a small size.  However, with increasing the kerning, I might add them back in to give it more personality.

The list of fonts I was considering were as follows:

Accidental President
Bebas
Blue Highway
Dinova
Enigmatic
Ever After
Kenya Coffee
Libel Suit
Pilsen plakat
Steelfish
Surface

All have a similar height and width that I was looking for.  However, Lady Ice reduced in size much better than the others.  That's why I used it.

Here are two more shots.  The first is with a 1 pixel gap:

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontTest1px.jpg)

and the second is with a 0 pixel gap:

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontTest0px.jpg)

Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sat 11/04/2009 23:14:15
Who am i to tell you not to use it. I was just wondering what the hell it reminded me of.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 11/04/2009 23:22:43
Sorry, Dualnames.  I probably took what you said the wrong way.  Are you saying that the font looks too techno for the game?
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sat 11/04/2009 23:45:37
The font is one of my favs, it can be reduced quite easily. But I don't think it fits the game. Something more reminscent of medieval could work. It's not bad at all, but I think you could benefit with another font.

EDIT: Care to show us the rest of the list?
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Andail on Sat 11/04/2009 23:47:53
Quote
That what the font reminds me bloody of.
Quote
Who am i to tell you not to use it. I was just wondering what the hell it reminded me of.

Dualnames, we're not asking for literary masterpieces, but try to put some effort in your posts. Right now it seems you spit out oneliners just as an excuse to swear.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sat 11/04/2009 23:54:40
Quote from: Andail on Sat 11/04/2009 23:47:53
Quote
That what the font reminds me bloody of.
Quote
Who am i to tell you not to use it. I was just wondering what the hell it reminded me of.

Dualnames, we're not asking for literary masterpieces, but try to put some effort in your posts. Right now it seems you spit out oneliners just as an excuse to swear.

Okay, I promise to behave.

Now, on topic it's really hard to get a good non-blurry, non-too bold, scalable medieval font. Actually it would be wiser to create your own SCI font(which however as its nature is can't be scaled).

Some ideas:
http://www.dafont.com/cardinal.font

http://www.dafont.com/the-art-of-illumina.font

Those are really clear (at least as they appear to me).

Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sun 12/04/2009 00:05:08
I know what you mean.  I went through many nice fonts but that just looked terrible scaled down because they weren't clear. 

I took another look through and found some Celtic founds as well.  I'll make a list of them scaled down to the size that I think is good for AGS.  I'll include those ones as well.  If I can find a decent font, I will convert it to SCI.  I did that with Lady Ice and it turned out not bad even though I have to agree it doesn't quite match the genre. ;)

Ok.  Here it is:

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontChoices.jpg)

Just my thoughts.  The Art of Illumination doesn't have any uppercase characters.  So that would be a problem for that font and it looks pretty heavy too.  The last font there is a little too heavy as well but it might be able to be cleaned up.  However, I think one of the other fonts would be much better.  They are lighter weight and more readable, imho.

Which one do you think that you could stand staring at for hours on end? ;)  Any of them?  BTW... If I go with a different font, I will donate the Lady Ice SCI font to the AGS community.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sun 12/04/2009 01:30:16
I'd say Magic cards sure feels like it's the cleaniest of all. I'd say either Morris or Cardinal for second place. Ditch the first and the last.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Moresco on Sun 12/04/2009 10:57:38
Quote from: redspark on Sun 12/04/2009 00:05:08
Which one do you think that you could stand staring at for hours on end? ;)  Any of them?  BTW... If I go with a different font, I will donate the Lady Ice SCI font to the AGS community.

Either Morris Roman or Gaelic as the best choices there, but honestly none of them are very nice to look at.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sun 12/04/2009 14:19:05
Well, may be I'm barking up the wrong tree.  I just poked around the bitmap fonts section on Dafont and found some interesting ones there.  They are crisp and clean at their appropriate size.  They are a little old school but perhaps that's what is needed.  The two I like are Lunchtime and Venice Classic.  However, I think, Mister Pixel is the easiest to read.

Tell me what you think:

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontChoices2.jpg)

Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Moresco on Sun 12/04/2009 15:07:01
Quote from: redspark on Sun 12/04/2009 14:19:05
Well, may be I'm barking up the wrong tree.  I just poked around the bitmap fonts section on Dafont and found some interesting ones there.  They are crisp and clean at their appropriate size.  They are a little old school but perhaps that's what is needed.  The two I like are Lunchtime and Venice Classic.  However, I think, Mister Pixel is the easiest to read.


From those, I liked first or last...but the last one was a bit cramped vertically from line to line.  Otherwise fairly compact and easy to read, dig those two.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sun 12/04/2009 15:22:27
It shouldn't be any trouble to fix the line height issue for the last one -- nor any character spacing problems.  However, I thought the height of the characters may be too small for a 640x480 game.  They are only 12 pixels high.  But may be it is good for the character's size.  It doesn't seem to overpower the chibi like some of the others do.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Kastchey on Sun 12/04/2009 15:27:36
I suppose that one of the main characteristics of a well-designed and fitting font is that you don't actually notice it while reading. I'd go for Venice Classic out of these seven, because it's the only one that doesn't draw my attention off the actual text. And it's not too narrow either... but yes, PixAntique fits the character size better than Venice Classic.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Ryan Timothy B on Sun 12/04/2009 17:52:04
Either Venice Classic or Mister Pixel are good.

Mister Pixel gives it that old school 2d rpg feeling; it's also very easy to read.
And Venice Classic looks more medieval and fitting for the age of the game (castles and kings and what-not).

Game looks great btw.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: rbaleksandar on Sun 12/04/2009 21:21:15
I'm for Venice Classic too. Looks cool, it's readable and most important - fits the game style.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Mon 13/04/2009 11:09:10
Thanks, everyone.  I'm in the process of converting Venice Classic to a SCI font.  I'll test it out and see how that looks.  Thanks again.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Wed 15/04/2009 20:25:37
I say the last one in the pic is the best...
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sat 18/04/2009 23:50:01
Here is the final look with Speech Bubbles implemented (Thanks to SSH).

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontFinal.jpg)
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Dualnames on Sun 19/04/2009 20:36:39
I like it!!!(Worthless of posts)
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Sun 19/04/2009 22:20:17
Thanks!  At least I feel like I'm on the right track. ;)
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Kastchey on Mon 20/04/2009 18:58:00
I like it too. However, do you have an option to anti-alias the font? Might be worth trying.
I was also wondering if the bubbles would look better with white background instead of NES-ish dark blue. I made a sample using the screenshot you provided, I'm not sure if it  really works better though.
Screenshot here (http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8890/spbubbnw.png)
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Mon 20/04/2009 19:11:01
Thank you and thanks for the sample adjustment.  I didn't try an alternate Bubble outline color.  Maybe if the bubble outline was dark purple instead of light purple it would be better.  But I originally had it as Black and White and the contrast got to me after awhile.   I didn't like it because the font looked even harsher.  The purple shades for the bubble is in keeping with the colors used in my Inventory HUD and I felt it was easier on my eyes.  Maybe it's just my imagination. ;)

The font is an SCI font.  I converted it by hand from the TTF version for better performance.  I don't think it can be anti-aliased because of that.  But I'm not familiar enough with AGS to know for sure.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: Snarky on Tue 21/04/2009 08:53:25
Looks pretty good, but you should adjust the borders on the speech bubble so that the top and bottom margins match.
Title: Re: Font Test
Post by: redspark on Tue 21/04/2009 11:35:00
The Top and Bottom margins do match.  The font height has some extra space at the bottom to add space between lines.  However, it throws the vertical alignment of the text off within the Bubble.  But I think I figured a way to fix it in the code.  I offset the text Y placement by the same number of pixels and it centered no problem.  Thanks for pointing it out.

(http://dungeon.genesismuds.com/gfx/screenshots/FontFinal2.jpg)

Sorry that the room graphics have changed a bit from the first post.  I've been playing around with the room lighting and textures. :)