How to create outlined ttf fonts?

[abstauber]

Hi, this has been bugging me for almost the whole day.

aedwards00 asked me what to do about this outline fonts problems, you get in high-res games. In this thread, there's also a screenshot of the issue:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40335

So I tried to edit the fonts, supplied with my template for ages but haven't succeeded at all. Then I've found those fonts http://www.file-upload.net/download-1910940/fonts.zip.html and they work like a charm.

What's so different with those fonts? Does anyone know what do I need to do when I want to create outlined ttf fonts for AGS?

(I've been using with fontforge btw.)

Thanks a lot!

[Pumaman]

Are you talking about using the Automatic Outline feature, or having a separate outline font?

If it's a separate outline font, the letters must be the same size as the main font; if the outline characters are wider than the normal characters then the text won't line up properly.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

As I understand it, with outline fonts ags just slaps them directly over the other font, so essentially you need to make the main font such that it is shifted over at least one to two units (this is much easier to do with a bitmap font) and draw the outline font without the indentation and bearing in mind it needs to be larger by one in all dimensions than the inner font.  FontStruct and Bitfontmaker are two free online programs that would allow you to do this rather simply with bitmap font drawing (pixel by pixel). 

[abstauber]

Neato! I've instantly bookmarked those two sites

I suppose I just don't enough about vector ttf creation then, because what I did was taking the outline font and inversed it.
So to my understanding it should have worked, but there are just so many nuts and bolts, I might have overlooked the right one. If I ever make my own font, I make sure to make it bitmap.

Thanks!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

What you did sounds like it should have worked but I've only made a font using vectors once and didn't fancy it much so I can't say what you did wrong.  I'm glad you found those font utilities useful, though .