HAM Tutorial :: Fonts Howto

The purpose of this document is to show you how to download and use free fonts in your games. We'll convert TTFs to GIFs and then to BMPs.

There may be better programs out there, but I personally like Font2Gif. It's freeware and very easy to use.
Download the latest version here. (324 KB) Ver 1.2 mirrored locally here.

Next you'll need a free font to use. I have found many useful fonts at 1001FreeFonts.com. For this tutorial I downloaded the first one,
Alien League (13 KB). Mirrored locally here.

Unzip alien.zip (or whichever font you downloaded)
Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel
Double-click Fonts.
Copy ALIEN.TTF to Fonts. This should install the font.

Unzip font2gif.zip
Double-click font2gif.exe to open the program.
Choose Alien League next to Font name.
Next to Size, choose a 8,16,32 or 64 (however big you want it).
Change Font Color to white (or preferred color).
Change Bg Color to black (or preferred alpha blended color)
Now, you can type in your characters or if you want to make it really easy on yourself, choose Auto Fill -> Digits, CAPS, All font chars, etc.

Click Convert.
Select Save as solid GIF-file.
Click Save.

Give it a name.
Click Save.
Close font2gif.

Now you have your fonts in a GIF file. All you have to do is open the image in your favorite program and save it as a bitmap. Just make sure it's a bitmap with an indexed palette.

Downloads

font2gif.zip (324 KB) Ver 1.2
Alien League font (13 KB)
alien_league.gif, alien_league.bmp (16 pixel font)

Freeware Fonts

Nick's Fonts