Re: TECH: creating a bitmap font?

Arnt Richard Johansen skrev:
 > A couple of years ago, I created a TrueType font
 > containing a calligraphic version of the Ciktal syllabary.
 > (Available at http://arj.nvg.org/ciktal/ ) It looks okay,
 > but is somewhat illegible at small sizes, so I'm looking
 > for something better.
 >
 > As it happens, I have a directory full of 16x16 pixel
 > bitmaps of all the syllables, and all the diacritics. Do
 > any of you know of any tools that can be used to turn
 > these pictures into a bitmap font? I am primarily looking
 > to turn it into a format that is reasonably platform-
 > independent, but a Linux/X11-only solution would be
 > swell, too.

I expect FontForge <http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/> can
do it. Don't hesitate to sub yourself to the mailing list
and ask for help. George Willims himself and others are
quite helpful.

If you google for bitmap font editor you'll find
some commercial things that may or may not do a good job,
if you are economically independent. ;-)

 > Is it common for renderers using bitmap fonts to be able
 > to compose characters themselves, or is it necessary to
 > store precomposed bitmaps in the font?
 >

They usually try, but you'll usually get better results
with precomposed bitmaps.  It of course depends on the
quality of the outline font, esp. the hinting, which I
wish I understood better.