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BDFs from FontForge; or, Seeking Wizened Font Nerd

Saga SöderbackSaga Söderback Posts: 42
in Type Design Software
Hi all –

I require what feels like ancient, arcane wisdom. Is there a Gandalf* of BDFs? It seems that FontForge** does not respect the bitmaps it itself creates. I have a CJK font for which I have tuned some of the bitmaps at smaller pixel sizes. I've given them all at least 1px from the X origin because the hardware these BDFs are intended for needs a little breathing room. Some of the glyphs in the final BDF that FF produces, however, have been shifted, with their leftmost pixels on the origin.

Has anyone any experience with this issue specifically or BDF work with FF in general? Thanks very much.

Micah

* Note: I have not read the books or seen the movies, but he's the only old famous wizard I can think of, so forgive me if the analogy is iffy.
** AFAIK, when editing bitmaps for BDFs, you choose either FF or FontLab. I have chosen the cheaper option.
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    Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,654
    FontLab's BitFonter is still available and is specifically designed for working with things like BDF fonts. It's not free, but it's pretty good. http://old.fontlab.com/font-editor/bitfonter/
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    Saga SöderbackSaga Söderback Posts: 42
    Mark Simonson said:
    FontLab's BitFonter is still available and is specifically designed for working with things like BDF fonts. It's not free, but it's pretty good. http://old.fontlab.com/font-editor/bitfonter/

    Oh, that's still available?! Great, I had completely forgotten about it. That one's worth the money, as I recall. Thanks for the reminder.

    Micah
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    Hin-Tak LeungHin-Tak Leung Posts: 359
    Hmm, a completely off track question - what kind of breathing room do you need? I am a native reader and also took on cxterm (I seem  to have a tendency to adopt abandoned/unloved software...) - and the three(?) bdf's used by cxterm are fairly readable as I recall. They are all 16x16 pixels. I haven't used cxterm for a number of years.
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    Saga SöderbackSaga Söderback Posts: 42
    Hin-Tak Leung said:
    Hmm, a completely off track question - what kind of breathing room do you need? I am a native reader and also took on cxterm (I seem  to have a tendency to adopt abandoned/unloved software...) - and the three(?) bdf's used by cxterm are fairly readable as I recall. They are all 16x16 pixels. I haven't used cxterm for a number of years.

    I'm not familiar with cxterm but I'm not going to switch fonts on this project now. Wrong sizes, too. Thanks for the tip, though.

    Micah
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    Hin-Tak LeungHin-Tak Leung Posts: 359
    @Micah Stupak what size are you using? Cjk below 16x16 gets very unreadable, so I hope you are targeting larger :)
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    Hin-Tak LeungHin-Tak Leung Posts: 359
    edited January 2016
    Edit: Oh, sorry, this is posted to wrong thread! 
    (
    2nd iteration is out soon... Here is the bundled readmefirst:

    https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator/blob/master/ReadMeFirst_MacOSX.pdf

    I have pushed the launcher one level deeper so that it is easier to copy, plus a few other improvements.)
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    Saga SöderbackSaga Söderback Posts: 42
    Hin-Tak Leung said:
    @Micah Stupak what size are you using? Cjk below 16x16 gets very unreadable, so I hope you are targeting larger :)
    Yes, it's bigger than that, don't worry. :)
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