Guidance with Custom Font

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1

I downloaded a FNT and PNG file for a font. I have tried multiple different ways of trying to do this and maybe I am just not getting a basic thing.

I created a folder in source called fonts (source/fonts) and placed the files there. This is the same method I use for my images and never had any issues there. In my code, i used:
local emerald_20 = gfx.font.new("fonts/emerald_20.fnt")

then later when I want to use the font I used:
gfx.setFont(emerald_20)

The weird (to me) behavior here is with all that done, when I run the build, the images folder doesn't get added to the build and the pdxinfo file is missing. I delete the font folder, rebuild, and everything works like normal.

So, just like my images folder, I decided to use a subfolder instead of the main folder. I updated the file path to include the subfolder name and the font will not load properly and is just nil.

Am I missing a basic thing or is there a specific way these things need to be handled?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

2

Don't use the file extension.

This applies pretty much everywhere in the SDK.

3

Ok, that's understandable. I removed ".fnt" from the code, but I still am experiencing the behavior of with the "fonts" folder present, my images folder and pdxinfo file are not present when built.

I remove the fonts folder, build again, and the images and pdxinfo file return to the build per normal.

4

looks to be haunted fnt files... The above behavior only happens when the fnt and png files I'm trying to use are present. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

5

You can try to load the files into tophat to confirm they're working.

https://play.date/dev/links/

6

I used the fonts from the PlaydateSDK examples, I put in the same folder as you, but in my case to make it work, I had to use two files:

my folder: source/assets/fonts
the files inside:
font-Cuberick-Bold-table-12-15.png
font-Cuberick-Bold.fnt

so in you main.lua you just do something like

local mainFont = gfx.font.new("assets/fonts/font-Cuberick-Bold")
gfx.setFont(mainFont)

maybe you're missing some file?

7

So yea, I was able to use a font from the SDK, which just further confirms it's something either with the files I'm using or the way I am handling them.

For reference I'm going to keep on, but from this post here since that is the post from which I found the font's in the first place.