Minecraft Forums

Hello, everyone!

I wanted to edit the minecraft font today, and found it extremely difficult to get some information on the subject!



This is the file we'll be editing. The location is:

//font//default.png

Note, however, that while you can put it in your favorite texture pack, it doesn't seem to work. (Confirmation?)
Instead, place it in your minecraft jar, like so:

minecraft.jar//font//default.png

Phase 1

Set up your interface
Follow the image below and set up your interface accordingly. You need:
Window: Character open.
Window: Layer open.

What resolution do you want? Default: 128x128. My choice: 256x256
Using any resolution other than 128x128 may be IMPOSSIBLE! See bottom of post!
go to Image: Image Size. Select Percentage, 200 width & height.
<<VERY IMPORTANT>> Resample Image: Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)

Create a background.
go to Layer: New > Layer.
drag this layer under the layer of text.
Ctrl+A (select all, entire canvas). Right click in the canvas area, select Fill!

Get a pixel font
Find a font. Perfect place: DaFont.com/Bitmap
I'm using PF Tempesta Seven (Bold).
Installing a font is easy. Find out how on Google,
and be sure to restart your image editing program before you use the new font.

Phase 2

Create a text layer. Use the Horizontal Type Tool (T).
Drag an area, the width of a line of text, and the height of ONE line of text.
A new Type layer should appear, and it should be on the top of the list.
Start typing.
If you don't see anything, your font size is too big to fit into the area you dragged. (see below)

Use the Character Window.
Select your pixel font, and a size that closely resembles the default letter size.
<<VERY IMPORTANT>> There's an "aa" icon.
This drop-down is for "font smoothing". Please select "None".

If you're have a "monospaced" font, you don't need to do the following:

Two tools get the job done.
You only need two tools to fit your pixel font into the default font area:

Horizontal Scale. It's the T with <---> underneath.
Use this on wide letters like M and W, to squish them!

Tracking. It's the A V with <---> underneath.
Use this to add more space AFTER a letter.
You'll probably use this on every single letter.

Save.
Delete the default white text behind letters you've added. (Leave the rest intact)
Turn off the visibility of the background layer. (The eye on the left of the layer name).
Save-as. Format: PNG, File name: default.png (Back up the original in case you need it!)


Current Problems:

Letter spacing seems to be hard-coded somewhere in the Minecraft.jar. This is clear because the bitmap we are editing uses a mono-spacing format. However, in game we see that letters are spaced based on their size. For example, the lower case "i" is snug between two letters.

We must find this code and edit it if we ever want to truly have our own fonts in minecraft!


Anyone think they know the solution?

Bumping, because I think someone out there in Interweb Land can help solve the up-sizing problem.

bump
and is there a way to add languages to the game???

The minecraft font is a bitmap-monospace type. In order to successfully hack the font, you will have to hand-sprite every single character and make it fit the original boundaries of the original font.

Using photoshop is only going to help you with alignment, thanks to the layer ability. attempting to use text-input will not work due to anti-aliasing and kerning errors with the minecraft engine.

Take it from a guy who's made more in-game fonts for Earthbound than most people call sane (I'm MrStabby on Starmen.Net forums); This is not a task for the faint of heart.

I wish there was a mod that would let us be able to use higher-resolution fonts. The default font is kind of really blocky. I'd like to use a font with smooth curves.

A BOLDED ALL CAPS UPDATE:

MCPATCHER now supports HD fonts!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1021&t=46173

Thank you, kind sir, for explaining how to edit the in-game font! I've been wondering about this for a while and I couldn't find anything useful, until I found this!