Font conversion on Mac

See https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?220360-Font-conversion-tool-for-Mac for some options.

See https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?220360-Font-conversion-tool-for-Mac for some options.

Thanks. I tried doing a search and found lots of watch faces and watch apps that mentioned fonts :)


I'm looking at that web-based tool. Yesterday a search turned up bmGlyph, The trial edition looks remarkably similar to that tool. Now if I can just figure out how to force it to create a 1 bit image because it just wants to create color images.

Now if I can just figure out how to force it to create a 1 bit image because it just wants to create color images.

I don't think it matters if the image is color or not. AFAICT, the bmFont tool makes color png images as well. The resource compiler should do the right thing and reduce the data down as far as possible.

The resource compiler should do the right thing and reduce the data down as far as possible.

I would also suspect this is the case although I've never actually tried anything besides a black and white image. When creating a 1 bit font the resource compiler just looks at each pixel and decides if it's on or off.

I found last night after I posted this that on the web site you need to choose white on both sides for the gradient and black for the background and then it works fine. The file size was reduced automatically and maybe it really makes a 1 bit color image. With a white foreground and transparent background (the default background), nothing was drawn on the screen.

I chose the FNT text format. That wasn't obvious, but the Analog watch face uses that format and it works fine.

Too bad the watch doesn't support vector fonts. It seems like it could be a lot flexible if it did because one font face could handle multiple sizes and even angles. With bitmap fonts, you are stuck with the size and orientation you convert. I'm sure it is all about memory and processor power.