Bitmap Coloring

I'm missing something pretty obvious I think.

I create little bitmaps. 2 color (black foreground, white background), non-dithered PNG files with transparency (the white is rendered as transparent). They are small and work great. In the CIQ resources file I use: dithering="floyd_steinberg". I use them as indicators in some of my DFs.

But, I can't tell CIQ to recolor the black foreground of the icon to one of the system colors (eg: Graphics.COLOR_DK_BLUE).

Is there an easy solution to enable changing the color at run-time for a bitmap graphic? Maybe using a different format other than PNG?

I've read I can create a custom font with my little 2-color graphic icon. Then it could be colored. But I've only used bmfont to create custom fonts and I'm not sure the process to create a single element custom font from a PNG file.

Thanks!

jim_m_58 over 4 years ago

A simple way to do this is to turn your bitmaps into a custom font (I do this for icons on watch faces)

so you then do

dc.setColor(bg,fg);

dc.drawText(x,y,myBmpFont,"x",Gfx.TEXT_JUSTIFY_CENTER);

for example

DaveBrillhart over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Perfect... that sounds like the way to go. If it is easy to tell me... what is the process or tool you use to create a custom font from a PNG or other bitmap image? I've only used bmfont. THX!!

jim_m_58 over 4 years ago in reply to DaveBrillhart

anything that allows you to edit the png file. I use PaintShop

DaveBrillhart over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Thanks jim_m_58

I've got the PNG icon working as a bitmap. My issue is creating the FNT file. I took an existing one and made the RED changes, referring to my 1 character custom font that points to a PNG file that has a single 28x28 pixel icon. I use the "G" character (71) to refer to it in my drawText. No compile or runtime error, but it doesn't want to display it - or maybe it is but is SUPER small. Any obvious errors?

jim_m_58 over 4 years ago in reply to DaveBrillhart

The thing that I see is you probably want xadvance to be 28 or more and in mine i have alphaChn1=1

DaveBrillhart over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Thanks! I only changed xadvange. Using a font is much better.... not only can I change colors, it also turns the background transparent even with the PNG not tagging an alpha channel. The BLACK one is using a bitmap, the blue one is using a font.