Custom Characters in OTF/TTF fonts

[joeblack1863]

I'd be happy to give pointers to any community members who want to make changes/updates.

Okay, I'll ask a question that has been on my mind. I want to create my own set of fonts that have the star wars symbols AND the genesys symbols available. I can currently access the star wars symbols in the regular font used in the rulset by using the "Alt+Number" method. For example ALT+241 gives me the Setback symbol (If anyone wants me to post the list I have, let me know). Back to my question.

I have your OTF font (EotESymbol-RegularMod.otf), I have the genesys symbols in a TTF (Genesys.ttf), I have the FGFontGenerator.exe as well. However, the otf and ttf only contain the symbols, so will not work when turned into the FGF font format that FG uses.

I have the Microsoft OpenType SVG font editor, which can replace symbols in a font (it allows you to convert ttf/otf symbols to svg symbols). So I figure, all I need is a ttf/otf font that has the full 255 symbol set and I can replace the ones at the end of the list with my own, then save as TTF, then generate that font as an FGF.

Please correct me, if I am wrong (and if you can understand my ramblings). But this would be great, as looking at the font symbols, I could extend their use to bold and italic and possibly header as well.

Joe

[Trenloe]

I've moved this from the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire thread as it's a pretty generic.

I've been unsuccessful in my limited testing of using TTF fonts in FG Classic with custom symbols. But that was in PFRPG2 with character codes that were usually not displayed anyway (I used non-visible character codes, different from the ones used in SW: EotE). This relies on the FG engine converting the TTF files at run time. For now, I've only had success with FGF files in FG Classic.

The FG Unity devs have done OpenSans TTF files with custom characters for the FG Unity beta test. I don't know the exact process they used.

Sorry, this doesn't really answer your question. For FG Classic, however, I'd recommend using FGF files only.

[joeblack1863]

Thanks Trenloe,

The best thing I can do is test my theory and see what happens. I will post my findings here if people want to know. If I can find a suitable free font (is the OpenSans TTF file you mention above available?), then if I am successful I could post the fonts here for others?

[Trenloe]

... is the OpenSans TTF file you mention above available?
It's in the PFRGP2.pak ruleset file with your FG install.

[joeblack1863]

Thank you,

I'll give it a go.

[LordEntrails]

Please do post your results. Never know who might find such useful in the future.

[punisher5150]

Thank you,

I'll give it a go.

joeblack 1863 have you been able to make any progress with this? johniba is working on a CoreRPG version of Genesys (I think?). he may have some useful info. That thread is located at:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?53302-Genesys-(FFG-RPG)-work-in-progress

[Mortar]

Just as an FYI, ALT codes won't work in the Unity client.

[joeblack1863]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I have tried to recreate the fonts using the tools mentioned above and found that the Microsoft OpenType SVG font editor just doesn't work. I created the svg files from the TTF, but everytime I used the editor to replace a character in the loaded font, it appeared to have been changed. Then when I usewd the new font, the character just came out as the original character. I looked around for other font editors and found that they are all expensive, poor, or a gamble on picking up a virus.

At that point I took a break looking to see if I had any other ideas, but then saw the above posts. I know little about font editing and from what I can tell it is harder than it looks :-).

I did pick up the following resources during my attempt, which I will hang on to, if anyone wants them, let me know. I think at the moment I have put this aside until I can come up with a new way to approach it.

1. Free Genesys.ttf taken fromFFG forums.
2. EotESymbol-RegularMod.otf that Trenloe pointed me to.
3. Genesys .svg images free from the FFG forum.
4. The Fantasygrounds OpenSans ttf (bold and regular) that Trenloe pointed me to, that I tried to change.

Joe

[Trenloe]

My recommendation is to use FGF fonts for FG Classic and TTF/OTF fonts for FG Unity. I had basically no success in my limited attempts to use TTF/OTF fonts with special symbols in FG Classic with the PFRPG2 ruleset.

[johniba]

Hi,

I have also started to explore this venue of editing TTF fonts to add custom symbols (working on a font for Genesys ruleset and another to update Star Wars Ruleset) and i have recently have made progress, making a somewhat working font, both for classic and unity

I used FontForge, and here is a link to a very good basic tutorial which helped me a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmZFJYVPjqEllk8RN40AVgnVZ1LvGzsui

I have not created the symbols from scratch, I copied them from different font files, so in my case it is easier in some parts (just needed to import and change the size parameters), but causing difficulties in others (had a lot of errors since the font symbols seem to contain issues like unconnected lines)

These issues i fixed with this tutorial

https://fontforge.org/problems.html

After you edit the font, you can test it in winword or another editor, and in order to add the symbols, you can use this windows app "Character Map", instead of typing alt commands (also work to input to fantasygrounds)



By no means i think the above is all you need, but i hope it helps you to start, like me

If I have any progress, i will let you know also

[ricardos]

Thanks for your answer. I also want to ask what is the main difference between TTF and OTF? I found only this comparison https://differencebtwn.com/difference-between-ttf-vs-otf

[Moon Wizard]

I'd let Google answer this one; because there are nuances and history to the answer:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ttf+vs.+otf

Regards,
JPG