Baking effects into fonts using Hiero
Let's be completely honest: the standard fonts generated with Hiero are pretty boring, and the quality is not bad but they don't stand out. Certainly, these will do just great for bulk of text in an RPG-like conversation scene but will look slightly boring as menu headers. Typically, user interface designers add effects such as drop shadows or strokes to important pieces of text in order to make them stand out.
In this recipe, we will show you how to create a font texture with Hiero, with an outline and shadow effect, and add it to your game.
Getting ready
This time we will use the data/fonts/lobster.fnt
file. Hiero is also needed; download the latest Libgdx package from http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/releases and unzip it somewhere safe.
Additionally, you will need the samples
projects.
How to do it…
The process is really simple, and the results can be great—an easy win! Perform the following steps:
Open up Hiero from the command line. Linux and Mac users...