How to convert a bitmap font (.FON) into a truetype font (.TTF)?

by

Use FontForge + Autotrace then make some corrections manually.

First integrate Autotrace in Fontforge, see Autotracing bitmaps in FontForge. Here is how I have done it, as I wasn’t able to use the win32 version of FontForge:

  1. Download, unzip and start Portable Ubuntu Tres. It’s a special linux version that works under Windows!
  2. Choose System->Administration->Add/Remove Applications, search for FontForge and install it (administrator password is 123456). I got FontForge version 20090622 installated.
  3. Download autotrace-0.31.1.tar.gz from http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/index.html#download and copy it in your home directory in Portable Ubuntu.

  4. In Portable Ubuntu choose Applications->Accessories->Terminal to compile and install autotrace:

    sudo bash  (password is 123456)
gunzip autotrace-0.31.1.tar.gz
tar xf autotrace-0.31.1.tar
cd autotrace-0.31.1
./configure
make
make install

Then convert your font:

  1. Start FontForge in Portable Ubuntu and open the .FON font.
  2. Save your font as a .BDF font (Loading a .FON file as background didn’t work for me so I had to convert the font first): File->Generate Fonts and choose BDF as format.
  3. Create a new font and import the BDF Font as background font: File->Import and don’t forget select “As Background”.

  4. Select all characters and start an autotrace while holding the shift key so that you can enter parameters for autotrace. I used following parameters, which improved the recognition of the outline of the pixels but I didn’t found the perfect parameters:

    -corner-surround=1 -line-threshold=10
  5. Correct the chars manually using mostly the function “Add a curve point”.
    Activating View->Show->Almost Horizontal/Vertical Lines makes the work much easier.
  6. Generate a truetype font: File->Generate Fonts and choose truetype as format.

More Related Contents:

  1. How do I make an attributed string using Swift?
  2. How to add multiple font files for the same font?
  3. Proper MIME type for OTF fonts
  4. Recommended Fonts for Programming? [closed]
  5. How can I render hindi correctly when exporting to pdf?
  6. What is the status of TTF support in Internet Explorer?
  7. How to embed .ttf fonts in JavaFx 2.2?
  8. Proper MIME type for .woff2 fonts
  9. Setting custom font
  10. Including Google Fonts link or import?
  11. How to host google web fonts on my own server?
  12. How can I extract embedded fonts from a PDF as valid font files?
  13. When export a report to PDF change the font
  14. can I change the font color of the datePicker in iOS7?
  15. How to force anti-aliasing in JavaFX fonts?
  16. Finding out what characters a given font supports
  17. Using custom font in a UIWebView
  18. Twitter bootstrap 3 – create a custom glyphicon and add to glyphicon “font”
  19. Embed font into PDF file by using iText
  20. Changing fonts in ggplot2
  21. How to change the font on the TextView?
  22. How can I use a custom font in Java?
  23. Browsers’ default CSS stylesheets
  24. How can I test if my font is rendered correctly in pdf?
  25. Changing Fonts for Graphs in R
  26. How to load .ttf file in matplotlib using mpl.rcParams?
  27. Change css font-family for separate options in select tag
  28. How to change CollapsingToolbarLayout typeface and size?
  29. Can I make IntelliJ IDEA look more like Eclipse?
  30. Changing font in a Console window in C#

Leave a Comment