TrueType Font Support

Slick has the capability to easily display True Type fonts on screen.

True Type Fonts are loaded and rendered using the org.newdawn.slick.TrueTypeFont class.

import org.newdawn.slick.TrueTypeFont;

You can find the full javadoc to the TrueTypeFont class here.

Basic Usage

// initialise the font
Font font = new Font("Verdana", Font.BOLD, 20);
TrueTypeFont trueTypeFont = new TrueTypeFont(font, true);
 
// render some text to the screen
trueTypeFont.drawString(20.0f, 20.0f, "Slick displaying True Type Fonts", Color.green);

Additional Usage

Anti Aliasing

The second parameter to the TrueTypeFont constructor controls whether the font is antialiased or not.

Loading fonts from the classpath

There are a number of true type fonts available on any java system. For reference, see:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/index.html?java/awt/Font.html

Most people will also want to load custom fonts for display. Below is a short example which loads a ttf font that has been included in the programs classpath.

import org.newdawn.slick.Color;
import org.newdawn.slick.TrueTypeFont;
 
import java.awt.Font;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
 
public class TTFTest {
 
    public static void main(String[] args)
        throws LWJGLException, FontFormatException, IOException {
 
        Font font;
        TrueTypeFont trueTypeFont;
 
        // not included for brevity
        initGL();
 
        Font startFont = Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT,
    new BufferedInputStream(TTFTest.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(
    "technoid.ttf")));
        Font baseFont = startFont.deriveFont(Font.PLAIN, 20);
        trueTypeFont = new TrueTypeFont(baseFont, true);
 
        while (true) {
            GL11.glClear(GL11.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
            trueTypeFont.drawString(20.0f, 20.0f, "this is a test", Color.gray);
 
            Display.update();
            if (Display.isCloseRequested()) {
                System.exit(0);
            }
        }
    }
}

Using the TrueTypeFont Class Outside of Slick

You may use the TrueTypeFont class outside of the slick 2d engine. If you do this, keep in mind:

The TrueTypeFont class assumes you are using the TextureLoader (also included in slick-util) to load and bind gl textures. See:

• TextureLoader
• Texture

If you use your own GL methods to bind textures, TrueTypeFont may not display correctly. To ensure TrueTypeFont works, insert a call to TextureImpl.bindNone() before your drawstring calls. For example:

TextureImpl.bindNone();
trueTypeFont.drawString(20.0f, 20.0f, "this is a test", Color.gray);