Pixel Font Sprite Generator

I made this font generator for a project I'm working on in Java. I needed a custom font I could use... So instead of trying to figure out how to make an actual font (.ttf), I used a sprite sheet.

SIDE NOTE: I'd still like to learn how to make fonts properly. Not only w/ a tool, but also understand how it works/is done. Recommendations (books, articles, ...) welcome!

If you have recommendations or questions, let me know. I'm pretty sure the code isn't written that well, so there is a lot of room for improvements and additional features.

When you plan to improve the project on your own, I'd like to ask to open source it as well (the reason I added a license). Because I would like to check it out and learn from it as well. Thanks.

NOTE: Work in progress!

How to run it from the terminal:

javac xiangsu.Crisp.java
java xiangsu.Crisp

More possible excitement:

• Generate all possible sprites (font and size)
• Fine-tune offset and width characters
• Layout

Done!

• Preview the sprite

Using the Sprite

This is how I use(d) the generated sprite.

fontImage: used to store the sprite;
int[] offset: position in sprite (x-axis)
int[] widths: width of every character

public class Font {

    private Image fontImage;
    private int[] offset;
    private int[] widths;

    public Font(String path) {
        fontImage = new Image(path);
        offset = new int[256];
        widths = new int[256];

        int unicode = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < fontImage.getW(); i++) {
            if (fontImage.getP()[i] == 0xffff0000) offset[unicode] = i;
            if (fontImage.getP()[i] == 0xffffff00) widths[unicode] = i - offset[unicode++];
        }
    }

    public Image getFontImage() {
        return fontImage;
    }

    public int[] getOffset() {
        return offset;
    }

    public int[] getWidths() {
        return widths;
    }
}

public void drawText(String text, int offX, int offY) {
        int offset = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++) {
            int unicode = text.codePointAt(i);

            for (int y = 1; y < font.getFontImage().getH(); y++) {
                for (int x = 0; x < font.getWidths()[unicode]; x++) {
                    setPixel(x + offX + offset, y + offY, color);
                }
            } offset += font.getWidths()[unicode];
        }
    }