Character Sets: Define Custom Unicode Glyphs for Bitmap Fonts

Character sets control which glyphs appear in your bitmap font. Add or remove characters with full Unicode support — SnowB BMF deduplicates automatically.

Understanding Character Sets

Each unique character in your set becomes a separate glyph in the final texture atlas.

Default Set

SnowB BMF starts with a default character set that includes:

• Numbers: 0123456789
• Lowercase letters: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
• Uppercase letters: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
• Common symbols: !№;%:?*()_+-=.,/|"'@#$^&{}

This default set covers most Western text use cases.

Configuring Character Sets

The Glyphs Input Field

Configure your character set in the Glyphs input field, located in the left-hand Font Config panel:

1. Find the “Glyphs” section in the Font Config panel.
2. Type or paste characters into the multi-line text field.
3. Changes apply immediately as you type, and the workspace preview updates automatically.

Features

Duplicate characters are removed automatically — each character appears only once in the font.

The input supports full Unicode, so you can include international characters (e, n, u), non-Latin scripts, emoji, special symbols, and mathematical symbols.

The input field also supports Input Method Editors (IME) for typing CJK and other complex scripts.

The Space Character

The space character ( ) is automatically included in every character set and cannot be removed. This ensures proper text spacing in applications using your font.

Character Set Examples

Basic Latin Only

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
0123456789

Gaming HUD

0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
HP:MP/+-%

International Text (Spanish)

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzñ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÑ
áéíóúüÁÉÍÓÚÜ¿¡
0123456789

Special Symbols

★☆♫♪⚡⭐🎮🎯
←→↑↓⬆⬇⬅➡

Best Practices

Optimize for Performance

Keep your character set minimal. Each additional character increases texture size, memory usage, and load time. Audit your application’s text and include only what you need.

Workflow Tips

• Group characters by language or function for easier management.
• Verify your set covers all text in your application — UI elements, dialogs, and dynamic content.

Technical Details

Character Processing

When you input characters, SnowB BMF processes them in this order:

1. Characters are parsed as individual Unicode code points.
2. Duplicates are removed.
3. A space character is added if not present.
4. Each character is rendered as a bitmap glyph using your font and styling settings.

Glyph Rendering Priority

When rendering a character, SnowB BMF uses this priority order:

1. If an imported TTF/OTF file contains the character, that font is used.
2. If not found, the system tries a browser-default font.
3. If still missing, an empty glyph is generated.

Integration with Font Export

Your character set directly determines the exported font data:

Font Descriptor Files

• Text format lists all characters with their texture coordinates.
• XML format includes character codes and glyph information.
• Binary format stores optimized character data for runtime use.

Texture Atlas

• Each character occupies space in the packed texture
• Character positioning is optimized by the packing algorithm
• The space character does not consume texture space but its metrics are exported.

Troubleshooting

Missing or Incorrect Characters

• Verify your imported font file contains the required glyphs.
• Missing characters fall back to a browser-default font, which may cause style mismatches.
• Confirm your input text uses correct Unicode encoding.

Large Texture Size or Poor Performance

• An oversized character set is the most common cause. Remove non-essential characters.
• Use auto-packing and adjust spacing/padding to shrink the texture atlas.
• Highly detailed characters take longer to process and consume more texture space.

Related Topics

• Font Import
• Texture Packing
• Layout Settings