Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago

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This basics video tutorial shows you how to use sprites as a font in GameMaker.

The idea is quite easy. You have a cool looking font but it is an image. To use the is as a normal font you need to a few things. 1st you need to import it into GameMaker and slice it up as single images (control + I) 2nd you need to tell GameMaker with font_add_sprite_ext that you want to use this sprite as a font and give GameMaker the instructions what each character means (represents). Here you have a string (mapstring) with all the characters you use sprite as sprite and the corresponding character that it is representing. 3rd you need to store the newly created font ("asset") into a variable and set with draw_set_font this spritefont to be used. That's it!

Trivia: GameMaker once your export/run your game takes your used normal fonts and converts them into glyphs (images), which is the same as the sprite font and you can see both in the texture page.

Tldr:
1. import sprite font,
2. set a mindmap string what each image means
3. store and set it to be used


Cool font found here, if used please credit!
opengameart.org/content/superpowers-assets-bitmap-fonts

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 What we will do, use sprites as a font
0:46 Subscribe
0:55 Context and example of normal font use
2:17 Find a good looking sprite/bitmap font
2:58 Import sprite font
5:39 Add the font as a useable font into GameMaker
5:02 Have string (mapstring) that gives the images meaning
7:09 Set the sprite font to proportional drawing or not and the distance between each image/glyph
7:37 Store the added sprite font into a variable to be set and used