Download & Installation
=======================

.. contents::
    :local:
    :backlinks: top


Downloads
---------

Download the zip:

- `fontcreator.zip <https://github.com/JCash/fontcreator/archive/master.zip>`_

Or get the code from GitHub::

	> git clone https://github.com/JCash/fontcreator.git


Prerequisites
-------------

The FontCreator should work on any platform that supports these prerequisites:

- `Python <http://www.python.org/download>`_
- `numpy <http://www.scipy.org/Download>`_
- `freetype <http://www.freetype.org/download.html>`_
- `PIL <http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil>`_ - For writing textures with PIL

Optional installations:

- `sphinx <http://sphinx.pocoo.org>`_ (for the documentation)
- `PySide <http://qt-project.org/wiki/PySideDownloads>`_ (for the Editor)

- libpng and libglfw (for the demo app)

.. note:: Note that the PIL package is only necessary if you want to use it for saving
	to a standard image format (e.g. PNG, TGA etc). The examples use PIL.

For Linux and Mac, you can get these as regular packages. (On Mac using macports)




Install
-------

Once you have the unarchived the package, make sure that the paths are set correctly
and that the **freetype** shared library is found

Windows::

    set PATH=%PATH%;C:\freetypelibpath
    
Linux::

    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/local/lib
    
Mac::

    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/local/lib


Building Code
-------------

The font creator comes with a code for some image processing. These are easily built by
calling the appropriate compile script::

	> ./compile.sh

Once the code is built and the library path is set, you can test that the tool by compiling an example file::

    > python fontcreator.py -i examples/00_pixel.fontinfo -o build/00_pixel.fontinfo

If all goes well, you should now be able to find two files *build/00_pixel.png* and *build/00_pixel.json*

There are versions of the compile script for Win6 and Win32, but they don't build the demo app.
You can easily fix that yourself if you provide the libpng and the libglfw.

Building Examples
-----------------

You can also build the examples to test the font creator::

    > python examples/build.py
    
The fontcreator comes with a script that also sets the path for you::

	> ./build_examples.sh
    

Building Documentation
----------------------

To build the documentation::

	> ./build_doc.sh
	> open doc/build/html/index.html
    

The Demo app
------------

The demo app shows the sdf rendering of a texture created with the FontCreator.
Keys:

- Zoom   - Left Shift + Left Mouse + Mouse Move
- Rotate - Left Control + Left Mouse + Mouse Move
- Pan    - Left Mouse + Mouse Move

.. image:: demo.png