load_txt_font(3alleg4)

✨ load_txt_font — the Allegro manual, but make it cute ✨

ok so bestie, we're in the Allegro manual rn (yes, the Allegro game programming library, the whole reason your lil game even boots 💖) and today's main character is load_txt_font. she loads font scripts. she's giving librarian energy. let's go 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

load_txt_font — loads a font script. Allegro game programming library. that's it that's the girl 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <allegro.h>

FONT *load_txt_font(const char *filename, RGB *pal, void *param)

look at her signature. iconic. no notes. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea: this function loads scripted fonts. that's literally its whole job and she eats every time.

the script file is made up of a bunch of lines, and every line goes in this format:

filename start end

and here's what each lil piece means, bestie:

• filename — the source file for that range of characters 📁
• start — the Unicode value of the first</> character in the range
• end — the end character in the range. this one is optional! if you leave it out, the entire input file gets grabbed. no cap.

and now for the plot twist 🌈 — if you replace the filename with a hyphen (-), she doesn't open a new file, she just grabs more characters from the previous input file. like, she's still hungry. she wants more. periodt.

for example, this script right here:

ascii.fnt 0x20 0x7F
- 0xA0 0xFF
dingbats.fnt 0x1000

would do three whole things:

1. import the first 96 characters from ascii.fnt as the range 0x20-0x7F 💖
2. import the next 96 characters from ascii.fnt as the range 0xA0-0xFF (see? hyphen said "more pls") 🍓
3. import the entire contents of dingbats.fnt starting at Unicode position 0x1000 🦋

it's giving choreography. it's giving range mapping. we love a systematic queen 👑

💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

she returns a pointer to the font, or NULL on error 😭 (yeah, NULL means something went wrong, be sad about it).

⚠️ bestie listen to me VERY carefully: you are responsible for destroying the font when you're finished with it. that's on you. not her. if you forget, you get memory leaks and nobody wants that. free your fonts. protect your RAM. that's the vibe check 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• register_font_file_type(3alleg4)
• load_font(3alleg4)

go read those too, iykyk 💅✨

and that's the whole page!! this was Allegro, version 4.4.3, and the page is load_txt_font(3alleg4) — mwah, slay, go load some fonts bestie 🎀🦋💖✨👑