al_load_ttf_font(3alleg5)

✨ NAME ✨

al_load_ttf_font — ok bestie this is the Allegro 5 API, and this function is your new obsession 💖

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <allegro5/allegro_ttf.h>

ALLEGRO_FONT *al_load_ttf_font(char const *filename, int size, int flags)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically, this function loads a TrueType font straight from a file, and it does it using the FreeType library under the hood. And like, not to be dramatic, but FreeType goes hard — quoting the FreeType FAQ itself, it supports so many different font formats:

TrueType, OpenType, Type1, CID, CFF, Windows FON/FNT, X11 PCF, and others

Periodt. All of those. 💅

The size parameter tells you how big the font is gonna render, and it's specified in pixels. Here's the tea though — the standard font size is measured in units per EM, so if you'd rather specify the size as the total height of glyphs in pixels instead, just pass it as a negative value. Yes, negative. It's giving "trust the process." 🌸

Note: if you want to display text at multiple sizes, you gotta load the font multiple times with different size parameters. No shortcuts, bestie, that's just how it is. 😭

Now, the following flags are supported:

• ALLEGRO_TTF_NO_KERNING — do not use any kerning, even if the font file itself supports it. Like, none. Zero. Nada. 🙈
• ALLEGRO_TTF_MONOCHROME — loads it as a monochrome font, which literally means no anti-aliasing of the font gets done. Crispy pixels only. ✨
• ALLEGRO_TTF_NO_AUTOHINT — disables the Auto Hinter, which is enabled by default in newer versions of FreeType. Since: 5.0.6, 5.1.2 ⭐

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• al_init_ttf_addon(3alleg5)
• al_load_ttf_font_f(3alleg5)

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That's the whole page, babes 🫶 this was the Allegro reference manual, page al_load_ttf_font(3alleg5) — go load some fonts and slay 💖🎀🦋