There are a couple things that need to be set up on your computer in order to start using DirectFont.

• Now a little bit of terminology for you (from my point of view)...When you are working with the DirectFont executable, a definition refers to the actual BMP and the RECTs that make up each character. For instance, you could have 5 different definitions, one for each color of text that you would like to use in your app. Now these 5 definitions are stored in one collection. Typically, you would have one collection for each game you have, but this is up to you. Maybe you want to classify you're collections by size, or by look, or however else. DirectFont makes sure, though, that each definition has a unique name within it's collection, so they can be identified later.
• You can start up DirectFont by double clicking the DirectFont.exe icon. When you first start up DirectFont, it has already created an untitled font collection for you. On the left, you will see a treeview containing all the font definitions in this particular collection (since this is a new collection there are no definitions). The right hand side of the screen will be where you do all you're work.
• The File menu allows you to manipulate collection level operations. You can close, save, open, or create font collections from here.
• The Collection menu allows to manipulate definition level operations. You can add font definitions or remove them, to or from the current collection.
• The View and Window menus allow you to control what is visible on the screen.
• The Help menu displays help for the program.

• Click Collection->Add Font Definition (or press Ctrl+A). A dialogue box will appear asking you how to create the new definition.
• There are two options here: You can either import a existing definition that was exported in another DirectFont session (the Binary option), or you can create a brand new definition by using the Bitmap option. We will create a new one, so select the Bitmap option.
• The dialogue expands for you to enter more options. Choose and type the definition name, and use the Browse button to select the actual BMP file to use. When this is done click Create.
• You should now see three windows opened for you in the right hand side of the screen. These windows contain all the information about the definition you've just created. You will also see three entries (corresponding to the three windows) on the left hand treeview for easier navagation. Select the Font Definition node for your new defintion.
• A window displaying your bitmap comes up. Here is where you actually define what RECTs make up each character in the BMP.
• Simply press a key on your keyboard, and you should see one of the labels reflect that key. There should also be rectangle visible in the center of the BMP. This rectangle is your definition. You can move this around, expand it, shrink it, and adjust it until it fits whatever character you've pressed.
• For example, if you press the letter 'A', move the rectangle around until it covers the 'A' character on your bitmap. When later on you use this definition in your DirectX app, when you want to draw the letter 'A' to screen, DirectFont goes back and looks at what area you've defined as 'A', and blits this to the screen.
• Notice that you can only resize the rectangles horizontally. This was done on purpose. Because you want words to print in a straight line and line up (most of the time), all characters must be the same height. The height for this particular definition is controlled by height toggle at the bottom of the window. If you change this, though, it will change it for all the characters in this definition, so try not to touch this too much (or else go back and double check you're previous RECTs for this definition).
• This is also the screen where you set the transparency. Click the Transparency button, and the cursor will change into an eyedropper. Line up the cross-hairs with the color you want to be transparent when DirectFont blits this definition to the screen.
• When you are done defining all you're rectangles and transparency, click Update. This saves the changes you've made to the internal data structure.

• Click on the Font Binary node in the treeview for the newly created font definition. This brings up the font binary screen.
• On this screen you will see the actual bytes (and ASCII representation) of the definition you've created. You are only allowed to view the data, not modify here.
• On the bottom you will see a Save button. This allows you to save the binary representation to be later imported into another DirectFont session. This way if you are splitting up your collections by project, you could use the same font definition (let's say its the font you use for your title screen) in both projects by exporting the first one, and then importing it into the new collection (which is done by specifying Create From Existing Binary on the Add New Definition screen).
• Note, however, that you are not allowed to change the name of the imported font definition (unless you HexEdit the binary (which is not hard to do)), so when you first create choose the name carefully.

• Click on the Font Test node in the treeview for the newly created font definition. This brings up the font testing screen.
• On this screen you will be able to test out the most currently saved version of your font definition. This means that only once you click the Update button on the font definition screen will you see the proper characters.
• When you first open the screen it will be divided into two halves. The top half represents the testing area where you see your font in action. The bottom half is the options, where you set what the text says, and how you want to show it.
• The top half is pretty self explanatory. It will display the current characters according to the options selected on the bottom half. If you defined more characters than be displayed at the current width, the characters will move to the next line. If you defined more lines than can be displayed at the current height, no more characters will be blitted.
• There are a couple of options for the bottom half:
• Displayed Text: This allows you to choose what text you want to display in the top half. You can choose from some predefined ones (no, I'm not an egocentric maniac), or define your own.
• Transparency: This determines whether it will use transparency or not when it blits the characters to the screen. This is pretty much what the DirectFontDLL does for you, so you have a pretty good idea what you're final product is going to look at.
• Zoom: This determines the zoom level of your font. It can be adjusted from 50% - 200%. Again, this is the same that you'll see using the DirectFont object (however the zooming only works in the DLL with Blt, not BltFast).
• Background Color: This will fill the display section with the color that you pick from the color popup. You can use this to give you a good idea of what type of background would be best for the font (i.e. bright, dark, dim, contrast, etc.).

• To remove a definition from the collection, you use Colleciton->Remove Font Definition (or Ctrl+R).
• On this form, you place a checkmark beside any font definition that you would like removed from the collection and press Remove.
• There is no undo, so make sure that you've either saved your work (and can revert back that way) or that you really want to remove this definition.

• So you're done now...you know the basics of using DirectFont.
• When you are done, save you're work into a font collection file, as we will need one for the second part of this tutorial, the DirectFont DLL.

• When you make you're alphabet, always define the space character (" "). Otherwise if you don't, sentences will have all of their words run together, and it'll be very hard to read.
• If you are going to use transparency, make sure to define your transparent color (wow, I am the master of obvious statements...). No, seriously, if you leave it at its default of Black, and your bitmap has no Black in it, then it won't work as you're expecting...
• Even if the alphabet set you got is only in one case (uppercase or lowercase), make sure you define the characters for both cases (so 'g' and 'G' define the same section of the bitmap). This way you don't have to worry about cases in your DirectX app.