Bitmap Fonts

I have absolutely no clue what Bitmaps fonts do, and what the advantages are, but from other people, I've figured I need one for my game.

First of all, what IS a Bitmap font, and what are their advantages above regular TTF fonts?

Second of all, how can I create Bitmap fonts?

Third of all, how would I incorperate my created Bitmap font into Blitz3D?

Thank you for any help in advance.

Check out FonText:

http://www.playerfactory.co.uk/fontext/index.htm


First and foremost, FONText is an application that helps you create bitmap fonts. Bitmap fonts are useful in the production of games and other time critical applications, because they are the fastest way to display text.

FONText not only lets you create attractive fonts, it also comes with 2 libraries of commands to make displaying them childsplay in Blitz3D/2d/plus.

Game making is supposed to be fun and FONText takes a lot of the pain out of one (quite painful) area of it.

http://playerfactory.proboards25.com/index.cgi?board=fontext&action=display&num=1073596624

Thanks - I'll check it out.