subtitles and thieffon tool usage

[67429b7233beemiracle.flame]

I am about to use this font tool to modify fonts that come with TFix mods (e.g. EP\Books\Parch\TextFont.fon) and add accented characters for fanmade CZ localization. For some reason the fanmade CZ TextFont.fon does not look well after replacing the EP one.

So far I had no luck understanding how to configure the many switches and options of thieffon to get proper results. I am attaching what I get when TextFont.fon files are converted by simple autodetection method to bmp. I guess the colors are off to begin with.

Besides that I also want to expand the CZ localization by subtitles from subtitles mod by RobinG I suppose. I found out that the fanmade FONTAA29cz.fon does not work with characters řýďňů while FONTAA36cz.fon (and the other sizes of of aa) does - attaching 36 for reference. I could find visible difference between 29 and 36 bmps so I've attempted to fix that but it seems like some glyphs are still not detected when using:
thieffon.exe -c -A FONTAA29czFixed.bmp fontaa29.fon aafon.pal
Thief Font Converter 1.2
Converting image FONTAA29czFixed.bmp to fontaa29.fon...
Found 223 glyphs.

...still doesn't work.. and not sure how to get around this. Could someone help?

[67429b7233e92voodoo47]

I would start here https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=11286

I actually did the CZ fonts for the SS2 CZ translation. I don't think I want to work with fonts, ever again.

[67429b7233fcfZylonBane]

Looks like the forum software doesn't supports BMPs as well as it thinks it does.

[67429b7234127miracle.flame]

OK, I was able to fix fontaa29.fon - glyph between í and ď was missing still.
Now to find out how to properly convert EP\Books\Parch\TextFont.fon or find out what type, bpp or pallette use there. SS2 reference card is great, if only there was such table for Thief fonts.

UPDATE:
I tried all three (two) "Converting FON to BMP" methods from the reference card and the best result seems to be the one already attached. Is that really it? I can barely make what letters they are.

Also I wanted to ask if it is possible to have the subtitles background in movies semi-opaque... I've tried to have
use_d3d_display
d3d_disp_2d_overlay_alpha 0.6
and movsubtitles_bg_color 0 0 0 128
but it's still solid black.

[67429b723422cZylonBane]

Like the docs say, Thief fonts use the Thief palette. Did you use the Thief palette? There's a copy of it (I think, never tested it) included in the SS2 font reference, under Tools/Font Tool v1_1.zip/aafon.pal.

[67429b7234326miracle.flame]

with
thieffon.exe -d TextFont.fon textfont.bmp aafon.pal

I get this, doesn't look right..

[textfont.bmp expired]

[67429b72343faZylonBane]

Maybe try converting as AA instead of as 8bpp.

[67429b723453bmiracle.flame]

As I don't know what type EP.crf\Books\parch\textfont.fon is I am just trying everything. 

My first goal is to just convert it back and forth to be sure what works. If I should not use 8bpp method it leaves me to
thieffon.exe -d TextFont.fon

I can't get the resulting bmp back to fon that would look as is supposed to. Tried
thieffon -c -a textfont.bmp
thieffon -c -A textfont.bmp
Both have the colors wrong.

It baffles me that the CZ textfont.fon has the colors right when used with non-EP paper while with EP paper it looks too bright.

[67429b72346afZylonBane]

HOLD UP. So not only are you trying to use Thief fonts, you're trying to use Enhancement Pack fonts?

Thief paletted fonts use the same palette as the book artwork behind them. Since Enhancement Pack replaces the parchment background with an improved version with an optimized palette, the font also uses that palette.
[epbook.pal expired]

[67429b72347dfmiracle.flame]

That's what I'm talking about!

Now the image from the font file using the ep palette goes something like this. As there's no pink color backwards conversion does not detect any glyphs. I suppose I have to set those -b -p -w indices but how do I know the values?


[textfont.bmp expired]

[67429b72348baZylonBane]

Load it into a paint program and use a dropper to find the color, I suppose.

[67429b7234a17miracle.flame]

Paint you say... I'm afraid it's not that simple. I've loaded the image in Photoshop and had to convert it to "Indexed Color" to actually have any color table where I could see which color has which index - nowhere near available in Paint. Then I could use the -p parameter to properly identify "pink" color index and glyphs within. Yay! One step closer to re-inventing this EP font wheel anew without any prior knowledge. The resulting fon file has glyphs identified but the coloring is nowhere near what it was originally.

Thank you so much for trying this hard to help anyway.
I'll have to ask somewhere else or just give up this learn the hard way zombie dance.

[67429b7234b18voodoo47]

sounds suspiciously similar to what I had to do here.

[67429b7235ad3ZylonBane]

Just modify the palette file I posted to set color index 254 to magenta.

Also this thread should be in Engineering, not Helpdesk.

[67429b7235e09miracle.flame]

Just modify the palette file I posted to set color index 254 to magenta.

This was a deal breaker! And fairly easy to achieve. Luckily Photoshop can handle the result and save it in the working condition knowing that I should use -p 254. Finally I can safely adjust the fonts as needed and get them back in game in pretty fashion.

Thank you ZB.