TFConvert Tool

The .NET Micro Framework uses the .tinyfnt file format to work with fonts. This special format uses fixed size bitmaps for a simpler way to render fonts. Two sample .tinyfnt fonts are included in the Fonts subdirectory of your .NET Micro Framework installation. To create other fonts in the size, style, and language tailored to your application, you can use the TFConvert tool to create a .tinyfnt font from TrueType or OpenType font files. That enables you to select character sets and even create fonts for displaying Cyrillic and Chinese characters.
In the Tools\Fonts subdirectory, you can find some sample TrueType fonts from Ascender Corporation, which you can convert to meet your needs. These free sample fonts provide a reduced character set; the full versions can be purchased from the company.

The TFConvert command line tool is located in the Tools subdirectory of your .NET Micro Framework installation. TFConvert accepts a path to a font definition file that describes the font's size, style, and characters to convert.

The system tool character map (charmap.exe) provided with your Windows installation can help you determine which characters or character ranges to convert.

To get more information about creating .tinyfnt fonts with the TFConvert tool, please see the .NET Micro Framework SDK documentation, where this is described in detail.

In addition, on the SJJ Embedded Micro Solutions web site, you can find a great article that describes how to convert fonts with TFConvert (www.sjjmicro.com/SJJ_Articles.html).

On the web site of a Czech .NET Micro Framework enthusiast, Jan Kucera, at www.microframework.eu, you can find the Tiny Font Tool GUI. This tool provides a graphical user interface that assists you in creating the font definition files.