Why make a font?
If you want to be sure that VGWS has a counter/clock font that you would like to use with one of those services, the best way to do that is probably to make it yourself. You can request one on the Font Request message board, but that by no means ensures when, or if, the font will be made. There's only one way to make sure it gets done when you want it, and that's to make it.
What do you need to make one?
To make a counter/clock font, you need to have a few things and know the rules about fonts that will be accepted. The first thing you need is an idea for what the font should contain or look like, of course. Then you need a good image editing program. There are several great programs like that; some recommended ones you could try are Paint Shop Pro and Embellish. The third thing you need is images that will appear in the font. There are a variety of ways you can get these; draw them, edit screenshots from an emulator, download them from a site that offers images, etc. If you do get the images from another site, please let us know where that site is so that they can be given proper credit. VGWS' own Sprites and Animations section contains several images that you may want to use.
Once you have all that, the rest is mostly using your image editing program to create the design you've envisioned. If you don't know how to do something in the editing program, I suggest reading the program's Help files or looking for online tutorial/help sites. There's a ton of those for Paint Shop Pro alone. Be sure to choose a text font that looks good for your numbers, unless you plan to use images for those too, which is fine. You'll need to make thirteen images. The first ten should each contain one number, 0-9, on them. The eleventh image should have a colon (:) on it. Colon images do not have to have any character or other image on them. The final two images should be A.M. and P.M. images, which may or may not contain a character or other image at your discretion.
Rules
There are a few rules for making and submitting counter/clock fonts, too. If a font doesn't meet these specifications, it may not work properly with the VGWS counter/clock and may not be placed on the site.
- No overly adult material, even if it's straight from a game. If you have questions about an image you'd like to use in a font, feel free to ask about it by email. "No adult material" is a rule of our webhost, so this is not something we can question.
- It is highly recommended that every new font have a colon image, as the lack of a colon image makes the font incompatible with the VGWS clock. The A.M. and P.M. images for a clock-compatible font are optional, but those are recommended, too.
- Each individual image in the font MUST be the same size in height, or portions of images will be cropped from displayed counters. It's a good idea for all the number images to also have the same width, but that is not required.
- Create a preview image, like those shown on the Counter/Clock Fonts pages. The preview image should be no more than 400 pixels wide, as anything larger than that might mess with the site design. A preview image should show all the images in the font together.
- All the digit, colon, A.M., and P.M. images must be saved in PNG format. No JPGs, GIFs, or other images will work with the counter or clock. If you do send GIF or JPG images, you may be asked to convert them to PNG and send them again, depending on the amount of time available to the staff. The preview image can be a PNG, JPG or GIF as desired.
- The upperleft most pixel of each image (that's (0,0) for those of you familiar with image editing) must be the color that you wish to use as the background color of the font and should not be used elsewhere in the font, except in areas that will be changed by the background color or transparency options in the Code Generator. If someone chooses to change the background color in the Code Generator, the color of that pixel will be overwritten with their chosen color. You can ignore this if you're using a background pattern instead of a color, however. This also doesn't apply to the preview image.
When you save the font images, name the files according to their numbers (i.e. the 0 digit as 0.png, the 1 digit as 1.png). The filenames should be only one digit (i.e., 0.png, not 000.png). The colon image should be named "c.png" and the A.M. and P.M. images should be named "a.png" and "p.png" respectively. Be sure to save all the images as either *.png files with lowercase filename extensions. Be careful when you do that; you usually have to select the PNG format from a list (typing it in may not work, depending on your program). When you've got all the images done, stick them into a ZIP file using Winzip or a similar program.
