SDL ttf

I am attempting to use SDL_ttf for writing text to the screen. Currently, I just use bmps and pings for the menu text, but that process really isn't going to work when I want to write variable data (like FPS, level complete time, etc) to the screen.

Installing Development Files

Again, I am using cygwin with the gcc compiler under Windows.

Download SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar.gz from http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/

Rename to .tar.gz if Windows changed the extension to .tar.tar

  mv SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar.tar SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar.gz

Extract

 gzip -d SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar.gz
 tar -xvf SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar

If you get a permission denied error, then chmod the tar file

 chmod u+rw SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar
 tar -xvf SDL_ttf-2.0.9.tar

Download the Freetype library at http://www.freetype.org

Select "stable release" and pick the Source Forge link

Download freetype-2.3.11.tar.gz

Unzip

 gzip -d freetype-2.3.11.tar.gz
 chmod u+wr freetype-2.3.11.tar
 tar -xvf freetype-2.3.11.tar

Build freetype

 cd freetype-2.3.11
 ./configure
 make
 make install
   

Build the SDL_ttf library

 cd SDL_ttf-2.0.9
 ./configure
 make
 make install

Not sure why, but it seemed like I had to run "make install" twice... or maybe I just forgot to run it the first time.

You can verify if it installed correctly entering the following:

 # ls -la /usr/local/include/SDL/SDL_ttf.h
 -rw-r--r-- 1 Foo        None 9829 Nov 22 15:27 /usr/local/include/SDL/SDL_ttf.h
 # ls -la /usr/local/lib/libSDL_ttf*
 -rw-r--r-- 1 Foo        None 85416 Nov 22 15:27 /usr/local/lib/libSDL_ttf.a
 -rwxr-xr-x 1 Foo        None 23440 Nov 22 15:27 /usr/local/lib/libSDL_ttf.dll.a
 -rwxr-xr-x 1 Foo        None   900 Nov 22 15:27 /usr/local/lib/libSDL_ttf.la

If something went wrong, then you will get a "No such file or directory" message

Write a simple test program that uses SDL_ttf.

 #include "SDL.h"
 #include "SDL_ttf.h"
 SDL_Surface *screen;
 SDL_Surface *imgText;
 int main (int argc, char **argv) {
   SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
   SDL_Color color = { 255, 255, 0 };
   SDL_Rect rect;
   TTF_Init();
   screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(1024, 768, 0, 0);
   TTF_Font *font = TTF_OpenFont("Arial.ttf", 24);
   imgText = TTF_RenderText_Solid(font, "Hello World", color);
   rect.x = 200;
   rect.y = 200;
   SDL_BlitSurface(imgText, NULL, screen, &rect);
   SDL_Flip(screen);
   SDL_Delay(2000);
   SDL_FreeSurface(imgText);
   return 0;
 }

Compile

 gcc test.c `sdl-config --libs --cflags` -lSDL_ttf

Remember to link -lSDL_ttf on the compile command. Otherwise, you will get an error like this:

 /cygdrive/c/Users/GATECH~1/AppData/Local/Temp/cc1SGaYb.o:test.c:(.text+0x5a): un
 defined reference to `_TTF_OpenFont'
 /cygdrive/c/Users/GATECH~1/AppData/Local/Temp/cc1SGaYb.o:test.c:(.text+0x77): un
 defined reference to `_TTF_RenderText_Solid'
 collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Run

 ./a

You should get a screen like this:

If you get a blank black window, then check the permissions on your ttf file:

 $ ls -la *.ttf
 ----------+ 1 GaTechGrad None 766656 Oct  9  2006 arial.ttf

If you don't have read permission, then chmod the file

 chmod u+r arial.ttf

Actually, I found that my real problem was that I didn't call TTF_Init(). My testing showed that the permissions on the ttf file really doesn't matter.

Next, I created a font.c file that where I put all of the font code. I created a "drawString(char *)" method that returns a SDL_Surface with the text passed in as a parameter. The prototype for that method is put into the globals.h file, so that the method can be called from my other files.

Distributing

Download SDL_ttf-2.0.9-win32.zip from http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/

Extract the DLLs to the project directory