What license is this in? Does it have a github page?
I see that its free, but wonder if its compatible with other open source projects.
I wonder if we can get it to let you draw the fonts directly in the boxes
Lets you create your own TTF fonts out of pixel font images! · By
There are other tools already for drawing bitmap fonts and exporting as TTF/etc. Check out:
Perhaps not FontForge - not unless you want to trace a pixel outline by hand anyway (or use autotrace, which isn't really made for tracing pixels).
I do explain what makes this tool different from FontStruct/BitFontMaker in the blog post.
Haven't heard of Bits'N'Picas before - that looks pretty cool.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but bitmap strikes are primarily intended for providing hand-drawn versions of glyphs for resolutions where automatic rasterization may not be readable. The documentation is kind enough to remark that you may run into support issues if your font contains no outlines at all, which is perhaps why the rest of the tools mentioned settle for generating outlines for exported pixels when targeting TTF/OTF (I wrote a small explanation of the algorithm used in mine).
All in all, positive reception suggests that plenty of people found the tool to be an improvement over alternatives, but perhaps we all have our own standards.
I really like your tool. My comments are not criticism.
Perhaps you've misunderstood this thread of conversation? My initial comment was a reply to the OP's question "I wonder if we can get it to let you draw the fonts directly in the boxes" offering many other apps they can use right now to do that, rather than waiting for you to implement (or not) their request. That was all.
With regards to FontForge, I frequently use the Bitmap Strikes Available to generate bitmap fonts from outline fonts. That may be useful, or not, for readers of this thread. But I felt it important to correct your statement that FontForge was only good for hand-drawing bitmap fonts - which is definitely not the case.
Whether a tool you make your assets with is compatible with your project's license is irrelevant unless you want to ship your tools with your project. I pose no restrictions on what you do with the fonts you draw and convert using the tool.
The tool itself is not open-source, though my changes to underlying font generator library are published on GitHub, and a list of libraries it uses is available on the help page.
If you want to draw symbols directly on a webpage, BitFontMaker2 is perhaps the closest in terms of workflow. As for my tool, note that you can paste an updated image into it right out of your preferred image editor. I do explain my process and motivation in the blog post.
I may look into allowing to paint in the tool in future, but there is a lot to making an adequate pixelart editor.