A pixel font text rendering engine with a web UI and HTTP API. Renders text using classic arcade-style bitmap fonts with support for multiple styles, scaling, speech bubbles, color shifting, and SVG/PNG export.

The original tool was made by NFG. This project is a complete rewrite with a modern frontend, client-side Canvas rendering, and a Go backend that serves as both a static file server and an image rendering API. Notes and assets are left almost in their original form with some visual edits.

Docker

Available on GHCR and Docker Hub for amd64 and arm64.

CLI

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 flameshikari/arcade-font-engine

docker-compose.yml

services:
  arcade-font-engine:
    image: flameshikari/arcade-font-engine
    container_name: arcade-font-engine
    ports:
      - 8080:8080

Binary

Available for Linux, macOS and Windows for amd64 and arm64. Download a prebuilt binary from Releases.

Build

Requires Bun and Go 1.24+.

bun install && bun run build:prod
cd server
cp -r ../public ./public
go mod tidy
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o arcade-font-engine .

CLI

./arcade-font-engine [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS
  -p, --port PORT        listen port (default: 8080)
  -H, --host ADDR        bind address (default: 0.0.0.0)
  -c, --cache-dir DIR    cache directory (default: OS temp dir)
  -n, --no-cache         disable image caching
  -r, --root DIR         serve from disk instead of embedded (dev mode)
  -v, --version          print version and exit
  -h, --help             show this help

API

Render text by constructing a URL with path-based parameters (as in the original project). Parameters can be in any order, see Examples:

/api/y-{font}/z-{style}/x-{text}

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
y	Font name	y-arcade
z	Style/color index (0-based)	z-0
x	Text to render	x-HELLO
dbl	Scale factor (1-6)	dbl-3
f	Output format (svg or png)	f-svg
b	Bubble direction (u = up, d = down)	b-d
bp	Bubble pointer position (0-100)	bp-25
bt	Bubble theme (l = light, d = dark)	bt-l
cs	Color shift as R.G.B	cs-50.0.-50
w	Character width (for large fonts)	w-16
h	Character height (for large fonts)	h-16
list	List all available fonts	list
count	Return font count as text	count

Examples

/api/dbl-3/y-arcade/z-0/x-HELLO%20WORLD
/api/dbl-2/b-d/bt-l/bp-25/y-arcade/z-1/x-SAMPLE%20TEXT
/api/dbl-3/f-svg/y-arcade/z-0/x-VECTOR%20TEXT
/api/y-r/z-r/x-RANDOM%20FONT

Web Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + M	Font selection
Ctrl + ↑↓	Change font
Ctrl + ←→	Change style
Ctrl + -+	Change size
Ctrl + \	Toggle bubble
Ctrl + []	Bubble position
Ctrl + '	Flip bubble
Ctrl + ;	Dark bubble
Ctrl + F	Focus input
Ctrl + L	Clear input
Esc	Unfocus input