This is a cross-platform utility for designing Atari fonts on your PC. It supports graphics modes 0 and 12 (or codes 2 and 4 in the Display List). I tried to make the interface as user-friendly as possible, giving you quick one-click access to functions like rotating, flipping, and shifting your characters. There’s also a preview area at the bottom where you can test out your font—just arrange the characters to draw a picture or see how your words look in-game.

The first version was thrown together back in August 2003. A few weeks later, I updated the character editing logic (shoutout to RASTER for the tip). By January 2005, I rolled out version 1.1 with some solid new features, thanks to feedback from Dely/TQA:

• Edit two character sets at the same time.

• Save fonts separately or bundled together as a 2048-byte “dualfont.”

• Expanded the view window to 8 lines. You can now toggle the font for each specific line by clicking the line number—super handy for 2×2 fonts.

• Right-click any character in the view window to jump straight into editing it.

• New view file format (*.vf2) for saving your workspace, though it still plays nice with old files.

• A completely overhauled saving system.

You can grab Atari FontMaker over on its main page.

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