Fonts

ETA ships five SDF-rendered typefaces and a short-name alias system so you can reference them without typing full namespace:path strings. You can also register your own fonts and use them in any markup.

Bundled fonts

Alias	ResourceLocation	Has bold variant	License
`norse`	`emberstextapi:norse`	yes (via `norse_bold`)	Free with attribution (Copyright 2011 Joel Carrouche)
`norse_bold`	`emberstextapi:norse_bold`	n/a	Free with attribution (Copyright 2011 Joel Carrouche)
`metamorphous`	`emberstextapi:metamorphous`	no	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`meta`	`emberstextapi:metamorphous`	no	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`cinzel`	`emberstextapi:cinzel`	yes (via `cinzel_bold`)	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`cinzel_bold`	`emberstextapi:cinzel_bold`	n/a	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`almendra`	`emberstextapi:almendra`	yes (via `almendra_bold`)	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`almendra_bold`	`emberstextapi:almendra_bold`	n/a	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`cardo`	`emberstextapi:cardo`	yes (via `cardo_bold`)	SIL Open Font License 1.1
`cardo_bold`	`emberstextapi:cardo_bold`	n/a	SIL Open Font License 1.1

meta is a convenience alias for metamorphous; both resolve to emberstextapi:metamorphous.

Full license text and designer credits for each font are in FONT_LICENSES.md in the repository.

Using a font in markup

Pass the alias (or a full namespace:path string) as the name attribute of the <font> tag:

<font name="cinzel">Chapter I</font>

When hasBoldVariant is true for the resolved font, wrapping with <bold> automatically switches to the bold variant:

<bold><font name="cinzel">Chapter I</font></bold>

That renders using emberstextapi:cinzel_bold. For metamorphous (and any custom font registered without a bold variant), <bold> applies vanilla bold styling instead.

SDF atlas behavior

ETA uses multi-channel signed distance fields (MSDF) to render these fonts. Each font file is loaded via FreeType at game start, and the SDF glyph provider bakes signed-distance data into a texture atlas on a background thread. The common Latin codepoints (U+0020 through U+00FF) are pre-baked on load; any glyph outside that range is baked on first use and cached in memory.

The pre-bake cache is keyed on a SHA-256 hash of the raw font bytes plus every config parameter (sdf_resolution, padding, px_range, etc.), so changing a field in the JSON manifest invalidates only that font’s cached glyphs.

Adding your own font

Place the font file at assets/<your-modid>/font/<name>.ttf (or .otf) inside your mod’s resource pack.

Create the JSON manifest at assets/<your-modid>/font/<name>.json. The provider type must be emberstextapi:sdf:

{
  "providers": [
    {
      "type": "emberstextapi:sdf",
      "file": "<your-modid>:<name>.ttf",
      "size": 16.0,
      "sdf_resolution": 48,
      "padding": 4,
      "px_range": 8.0,
      "angle_threshold": 3.0,
      "oversample": 2.0,
      "shift": [0.0, 0.0],
      "skip": ""
    }
  ]
}

Field reference:

Field	Type	Description
`file`	string	`namespace:path` to the font file inside your `assets` folder
`size`	float	Reference pixel size used for glyph metric calculations
`sdf_resolution`	int	Per-glyph texture resolution before padding; capped at 128
`padding`	int	Pixel border added around each glyph cell; capped at 16
`px_range`	float	SDF spread in pixels; wider = softer edges at small sizes
`angle_threshold`	float	Edge coloring threshold in radians; `3.0` works for most fonts
`oversample`	float	Scale multiplier for advance width calculation
`shift`	`[x, y]`	Per-font pixel offset applied to all glyphs
`skip`	string	Characters to exclude from the glyph set (e.g. `"@#"`)

Register an alias in your mod’s client init so you can use a short name in markup:
```
FontAliasRegistry.registerCustom("myfont", ResourceLocation.fromNamespaceAndPath("yourmodid", "myfont"));
```
This step is optional. You can always use the full yourmodid:myfont string directly in <font name="yourmodid:myfont">. If you do register an alias, pick a name that won’t clash with ETA’s built-in aliases; attempting to overwrite a built-in alias is silently ignored.
Reload or restart the game so the SDF glyph provider picks up the new manifest and pre-bakes the atlas for your font.

Troubleshooting

Font shows blank glyphs

The most common cause is that the SDF atlas hasn’t been built yet. Check the game log for Pre-baked N SDF glyphs; if N is zero, the font file path in the JSON file field is wrong or the file isn’t in the resource pack. Also verify that ascender and descender read correctly from the FreeType face (ETA derives these directly from the font binary; a corrupt or incompatible font file can produce zeroed metrics).

Alias not recognized

FontAliasRegistry.registerCustom must be called before the first markup parse that uses that alias. Register in client init, not on a server event or in a constructor that runs before the registry is locked. Also check for namespace typos; alias lookup is case-insensitive but the ResourceLocation path is not.

Tag Reference Every ETA markup tag and its attributes.

Presets Named style bundles that combine font, color, and effects.