I'm consfused about the BMFont importer behavior (engine source code)

mimicstardust · August 25, 2026, 10:07pm

Godot Version

4.x

Question

I have a bmfont (a .fnt and its .png image files) in my project. It works as expected without problems, but when I clone it on another computer, or delete the .godot folder, godot silently replaces the .import of the image and sets it to skip the file.
I couldn’t find a solution online, so I checked the source code and found this:

github.com/godotengine/godot

editor/import/resource_importer_bmfont.cpp

b56a91878


      
          	ERR_FAIL_COND_V_MSG(err != OK, err, "Cannot load font to file \"" + p_source_file + "\".");
          
          	// Update import settings for the image files used by font.
          	for (const String &file : image_files) {
          		Ref<ConfigFile> config;
          		config.instantiate();
          
          		err = config->load(file + ".import");
          		if (err == OK) {
          			config->clear();
          			config->set_value("remap", "importer", "skip");
          
          			config->save(file + ".import");
          		}
          	}
          
          	font->set_allow_system_fallback(false);
          	font->set_fallbacks(fallbacks);
          	font->set_fixed_size_scale_mode(smode);
          
          	int flg = 0;

Why does it skip the images when they load correctly (it explicitly checks err == OK before skipping)? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance!

mrcdk · August 26, 2026, 5:47am

The images are embedded, and converted if needed, in the imported font file so the original images aren’t needed anymore.

github.com/godotengine/godot

scene/resources/font.cpp

b56a91878


      
          							if (RenderingServer::get_singleton() != nullptr) {
          								Ref<Image> img;
          								img.instantiate();
          								Error err = ImageLoader::load_image(file, img);
          								ERR_FAIL_COND_V_MSG(err != OK, ERR_FILE_CANT_READ, vformat("Can't load font texture: %s.", file));
          								if (r_image_files) {
          									r_image_files->push_back(file);
          								}
          
          								if (packed) {
          									if (ch[3] == 0) { // 4 x 8 bit monochrome, no outline
          										outline = 0;
          										ERR_FAIL_COND_V_MSG(img->get_format() != Image::FORMAT_RGBA8, ERR_FILE_CANT_READ, "Unsupported BMFont texture format.");
          										_convert_packed_8bit(img, page, base_size);
          									} else if ((ch[3] == 2) && (outline > 0)) { // 4 x 4 bit monochrome, gl + outline
          										ERR_FAIL_COND_V_MSG(img->get_format() != Image::FORMAT_RGBA8, ERR_FILE_CANT_READ, "Unsupported BMFont texture format.");
          										_convert_packed_4bit(img, page, base_size);
          									} else {
          										ERR_FAIL_V_MSG(ERR_CANT_CREATE, "Unsupported BMFont texture format.");
          									}

This file has been truncated. show original

You can change the import settings of the images if you need them for something else but the font won’t use those images.

mimicstardust · August 26, 2026, 4:06pm

That makes sense. It’s the red X in the file icon that made me think it was broken.

I don’t need the images, so it’s okay for this project, but if I ever wanted to use them I would need to reimport them every time godot regererates the cache.

Anyway, I’ll switch to using Image Font so making changes is easier.

Thank you!