Adding custom fonts to TFT_eSPI

TFT_eSPI accepts custom fonts in the format of Adafruit GFX format. On the web, there are several fonts available in TrueType font format. Before we can use them with TFT_eSPI we need to convert the TTF format GFX format. There are several online tools available for this, I tried truetype2gfx by Rop Gonggrijp and tested it on Wio terminal, it worked wonderfully.

How to add custom fonts to your project

First find the TrueType font file. For example I wanted to add Space Mono available on google fonts to my project, So I downloaded the font package. If you extract the package, you can one TTF file for each customisation, like Bold, Italic etc.

Now go to this site and upload the TTF file you want to convert. The tool also allows you to adjust the font size and renders a sample text.

Download the font file and put it in the arduino project folder. Then you can include it in your sketch like any other h file.

#include "SpaceMono_Regular50pt7b.h"
#define CF_SM50 &SpaceMono_Regular50pt7b
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI();
//setFreeFont method will accept the custom font reference
tft.setFreeFont(CF_SM50);

Sample project is available here.