How it works
This arcade font generator sets up to 4 lines in Press Start 2P, gold on black with a hard drop shadow, the way a cabinet asks for money. It has 6 pixel fonts and saves a PNG or an SVG.
Read the full guide
Six fonts, counted in squares
Press Start 2P sits on a grid of 8 squares: every character, space included, is 8 wide, and capitals stand 7 tall. Its maker based it on 1980s arcade screen lettering. Silkscreen is capitals only, 5 squares tall, released in 1999 for tiny web graphics. Jersey 15, capitals 15 squares tall, was drawn for knitting charts. VT323 copies a text terminal. Pixelify Sans is bold, and DotGothic16 adds Japanese kana.
Looks with hard edges
Nothing here glows or blurs. Drop shadow is a second copy of the letters pushed down and right with no softening. 3D block stacks 14 such copies into a slab, and Rainbow runs red to violet. New look deals 16 presets, one the grey-green of a handheld screen.
Tips
- Top to bottom under Shape keeps every square upright. Wave tilts them.
- Press Start 2P runs about 2.7 times as long as Jersey 15, so its letters come out smaller.
- Frame round three white lines reads as a dialogue box. Use capitals: Press Start 2P's g touches the line below.
Questions and answers
Is this a pixel art text generator in the strict sense?
Not strictly. Squares are scaled to fit the board, so one rarely lands on whole image pixels and edges soften. The PNG is a 2400 by 1200 poster, not a sprite. For one-to-one pixels its maker recommends Press Start 2P at 8 or 16 pixels.
Can I use it as a video game text generator for title screens?
For the lettering, yes: a gold title with a drop shadow, a score line, a boxed line of dialogue. It draws letters only, with no portraits and no typing animation, and it copies no game's screen, logo or characters.
Can I use the pictures in my own game or on a stream?
Yes. All six fonts are under the SIL Open Font License, whose FAQ says a graphic made with one belongs to whoever made it. The font files may also ship inside your game if the copyright notice and licence travel with them.