Making Custom Fonts

NOTE: The method used in this guide is now outdated as of 03/01/25. Please see the following guide by Maxim for an upated and more efficient method of editing fonts.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3399879613

The WAD explorer

To find all the font sheets you'll be editing, you're going to need the WAD explorer.
It can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/TcT2k/HLMWadExplorer/releases

It has a section dedicated to all the PNG and FNT files in the game, to extract them highlight the file you want and press CTRL + E and to replace the selected file with your own, press CTRL + R

The font PNG you download should look something like this









The main ones you will end up using are the Font0_0 and the Font1_0, which are the level transition and "New Scene" fonts respectively, however you can edit other things such as the fonts that appear when you rack up combos or the numbers that appear when you kill someone.

Downloading and Installing the font.

Downloading the font

There are many sites to find custom fonts, however personally I use Dafont.
https://www.dafont.com/

Picking a custom font that looks nice should be taken into heavy consideration. It's best to pick something simple and plain as fancy fonts or fonts that look beaten up or broken can look weird when they pulse in the level transition.
For this demonstation I will be using American Captain.
https://www.dafont.com/american-captain.font

Installing the font

Once you've downloaded your selected font, you need to install it.
When you open the downloaded ZIP folder you will find a TTF file (Or several, some fonts have various styles such as bold, italics etc.)

Now navigate to your Fonts folder which can be found in your computers Control Panel. It should look like this.

If it asks you for your computers admin password, type it in and click OK
NOTE: The admin password field does not come up automatically however it will show up on your taskbar!

To test your font installed correctly, open Paint.Net or a similar program and use the Text tool, find the font you just installed in the font drop down menu.

Creating the font using the font sheet.

Once you have the font downloaded and the ingame fontsheet, it's time to begin the tedious task of replacing letters. This is the boring part but it's not difficult.

Preparation

Before replacing the letters, it's a good idea to section each letter off, as shown on the LevelClear font sheet below.














And black out each letter as shown on the Level transition font sheet below.

This just makes it easier to keep track of what letter goes where.

Replacing

This is where the real meat of the work comes in. You need to replace each letter individually with the font sheet, where you place the letter in the sectioned out box doesn't matter, however each letter should be replaced with the correct letter so you don't end up with a level named "LAZL" instead of "TEST" as I have done in the past.

The finished font sheet is shown below. (I've excluded numbers cause they're never used)

Replacing the font sheet and testing.

Replacing

Now that you've finished your font sheet, find the corresponding font file in the WAD explorer and press CTRL + R, find your font sheet and select it.
Save the patchwad as whatever you like, however it's best to call it something you will recognise such as Fonts.Patchwad.

Testing

Once you've saved the patchwad, open Hotline Miami 2 and try a level. It should use the font sheet you just replaced as shown below.


You may notice the "New Scene" text reads differently! We'll be covering that next.

NP++ and FNT Files.

This part is extremely annoying to get working right, but the payoff looks pretty good slapped on the transition screen. As a result of this annoyingness I have done the dirty work and created an editted FNT file and NewScene font sheet which you can download and use right off the bat. However if you want to edit the FNT file for your own work keep reading.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13mDrHTSxMkr7Igwv1lRyPjWrKntZGFBG
Just place the text somewhere in the red box and you're good to go! (Make sure to centre it though)

Editing the FNT file

For this step you'll need a program called Notepad++ which can be downloaded here.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Extract the FNT file and open it in NP++. It will come up as a HUGE list of numbers and letters, so get ready for some reading.

It'd be the best idea to draw a box around your created replacement, it makes this step easier.
Find Character 83, it replaces one of the E's in NEW SCENE. Edit all of the values of character 83 to fit your replacement. I'll try to describe each value you need to change and how it affects the font.

• X: This is the horizantal value of the top left corner of your box.
  
• Y: This is the vertical value of the top left corner of your box.
  
• Width: This is how long your box is from left to right.
  
• Height: This is how tall your box is from top to bottom.

The other values have no use as far as I have found.

Once you're done, save the FNT file and replace it as you would any other file.

There's some issues, however.

The base game fonts are positioned in very specific ways, this is more prevalant in combo and level transition fonts, as a result you can often end up with titles where the levels are jumbled around oddly and often the "I" in level transition fonts can become merged with other letters.
Unfortunately there is no work around for this, you're just going to have to bear with how terribly the letters are positioned.

To separate the "I" from other letters however, put a space in the level title. So a level called "Calling" would be titled "Calli ng" or "Call i ng." This will look weird in the level selection screen, but no one reads that so there's no need to worry.

Closing notes.

You can change any font you want! From the numbers that appear in the top left as you rack up combos to the ammo counter and while most of the fonts will be useless to campaign and level creators, it looks nice to have a change of font every once in a while.

Here's some sectioned off font sheets. This link includes:
Level Title
Level Clear
Ammo
Points

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1c8ErGVC1tgi2D14pZr_eD-7voxiTA4AU?usp=sharing

Thanks to Whitemagnum for providing these.

Big thanks to TheSkunkRocker for pioneering the font changing ship, a link to his video is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CciCyzYQawk&t=1s

[roadon]

is their a way for me to edit the main menu tittle and how would i go about doing that?

[Boogie, el aceitoso]

hello, I only want to make the score numbers that appear every time u kill someone dissapear. Which font is this do u know? Thanks in advance

[JESUS CHRIST]

Thank you very much for answer, but it's just my bad, i tried to change first game's text, and this tutorial is for second.

[Fusilli_]

Open your WAD Explorer, on the lefthand side between Atlases and Sounds there's a dropdown for Fonts, open the dropdown and scroll to the bottom, font0_0 is at the bottom of the list.

[JESUS CHRIST]

Sorry, but i can't find there any Font0_0 file. HLM WAD Explorer says, that «No items found». What kind of problem could it be?

[Barnaky]

Even in 2021 guides like this are helpful as heck, thanks Fusilli :-)

[Fusilli_]

The New Scene font file is a separate file from the level title file. So you'll need the edited version of that too.

[pigeon]

oh i just need a modified .fnt file don't i?
i already have a font .patchwad on my level, but i also want to change the "new scene" text

[Fusilli_]

If you open the Google drive link just under the level transition screenshot it'll provide you with the files necessary to change the text.

Open the font sheet PNG in an editing software of your choice and put some text inside the red outline, preferably somewhere in the centre. Then open the WAD explorer and replace the font PNG file and the FNT file (Also found in the G.Drive. You don't need to edit it, I've already done that!) with your edited PNG file and the FNT file.

[pigeon]

Excuse me if I don't get the guide, but I mean how did you change the text from "New Scene" to "Fusilli's Doubledoors". It's not that clarified.
That,or I'm dumb. Probably the second variant.