Where should I place fonts that only display icons/graphics?

[Dook]

I've recently developed a consistant and (relatively) simple method of generating font files that contain vector icons/graphics that can be displayed accurately as intended in themes. (For anyone wondering why, it's the only way of drawing re-colourable graphics with anti-aliasing.)

My question is, where do you think I should place these files? As they are technically a font, precedence would say they should be stored in the Fonts folder but a user selecting them from the Font menu would be left with an unreadable menu. On the other hand, placing them in the theme's folder in the wps directory would make some sense since these folders are used to store graphics, albeit intended for bitmaps. The only downside to this is that calling these using the font preloading tag, one has to point rockbox to the theme's folder from the font folder like "../wps/themefolder/file.fnt". None of this seems to be considered illegal by checkwps or the theme uploader.

My instincts say to place it in the wps directory instead of the font one, but I want to see what some other people's opinions are on this.

[bahus]

user selecting them from the Font menu would be left with an unreadable menu.

Can't  it be prevented by using some custom extension for such fonts?

[Dook]

user selecting them from the Font menu would be left with an unreadable menu.

Can't  it be prevented by using some custom extension for such fonts?

Just checked this, rockbox refuses to load the theme unless fonts end in the .fnt extensions.

[iPodVT]

Given their unconventional nature, it seems more logical to me to put those specialized non-text .fnt files in the theme's folder within the WPS directory rather than in the Fonts directory.  Also, giving them filenames that are as descriptive as possible, as well as providing an accompanying README file, would help to make their intended purpose and use clear.

Wherever they end up, I'm intrigued and eager to see what they look like.

[bahus]

Just checked this, rockbox refuses to load the theme unless fonts end in the .fnt extensions.

Will it work with  ".fnticons"? If I'm not mistaken it should work with any extension that starts with .fnt:
https://github.com/Rockbox/rockbox/blob/944026f2b752cb7b6934c399954d67e1f75bb2ac/apps/gui/skin_engine/skin_parser.c#L490C1-L494C40

[Dook]

Just checked this, rockbox refuses to load the theme unless fonts end in the .fnt extensions.

Will it work with  ".fnticons"? If I'm not mistaken it should work with any extension that starts with .fnt:
https://github.com/Rockbox/rockbox/blob/944026f2b752cb7b6934c399954d67e1f75bb2ac/apps/gui/skin_engine/skin_parser.c#L490C1-L494C40

You're right! That works, and as you theorized it doesn't show up in the menu too. Great to know you can do this.

Given their unconventional nature, it seems more logical to me to put those specialized non-text .fnt files in the theme's folder within the WPS directory rather than in the Fonts directory.  Also, giving them filenames that are as descriptive as possible, as well as providing an accompanying README file, would help to make their intended purpose and use clear.

Wherever they end up, I'm intrigued and eager to see what they look like.

Great points on the descriptive filenames and README. It might be a good idea to put a reference table in it to communicate the contents of each file as well.