Configure fonts, sizes and per-scene text

Pokémon Studio lets you add custom fonts, define extra text sizes, and pick which font your messages and choices use. This guide explains where font settings live, how to set the default font through its ID, and how to assign specific fonts to scenes and choices.

Where fonts are configured

Everything related to fonts lives in Dashboard > Texts, under the General settings group. Saving this screen writes the file Data/configs/texts_config.json in your project, which is what PSDK reads at runtime.

The page is split into four areas:

• Fonts: the typefaces available in your game, each backed by a .ttf file.
• Alternative sizes: extra size profiles you can reuse without adding a new font file.
• Messages: how text reads in message windows, including which font they use.
• Choices: the same settings for choice windows.

The key idea to keep in mind: a font is never referenced by its name in the rest of the configuration, it is referenced by its ID. Every place that picks a font (the default font, a per-scene message font, a choice font) stores a font ID, not a file name. Understanding this is what makes the rest of the screen, and the default-font trick below, make sense.

The Fonts section also has a Use special characters for numbers toggle. Leave it on if your font ships custom glyphs for digits (most PSDK fonts do); it has no effect on which font is used, only on how numbers are drawn.

Add a new font

A font in Studio is two things that must agree: a .ttf file on disk and an entry in the Fonts table.

1. Copy your .ttf file into the project's Fonts/ folder (for example Fonts/MyFont.ttf).
2. In Dashboard > Texts, in the Fonts section, click Add a font.
3. Fill in the fields, then click Add the font:
   • ID: a unique number for this font. It is how the rest of the game refers to it.
   • Name: the file name without the .ttf extension. It must match the file exactly, so MyFont for Fonts/MyFont.ttf.
   • Size: the render size in pixels.
   • Line height: the vertical space one line takes, in pixels.

The new font appears in the table as a row. In texts_config.json, it is one entry in fonts.ttfFiles:

{
  "id": 30,
  "name": "MyFont",
  "size": 16,
  "lineHeight": 20
}

Studio keeps the table sorted by ID and flags an ID that is already used, so no two fonts can share a number. If the Name does not match a real file in Fonts/, the font will not load in game even though Studio accepts the entry.

Set the default font

PSDK uses the font with ID 0 as its default: anywhere the game draws text without asking for a specific font, it falls back to font 0. The default project ships PokemonDS at ID 0. So changing "the game's font" does not mean editing a single dropdown, it means making your font the one with ID 0.

This is the hidden manipulation the screen does not spell out. You cannot simply set your font's ID to 0 while another font already holds 0, because Studio rejects duplicate IDs. You have to swap the two IDs, using a free number as a stepping stone:

1. Give the current font 0 a temporary free ID (for example change PokemonDS from 0 to 99).
2. Change your font's ID to 0. Your font is now the default.
3. Optionally, give the old font a permanent ID by editing it again (for example move PokemonDS from 99 to 30), so it stays available for scenes that still want it.

Because the table re-sorts by ID after each change, follow the rows by name rather than by position while you swap. Once your font sits at ID 0, every message, choice and UI element that did not request a specific font will use it.

Create extra sizes

A font entry already carries one Size and one Line height. When you need the same look at a different size, you do not have to add a second .ttf. The Alternative sizes section lets you define standalone size profiles, each identified by its own ID.

In the Alternative sizes section, click Add an alternative size, fill ID, Size and Line height (there is no name, since no file is involved), then click Add the alternative size.

{
  "id": 2,
  "size": 22,
  "lineHeight": 26
}

These profiles do not carry a typeface of their own. They are size overrides that the engine and scripts apply to existing text when a specific size ID is requested. As with fonts, IDs must be unique and the list is kept sorted.

Assign a font to a specific scene

The Messages section controls message windows. It is organised by reference scene, so you can give one scene a different look from the rest of the game:

• Default messages: used everywhere unless a more specific entry matches. This is the entry whose Reference scene is left blank.
• Battle messages: the built-in entry for the battle scene.
• Click Add a type of messages to target another scene. Set its Reference scene to the scene's class name (for example Battle::Scene). The help text confirms the rule: leave the reference scene blank to apply the configuration to every scene.

Within each entry, the Text font of the messages dropdown is where you pick the font, listed as ID - Name. The other fields shape the same window: Text color of the messages, Dialog box and Box of names (the window skins), Line count and Border spacing.

Each entry is one record under messages in the config, keyed by the reference scene (any is the blank, catch-all entry):

"messages": {
  "any": {
    "windowSkin": null,
    "nameWindowSkin": null,
    "lineCount": 2,
    "borderSpacing": 2,
    "defaultFont": 0,
    "defaultColor": 0,
    "colorMapping": {}
  },
  "Battle::Scene": {
    "windowSkin": null,
    "nameWindowSkin": null,
    "lineCount": 2,
    "borderSpacing": 2,
    "defaultFont": 0,
    "defaultColor": 0,
    "colorMapping": {}
  }
}

Note that defaultFont stores the font ID you picked, which is the whole reason IDs matter: a per-scene font is just a different ID in this field.

Assign a font to choices

The Choices section mirrors the Messages section for choice windows, with fewer fields. It has the same Default choices entry (blank reference scene) and the same Add a type of choices button to target a specific scene.

Pick the font with the Default text font dropdown, set Default text color, the Choices box skin and the Border spacing. Each entry is a record under choices, again keyed by reference scene:

"choices": {
  "any": {
    "windowSkin": null,
    "borderSpacing": 2,
    "defaultFont": 0,
    "defaultColor": 0,
    "colorMapping": {}
  }
}

Conclusion

• All font settings live in Dashboard > Texts and are saved to Data/configs/texts_config.json.
• A font is a .ttf in Fonts/ plus an entry (ID, Name, Size, Line height); everything else references a font by its ID, never its name.
• The default font is the one with ID 0: to change it, swap your font into ID 0 using a free ID as a temporary step, since Studio forbids duplicate IDs.
• Alternative sizes add reusable size profiles by ID without needing a new font file.
• Messages and Choices are organised by reference scene: a blank reference scene is the default, a class name like Battle::Scene targets one scene, and the font is set per entry through its ID.