Caxton Mod (26.2, 1.20.1) – TrueType and OpenType Font Support

Caxton Mod adds the ability to change in-game fonts using resource packs in Minecraft. It simply detects resource packs of a certain format and replaces the standard font with the one defined in the properties of your chosen resource pack.

Features:

• Crisp text at any size using MSDF technology
• Supports real bold and italic fonts
• Complex text rendering
• Does not use AWT

Current Limitations

• Arabic shaping in legacy fonts is not yet supported. Use a font with Arabic support under Caxton.
• Generating MTSDFs from fonts is expensive, but Caxton parallelizes and caches the results after the first generation.
• Some UI elements assume simple text rendering. GUI text may align left regardless of direction.
• Font hinting is not supported.

Mod and Resource Pack Compatibility

• Sodium: Compatible except Caxton <0.6.0 + Sodium 0.5.5 (outlined text issue).
• ImmediatelyFast ≥1.2.0: Disable sortTextRenderLayers (and reuseTextRendererDrawer for Caxton <0.6.0). Disable experimental_sign_text_buffering.
• Exordium: Disable sign buffering.
• Iris Shaders: Incompatible – custom core shaders not supported.
• Emojiful: Replaces Minecraft’s default text renderer.
• VanillaIcecreamFix ≤1.2.1-beta+1.20.4: Conflicts with Caxton’s Fabric ASM (fixed in later versions).

Incorrect Layout Handling Mods

• IBE Editor: Uses custom text widget that copies vanilla rendering.
• Roughly Enough Items: Uses unsupported text methods.

Resource Pack Compatibility

• Resource packs modifying text shaders (e.g. “Dark UI”, “Transparent UI”) require adjustments for Caxton fonts.

OS Support

• Includes native libraries for x86_64 Windows and Linux.
• Other platforms must build from source and configure rustTarget in config/caxton.json.
• No macOS binaries provided.

How to Use Caxton

• Comes with two built-in fonts: Inter and Open Sans.
• You can add custom fonts using a resource pack (check the font’s license before distribution).

Adding Fonts via Resource Packs

• Use a caxton font provider supporting regular, bold, italic, and bold_italic keys.
• Font path format: <namespace>:<path> → assets/<namespace>/textures/font/<path>
• Supports scaling, shifting, shadow offsets, and OpenType features via JSON configuration.
• Example path: assets/example/textures/font/example.otf.json

Global Configuration (config/caxton.json)

• rustTarget: Rust platform target (auto-detected by default).
• tweakExpText: Improves XP bar text rendering.
• sortTextRenderLayers: Controls rendering order; disable for ImmediatelyFast.
• reuseTextRendererDrawer: Legacy compatibility option (removed after 0.6.0).
• fatalOnBrokenMethodCall: Throws errors on unsupported text methods.
• disableEasterEggs: Disables splash text easter eggs.

Building from Source

• Requires Rust toolchain, Clang, and Gradle.
• Build for multiple platforms with:
  gradle build -Dxyz.flirora.caxton.additionalTargets=x86_64-pc-windows-gnu

Comparison with Other Mods

• BetterFonts / TrueType Font Replacement: Uses Java AWT and bitmaps, supports bold/italic and complex scripts.
• Smooth Font: Improves rendering and scaling; closed-source (ARR).
• ThaiFixes: Custom Thai shaping routines; limited to Thai language.
• Modern UI: Supports complex text and bold/italic but lacks crisp edges and uses AWT.
• Minecraft 1.13+ built-in TTF: Naive bitmap conversion with incorrect glyph metrics.

Screenshots:

Caxton Mod Download Links