System Fonts

info

It is important to note that for custom fonts you must convert your TrueType or OpenType font to bcnft format on Nintendo 3DS. This can be done when bundling your game via the bundler website

warning

Do not call love.graphics.newFont repeatedly in calls such as love.draw or love.update as this will fill up system memory, causing performance issues and running out of memory.

The consoles come with embedded fonts for loading, referred to as System Fonts. In order for these to be loaded, pass the name of the font instead of a path and it will be loaded.

Nintendo 3DS & Wii U

Name	Notes
standard	JPN, USA, EUR, and AUS regions font
chinese	Chinese font
korean	Korean font
taiwanese	Taiwanese font

Nintendo Switch

Name	Notes
standard	JPN, USA, EUR, and AUS regions font
chinese simplified	Simplified Chinese font
chinese traditional	Traditional Chinese font
extended chinese simplified	Extended Simplified Chinese font
korean	Korean font
nintendo extended	Nintendo Extended Symbols font

Special Font Glyphs

The Standard font on Nintendo 3DS holds the glyph data for various symbols, like the Play Coin icon. However, these glyphs are stored in the Nintendo Extended Symbols font on Nintendo Switch. Here is a basic example:

main.lua

local utf8 = require("utf8")

-- get the encoded utf8 of the Play Coin icon
local glyph = utf8.char("0xE075")

function love.load()
    -- if we're on Switch, set extended as our current font
    if love._console == "Switch" then
        love.graphics.setNewFont("nintendo extended", 14)
    end
end

function love.draw(screen)
    -- this will only render on the top
    -- screen for 3DS and will render on Switch regardless
    if (screen and screen ~= "top") then
        return
    end

    love.graphics.print(glyph)
end