UI: font assets

Goal

Introduce fonts as first-class project assets instead of relying on hardcoded or system font names. This enables projects to package fonts, reference them from themes and UI documents, and build a complete asset pipeline for typography.

Context / integration points

• MVP uses fonts defined directly in the active Theme.
• Turian currently has no asset type representing font resources.
• UI themes, text components, and future localization systems will require reusable font assets.
• The Asset Database should manage fonts identically to textures, materials, and other resources.

Design

Create a dedicated Font asset responsible for importing and exposing font files.

The asset should:

• Import common font formats (TTF, OTF initially).
• Store import metadata separately from the original file.
• Generate any runtime data required by DVUI.
• Be referenceable by Theme assets and future UI components.
• Support hot reload during development.

Future extensions may include:

• Font atlases.
• Variable fonts.
• Multiple weights/styles.
• Fallback font chains.
• CJK font support.
• Signed-distance-field (SDF/MSDF) generation.
• Automatic atlas packing.

Tasks

• Define the Font asset type.
• Implement importing for TTF/OTF.
• Store import metadata.
• Generate runtime font representation.
• Integrate with the Asset Database.
• Create Inspector UI showing preview and metadata.
• Support hot reload.
• Allow Theme assets to reference Font assets.

Acceptance criteria

• Font files can be imported into the project.
• Imported fonts appear in the Asset Browser.
• Fonts display preview text inside the Inspector.
• Theme assets reference Font assets instead of raw names.
• Runtime loads fonts through the Asset Database.

Dependencies

Can be implemented independently.

Later consumed by Theme assets and UI text components.

Out of scope

• Automatic font fallback.
• Font subsetting.
• Variable fonts.
• SDF/MSDF generation.
• Dynamic glyph streaming.