BFFNT File

What are BFFNT files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BFFNT file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BFFNT files.

What is a BFFNT file?

BFFNT files have multiple uses, and Binary Switch Game Font is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Binary Switch Game Font

Binary Switch Game Font files store bitmap font data used by Nintendo Switch video games to render in-game text. These files bundle together font metrics, character mappings, and one or more image sheets containing glyph graphics. Font data are built by game developers and shipped inside Switch game packages so that text can be drawn consistently across different UI screens.

These files are usually produced in the game build process, then included in an archive (often a BFARC) alongside other game assets. When the game loads one of these font files, it reads the header to locate sections like font info (FINF), texture images with glyphs (TGLP), character width tables (CWDH), and codepoint mappings (CMAP). Tooling intended for font modding or extraction, such as dedicated font toolkits, can export the glyph sheets (e.g. as PNG) and a JSON manifest of widths and mappings, or repack edited assets back into the file.

Inside the file, the data are divided into named sections prefixed by ASCII tags: the file overall begins with FFNT, there is a FINF section describing font properties including height, line spacing, and encoding; a TGLP section storing sheet textures with glyph images; CWDH sections listing the width of each glyph; and CMAP sections mapping character codes to glyph indices.

Byte signatures include the ASCII string "FFNT" at the beginning of the file (offset 0), "FINF" at offset 20, and internal tags "CMAP", "CWDH", "TGLP" marking the various sections.

How to open BFFNT files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BFFNT file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BFFNT file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 23, 2026

All known file formats using extension .BFFNT

While Binary Switch Game Font is a popular type of BFFNT-file, we know of 2 different uses of the .BFFNT file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

Nintendo 3DS Bitmap Font Format

Nintendo 3DS's Binary Citrus Font files store bitmap fonts used in the system and games built with the NW4C (NintendoWare for CTR) library. Each file bundles font metadata (such as the font's size, ascent, line feed, default glyph widths, and encoding), plus one or more texture sheets holding all glyph images, the widths and spacing of individual characters, and the mapping from character code points to glyph indices. These resources combine to enable text rendering on the 3DS's screen using pre-rendered bitmaps rather than outline/vector fonts.

These files are written by Nintendo's font compilation tools as part of the games' data assets. When a 3DS game or the system font needs to render text, the runtime loads one of these font files and uses its texture sheets, width tables, and mappings to draw each character. The system font - used for UI and menus - is loaded at boot; its CFNT/BCFNT font file gets modified in memory by changing certain headers and converting file offsets into absolute memory addresses.

Internally the format is composed of multiple sections ("blocks") each identified by ASCII magic strings. The major blocks are FFNT (file header), FINF (font information), TGLP (texture glyph layout), CWDH (character width data), and CMAP (character-to-glyph mapping). Each block has its own header giving section size, and many sections are chainable (notably CWDH and CMAP). Texture formats are chosen from the PICA200 hardware-supported pixel formats. Files may use either little endian or big endian byte order; little-endian files are typically called BCFNT, big-endian called CFNT.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

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