bin2cpp

A very fast and simple utility for converting a binary file into a C++ source file.

Where it can be used

The resulting file can be used, for example, in SFML projects. As is known, SFML provides the function openFromMemory(const void *data, std::size_t sizeInBytes) for loading fonts, audio, images, and other data from memory. However, the SFML library does not provide functions for loading resources into memory, so platform-specific functions must be used (for example, in WinAPI: FindResource, LoadResource, LockResource).

A similar situation exists in other libraries, for example, wxWidgets, which has the wxMemoryInputStream class for working with data from memory, but likewise does not provide cross-platform methods for loading resources into memory.

bin2cpp makes it possible to embed resources into the program’s executable file and load them into memory in a platform-independent way.

bin2cpp GUI

This is the graphical user interface version of bin2cpp. It is the recommended way to use bin2cpp.

Features

• Validates names and paths for correctness
• Supports Unicode characters in file paths and names, including valid Unicode identifiers in C++ (names composed of characters with Unicode property XID_Start for the first character and XID_Continue for subsequent characters, in accordance with the C++ standard): https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/name.html
• Shows conversion progress
• Shows elapsed time after conversion is complete
• Shows error messages

Usage

Before starting the conversion process, you must select the path to the input file. All other fields are optional.

Click the Start button to begin the conversion.

The screenshot above shows an example of font conversion, which results in the creation of a file named my_font.h with the following contents:

//=================================== AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED FILE ===================================//
// DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
// This file is generated from: my_font.ttf
//====================================================================================================//

#pragma once
#include <cstdint>

constexpr uint8_t my_font_data[130832] = {
	0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x12, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x20, 0x47, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0xaf,
// ...
	0x48, 0x06, 0x26, 0x03, 0xaf, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0x04, 0x0e, 0x03, 0x6a, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
};

bin2cpp console

Warning

Errors may occur when using bin2cpp console, as it does not validate file names or paths. Moreover, it supports only ASCII characters in names.

The source code of bin2cpp console is available for download under the MIT License (the bin2cpp.cpp file in the repository).

Features

• Shows conversion progress in percentage
• Shows elapsed time after conversion is complete

Usage

bin2cpp <binary_file> <output_file> <array_name>

Example

bin2cpp my_font.ttf my_font.h my_font_data