How To Write Text w/o Bitmap Files?

I am just starting out with OpenGL to do simple 2D graphics. I am using the GL, GLU and GLUT libraries, and wish to write text (such as my name) to the screen without using bitmaps. How can I do this?

For a supposedly powerful graphics language, OpenGL seems VERY low level when trying to use it.

The only book I’m referencing is the OpenGL Programming Guide. This book seems to indicate that text can only be displayed as bitmaps. Are there any other books
or OpenGL learning tools out there?

Any suggestions and advice would be deeply appreciated.

there are tutorials loading and using font…
with pure win32 and with GLUT too…

I am not sure what you mean by "without bitmaps. I think Nehe sample uses bitmaps. This is the most common method. If you want to use stroke or true type fonts you are out of luck unless you want to prerender a bitmap and send it out to the viewing volume somewhere. If you are asking if OpenGL has built in font support I believe the answer is no. However, using bitmaps is quite easy. I just created a file with the whole character set using Gimp and just blit them from that surface and then send the final result to the screen as textures.

Robin.

yes, open gl is rather low level. in general, the lower level, the more powerful (that depends on what you consider “powerful” i take it to mean i have more controll over it, and its faster, and with both of these, lower level is better). perhaps you should try an api built on top of openGL (inventor, etc). also, openGL is designed for 3d graphics, and while ive seen some impressive 2d stuff thats been done with it, you might want to look for a 2d graphics library…