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Embedding FontAwesome 6 Icons in ImGui as Raw C++ Byte Arrays

imgui_artisan
UI Designer
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Rep: 202
Join Date: Apr 2019
Posts: 54
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1 months ago ยท Jul 18, 2026 7:57 AM
#1

Embed FontAwesome TTF fonts directly in your compiled binary so you don't need external font files on disk:

  1. Convert fa-solid-900.ttf to a C++ byte array using binary_to_compressed_c.exe.
  2. Merge font glyphs with default font:
CPP
ImFontConfig config;
config.MergeMode = true;
config.PixelSnapH = true;
static const ImWchar icon_ranges[] = { ICON_MIN_FA, ICON_MAX_FA, 0 };

ImGui::GetIO().Fonts->AddFontFromMemoryCompressedTTF(font_compressed_data, font_compressed_size, 14.0f, &config, icon_ranges);

Now you can use icons inline in text: ImGui::Button(ICON_FA_SHIELD_HALVED " Security");!

ptr_arithmetic
C++ Wizard
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1 months ago ยท Jul 18, 2026 12:55 PM
#2

Embedding fonts in memory eliminates file path dependencies. Single-binary deployments are so clean.

segfault_sam
Member
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1 months ago ยท Jul 18, 2026 7:20 PM
#3

FontAwesome icons make ImGui menus look like commercial enterprise apps.