Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your VLW file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert VLW to another file type
To convert VLW fonts to another format, you need Processing or other Font software.
Convert a file to VLW
To convert other file formats to the "Bitmapped Font File" file type, you need software like Processing or a similar tool.
About VLW files
The .VLW file is predominantly a pre-rendered, bitmapped font format used by the Processing creative coding environment, the Adafruit GFX Library, and the Java 2D API. It stores font glyphs as raster images optimized for fast rendering on microcontrollers and embedded displays rather than using complex vector outlines. You can create and open these files using the Processing IDE via its Create Font tool, or utilize them in hardware projects. Historically, the extension is also associated with VisualLightWave and NewTek for legacy 3D applications. The primary disadvantage of the .VLW format is that it is completely proprietary and platform-specific. Because the glyphs are rasterized into a fixed-resolution pixel grid, they do not scale well. If you enlarge a .VLW font, it becomes pixelated and blurry. Furthermore, it is not supported by web browsers, desktop word processors, or standard graphic design software. Users typically need to convert .VLW files back to standard vector formats like TTF (TrueType Font) or OTF (OpenType Font) to use them in standard applications. However, a more realistic conversion target is extracting the glyphs as PNG image sequences, because the original vector scalability is permanently lost. This file format is highly difficult to open or convert with generic tools. Standard online converters fail because the internal structure relies on specific Java serialization or custom binary offsets meant only for the original software engine. Even if direct vector conversion fails, our analysis tool can inspect the file, reveal text metadata, or extract embedded image frames if supported.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VLW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert VLW file to TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, EOT, SVG, BDF, PCF, FNT, FON, PFM or AFM, you can use Processing or similar software from the "Pre-rendered Font Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert UFO, WOFF, PFB, GXF, AFM, F3F, SFD, WOFF2, PSF, TTF, TXF or OTF files to VLW, try Processing or another comparable tool in the "Pre-rendered Font Storage" category.
The VLW Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VLW converter.