BDF2TXT and TXT2BDF
This two little tools are useful for translating bdf fonts to a textual
representation, which can be edited with any text editor, and back.
Take a look at the example chess font...

There is nearly no error checking, especially the BBX statements must be
`handcoded' when changing the size of a glyph.

Have fun ;-)

SF Project Page
Download
An Example:
how the chess font looks like ...

And here the *.bdf and the coresponding *.txt (only the `empty' glyph is shown here): 
STARTFONT 2.1
COMMENT This font is Public Domain.
FONT -chess-big-Medium-R-Normal--42-320-96-96-M-280-FontSpecific-0
SIZE 32 96 96
FONTBOUNDINGBOX 38 38 -6 -8
STARTPROPERTIES 13
POINT_SIZE 320
PIXEL_SIZE 42
RESOLUTION_X 96
RESOLUTION_Y 96
FONT_ASCENT 32
FONT_DESCENT 10
AVERAGE_WIDTH 280
SPACING "M"
FAMILY_NAME "big"
FOUNDRY "chess"
COPYRIGHT "This font is Public Domain."
DEFAULT_CHAR 2
ENDPROPERTIES
CHARS 14
STARTCHAR char0
ENCODING 0
SWIDTH 890 0
DWIDTH 38 0
BBX 0 0 0 0
BITMAP
ENDCHAR
STARTCHAR char0
ENCODING 1
SWIDTH 890 0
DWIDTH 38 0
BBX 38 38 -6 -8
BITMAP
FFFFFFFFFC
FFFFFFFFFC
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
C00000000C
FFFFFFFFFC
FFFFFFFFFC
ENDCHAR
...

STARTFONT 2.1
COMMENT This font is Public Domain.
FONT -chess-big-Medium-R-Normal--42-320-96-96-M-280-FontSpecific-0
SIZE 32 96 96
FONTBOUNDINGBOX 38 38 -6 -8
STARTPROPERTIES 13
POINT_SIZE 320
PIXEL_SIZE 42
RESOLUTION_X 96
RESOLUTION_Y 96
FONT_ASCENT 32
FONT_DESCENT 10
AVERAGE_WIDTH 280
SPACING "M"
FAMILY_NAME "big"
FOUNDRY "chess"
COPYRIGHT "This font is Public Domain."
DEFAULT_CHAR 2
ENDPROPERTIES
CHARS 14
STARTCHAR char0
ENCODING 0
SWIDTH 890 0
DWIDTH 38 0
BBX 0 0 0 0
BITMAP
ENDCHAR
STARTCHAR char0
ENCODING 1
SWIDTH 890 0
DWIDTH 38 0
BBX 38 38 -6 -8
BITMAP
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ENDCHAR
...