Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable graphic and text processing tool.
Automatic Search and Replace Data Postprocessing
Update V4.7b
There’s a Search and Replace Grid in the Graphics Preview and Editors window.
1. Show the S+R Grid (blue arrow). (Same button to hide the Grid)
2.Define Search String, Replace String, if needed, one of the functions of the box.
3. Click on Run S+R in Main button to perform the data processing in the source code Text Editor. The occurrences counter will show the number of changes (orange arrow).
In this example “0x00” has been replaced by “replaced”, one time only in the whole source code. (purple frames) If a Function Cell is void in the Grid, the S+R task applies for the whole source code.
Automatic Postprocessing
The tasks defined in the S+R grid can automatically be executed after an export of GLCD data by switching the postprocessing to ENABLE.(green arrow) in the main menu or in the Export Canvas to Data with Options window (green arrows below)
Auxiliary Editor
A tab opens an Auxiliary Editor to ease comparing original and postprocessed source codes.
For different GLCD projects, the specific set of settings can be saved as a Project. It allows to switch from one to another.
A so called “Artwork” is a set of files related to the graphic source filename : In the below example a graphic saved for example as NewBitmap.BMP , will be converted to an output file called NewBitmap.h , and the associated touch panel file will then be named NewBitmap.TSC (red arrow)
When you save your Artwork with”Define Artwork Name” in the GLCD Graphic Tab (red frames), as a bitmap, you will change the basic filenames.
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Color picker
The Color Picker depends of the selected Color Depth of the Work Canvas
The picker is located in the right panel of the Work Canvas window (purple arrows).
Define foreground Color (PEN COLOR) and background color (BRUSH COLOR) for painting and Writingtext in the Work Canvas
Copy foreground color to background color, swap the colors etc…
Example of color pickers, (Color mode and 16 gray shades)
Write text
Write Text Button located at the top of the Work Canvas (blue arrow)
2 variants available for writing text :
The Text Field Editor
The Single Line Text editor
The single Line Text Editor, text can be moved and then pasted to canvas
Using Vector Mode (GLCD Library)
For GLCD library functions like GLCD.rect(x,y,h,w) or GLCD.GotoXY(x,y) or similar…
Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable graphic and text processing tool.
Export a Graphic to a GLCD Data Array
Update V4.6c
1. Open the File Explorer Window
2. If needed, select the Graphics Project Folder
3. Select the Graphic Filename
4. Graphic is opened in the Graphics PreviewWindow
5. If needed, adjust options like size, color reduction and orientation.
6. Export Preview to the Work Canvas( purple arrow )
7. Graphic is inside the FLOATINGSELECTION LAYER, above the Work Canvas surrounded by a red frame
8. In this example, a conversion to monochrome is required. (monochrome GLCD)
9. Either choose Black and White THRESHOLD LEVEL with Adjustment Slider conversion or one of the DITHERING ALGORITHMS, like for example Floyd Steinberg.
10. If needed, drag the FLOATING SELECTION LAYER to its destination position on the canvas.
11. PASTE the selection layer to the WORK CANVAS ( blue arrow )
12. If needed, adjust the export parameters in the green column, Data Tab
12. Export the Work Canvas to data array (Choose one of the Export Options : orange arrow)
13. Job done !
Note : With the 8 buttons with arrows at the top of the source code editor, adjust the data direction to match the display memory of the GLCD controller.
About : Font panel and font generator data structures
Font Panel ( SVG / ANSI / UNICODE and Editable Fonts )
4 different font categories are available : ANSI and Unicode international System fonts (installed on Windows) , the SVG fonts (for grayscale 256) based on vector graphics for a better anti-aliasing quality, and Freely Editable Font, for customized bitmap glyphs.
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Unicode block selection (green frame)
Font Panel ( EDITABLE Font )
An Editable Font can be an import of a system font + edits or created from scratch.
In this example only 5 chars
List of the existing Editable Fonts (blue frame)
Font Panel ( ANSI Font )
Font Settings in 3 panels : Structure, Header, and Data (green frames)
The parameters can be edited (when green background) in these 3 fields (red frame)
The chars selected in the Grid (blue frame) will be exported to data
Font panel > Structure Parameters
The Parameters in the green frame are separated for each Data Structure (1st Parameter of this list) These data are then present or not in the Descriptor blocs of the output data.
Font panel > Data Parameters
Font panel > Headers Parameters
The font headers such as the description and the font header code exported at the top of the data output.
Font panel > Font Data Structure
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Data Structures :
Raw Data, Font Bloc, Structured and DMD struct are different outputs layouts for fonts.
The differences in headers, bitmap glyphs and descriptors
Bitmap2LCD is a programmingtool for small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems.
Project Folders and Project Management
The current active project is displayed in the Windows Tab of the Main Menu (red frame) By clicking in this area, you have direct access to the Project Manager. There’s originally only 1 project called default.LCD
You can add other projects to the system. Every project is a separate set of settings, project folders, work canvas sizes etc.. To access the Project Manager, click on the Files/Projects Button (green frame) then Show Projects Explorer on the File explorer Window (blue frame)
The File explorer Window
The field at the top left side of the file explorer is the “Project Folders Management” and “the Project Management”.
With the buttons showing colored folder icons at the right side of the below blue arrow, you can define the folders where you want to convert, find and save the files of the current project.
By clicking on one of these colored folder icons, you define the currently active folder in the tree as the project folder for Graphics, Output files, Project Documents, Fonts or Touch Screen files.
When clicking on the links inside the field, you have a quick access to the different project folders.
When for example clicking on “Graphics Library“, you switch the File List Filter to “all graphic files” excluding the other files type from the list. (This behavior can be enabled or disabled in the Filter pop-up menu)
These project folders and all the configuration settings (GLCD size, Data Direction, File Header etc..) are saved to the disk as a set of project settings.
By clicking on the Show Projects Explorer button (orange star icon) in the menu bar (blue arrow) you can switch the view to the project management.
The Project Manager
The Project list shows the list of available projects. The list can be void in the case only the default project exists. Otherwise, like in this example, the list shows and the active project is marked with a red arrow. The other projects are marked with blue arrows.
The files attached to a project are are located in the documents/bitmap2LCD inits(version) folder.
With the Buttons in the Menu Bar at the top of the project list, you can Create, Activate, Rename and delete Projects.
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Import Projects from previous versions
Copy the project files attached to a previous Project from the documents/bitmap2LCD inits(previous version) folder to the documents/bitmap2LCD inits(current version) folder.
The script components [&***] can be included only once and will be replaced by the data or value when the data array is generated. Not needed script components can be deleted.
[&NAME]
The [$NAME] and the image size and position are optional and can be placed optionally anywhere in the header.
[&SIZE]
Same for Size of Data
[&TRUEORG]
This is the script component if present in the file, to indicate that you want to have the XPOS and YPOS origins of a reduced dynamic table of constants ( a part of the display you want to change ) given from the X0,Y0 corner you selected in the table translation manager window.
[&XPOS]
[&YPOS]
[&WIDTH]
[&HEIGHT]
The corner position on the Work Canvas and the size of the converted graphic area can be exported into the file.
There are more script components, for the font generation and the data compression. See the above default header script.
//** Example for for Images and Graphics Conversion!
#include <avr/pgmspace.h>
const uint8_t [&NAME][] PROGMEM = { [&TRUEORG]
[&XPOS], [&YPOS], [&WIDTH], [&HEIGHT],
//** These are the X and Y position //** and the Width and Height of an //** exported graphic (optional)
//** for graphics conversion with data compression [&COMPRESSION] const uint8_t [&CNAME][&CSIZE] PROGMEM = {
Header Include for Fonts
[&FONT INCLUDE]
/* // Structured Font Output Include typedef struct { long int code; const tImage *image; } tChar; typedef struct { int length; const tChar *chars; } tFont; */
To get GLCD fonts with better antialiasingrendering quality, in apps with grayscale TFT displays (256 gray shades) Bitmap2LCD can output Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG fonts)
The Data format and Data Structure Parameters for the export of Graphic LCD Fonts have been extended and split in two tabs on the Font Panel.
The Tab names are Data and Struct and Header
There’s a choice between 4 different GLCD data structures.
The Font character descriptors / Font Char Header information / can optionally be enabled or disabled and their order of appearance in the code defined.
CharacterDescriptors / Font Char Header
Switch the needed descriptors to True or False, if you need them or not in your code export. the adjust then order of their appearance in the code at the right.
Char Adress : It’s the Ascii Code of the Char (In the case of Editable Custom Fonts, you can adjust the Ascii Offset in the Data Parameters to adjust the Char address.
Start Address : Start Address of the Data array of the char.
Char Width Bits : Width in bits of the char.
Char Height Bits : Height in bits of the char.
Char Size Bytes : Size in bytes of the char.
Char Size Bits : Size in bits of the char. Example : If the bottom right pixel of the char is X18 , Y31 (in the Char Grid of the Font Panel) + the X0 Y0 bits, so 19 bits in width x 32 bits in height, the Char size in Bits is 19 x 32 = 608 pixels
An X and Y Offset system is available to remove lines of blank pixels in the code ( char background ) and save memory space. The blank lines at the top and at the bottom of the data are removed from the code output and replaced by Offsets in the descriptors.
Char Spacing : Spacing adjustment in pixels chars.
For this subject, also read this article about character spacing with kerning pairs :
