Category Archives: GLCD Font Editor

Families of Fonts in Bitmap2LCD

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Families of Fonts in Bitmap2LCD

Bitmap2LCD is a software tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable text and graphic processing tool.

Update V3.7c

With Bitmap2LCD , you can of course write text and place symbols and glyphs inside the WORK CANVAS. by the way, Some system fonts families ARE collection of glyphs. You can find fonts on specialized websites like dafont.com and easily install them on you computer.

With Bitmap2LCD Standard Edition, you can also generate GLCD fonts to data arrays, in other words, convert the matrix of pixels of the glyphs into hexadecimal  data.

Families of Fonts

ANSI FONTS

Generate GLCD Fonts from System Fonts ( Glyphs are not editable )

fontw Open / create a Font     exiz Quit Font Script Mode

Directly select chars to convert to data inside the ASCII grid

bitmap2lcd-font-families

 

UNICODE FONTS ( International Characters Sets )

Generate GLCD Fonts from Unicode System Fonts ( Glyphs are not editable )

fontw Open / create a Font     exiz Quit Font Script Mode

bitmap2lcd-font-families-unicode

EDITABLE FONTS ( Freely Editable Fonts )

Create glyphs from scratch or export Chars from a System Font ( Glyphs are editable )

qervg2 List Editable Fonts  scratchw Create Editable Font From Scratch

exiz Quit Editable Font Script Mode

Bitmap2LCD Editable Font

 

ANTI-ALIASED FONTS

Generate anti-aliased Fonts, except in monochrome, 8 and 16 colors modes

bitmap2lcd-antialiased-font

 

Other buttons related to Fonts

Start  Create GLCD Font Data inside Text Editor

Start editable font  Export Selected Chars of a System Font to an Editable Font

exportcharw  Export the selected Char in the ASCII Grid to the WORK CANVAS

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Bitmap2LCD : Info About The System Font Generator

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Info About the System Font Generator

Standard Edition

Update V3.7c

Bitmap2LCD is a software tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable text and graphic processing tool.

Bitmap2lcd generates GLCD FONTS from UNICODE and ANSI SYSTEM FONTS  ( fonts currently installed in Windows ) and from EDITABLE FONTS, chars and symbols you can create yourself. Chars of a System Font can be exported to EDITABLE FONTS to be freely editable.

Font Chars can also be stretched. ( See below, the panel above the displayed Character A )

Info about Fonts in Bitmap2LCD

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To Generate GLCD Font , ENTER and QUIT the Font Creation Mode, click the following buttons or the associated main menu items :

fontw Reload / Create Font Script

exiz Exit Special Mode > Exit Font Script

Start Generate the GLCD FONT DATA as defined in the FONT SCRIPT

bitmap2lcd-font-generator

bitmap2lcd-variable-and-fixed-fonts

Fig 1. At the left side, the FONT PANEL and and the right side, the FONT SCRIPT located in one of the TEXT EDITORS

Blue arrow : The FONT SCRIPT is NOT a directly editable script. The purple Parameters displayed  are defined with all the other arrows shown on the above screenshot.

Yellow Arrow : Select the SYSTEM Font , the Font Size, ANSI or UNICODE Chars ( script > Font Script Filename, Type, Name and Size )

Orange Arrow: Select the chars to generate in the ASCII Grid. Selected Chars are displayed in Color Aqua Blue. To clear all the selected chars in one click, click the Aqua Blue <Clr> button in the bar of icons. ( script > Selected Chars List )

Red Arrow: Font Height and Width limitations. A the right side, you can change from FIXED to VARIABLE LENGTH FONT. ( script > Font Size )

Green Arrow: Here you can move and frame all the chars in four directions. ( script > Font Size )

Purple Arrow: Here You select the direction of the GLCD Font data ( script > Font Orientation  )

FONT SCRIPTS (blue arrow) are saved to disk as [.FSC] files, and can easily be reloaded from inside the FILE EXPLORER (fig 2.). There’s a dedicated FONTS Folder (red arrow) . The font files there are filtered.

Bitmap2lcd GLCD Font Script Files

 

Example of Generated GLCD DATA for monochrome Display (Fixed Length 5×7 Font, Vertical Data Output)

/* @ 0 Char:’A’ Width in bits :5 */

0x20,     /* __#_____ */

0x50,     /* _#_#____ */

0x50,     /* _#_#____ */

0x70,     /* _###____ */

0x88,     /* #___#___ */

0x88,     /* #___#___ */

0x00,     /* ________ */

/* @ 7 Char:’B’ Width in bits :5 */

0xE0,     /* ###_____ */

0x90,     /* #__#____ */

0xE0,     /* ###_____ */

0x90,     /* #__#____ */

0x90,     /* #__#____ */

0xE0,     /* ###_____ */

0x00,     /* ________ */

Export Font Data to Binary File : Data Structure

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Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable graphic and text processing tool.

Export Font Data to Binary File : Data Structure

Standard Edition , Update V4,0

When you export the Font Script to a Binary File, the data array is sent to the Hex Editor and saved as a .hex to Disk. ( For example for Data storage in EEprom )

Output + Settings Main Menu :

See below the data structure inside the Hex Editor.

In the following example the generated Font is Arial Unicode Size 10 , ANSI, Selected Chars are A B and C

Structure :

1st Line , red area 00 03 = Number of chars (decimal)

2nd Line, Character Info between 55 AA   ….  AA 55

00 01  Type of Font  >> 0001 = ANSI  >> 0002 = UNICODE  >> 0003 Editable Font

00 36  Char Data Count (decimal)

00 10 Char Width (decimal)

00 18 Char Height (decimal)

00 2D Char ASCII ( Optional > ANSI, Editable font ) or Unicode Char Address (hex)

00 50 First Address Next Char (hex)

Blue Area = Char Pixels data

Green Area = Data Filler, Forces next Char to begin from line begin

bitmap2lcd Font to Binary

Bitmap2LCD Stretching the Chars of a Font

Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems and a programmable graphic and text processing tool.

Stretching A Font

Update V3.7c

In the Font Panel there is a small Panel for stretching a GLCD Font (blue Arrow) , in width or/and in Height with the possibility to shift the stretched chars along the Y axis.

The “Stretch” checkbox enables or disables the stretching.

This features works when generating a Font, in the font script special mode and when exporting a system font to an editable Font.

bitmap2lcd-stretch-font

 

 

Create Segmented Charsets for GLCD with Bitmap2LCD

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Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems.

Create Segmented Charsets for GLCD with Bitmap2LCD

Obsolete, not available on current SW versions

Since V2.2, in the GLCD Font Editor Component of Bitmap2LCD , a feature makes it possible to create segmented fonts, a set of characters that are similar to the 4 numbers displayed on the LCD module in the picture below.

A segmented character is made of an assembly of smaller graphic segments (in this example 6 segments for the O) . These segments being present more than only one time in the different characters of the font.

Now let’s see how this feature is implemented in bitmap2LCD  :

  • View of the char group #1 in the Work canvas (red arrow) The word “group” means an assembly of segments or small graphic elements.
  • The 8 segments needed for the whole charset in the Font Editor Window (blue arrow)
  • The Segment Font Script for this font. This file contains for each character (group) the X and Y positions of all graphic elements and their associated segment bitmap.

 

Description of the GLCD Font Editor in Bitmap2LCD

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Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems.

Description of the GLCD font editor in Bitmap2LCD (since V2.2)

Standard Edition

The example below shows the begin of the creating of an Editable font from scratch

On the font panel window at the left :

  • There is one single new Char is in the font grid (red arrow), all pixels are white
  • The font editor toolbar (brown arrow) Buttons: insert new char or paste a char, delete a char, copy a char,export to work canvas,import from work canvas, save font…
  • Above the Font Editor toolbar, the segmented font viewer buttons to hide/show the different Char segments (up to 12 segments)
  • The character displayer and pixels editor. (green arrow) For complicated Char edits, the Char can be exported into the work canvas, and re-imported after modification.

On the Outputs panel window at the right :

  • The Editable Font Script in the editor (blue arrow) , in the GLCD Font Editor mode, the editor gutter becomes yellow.
  • The Editable Font Script editor toolbar  (orange arrow), the values in the Font Script can only be modified in the edits there. It depends where the cursor is located in the script. The Normal Font / Segment Font switch is located on this toolbar too.

The GLCD Font Editor in Bitmap2LCD

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Bitmap2LCD is a tool for programming small Graphic LCDs in embedded systems.

The GLCD Font Editor in Bitmap2LCD

Standard Edition

Since Standard Edition V2.2 and upwards, Bitmap2LCD features a GLCD font editor

The already before existing font script component, is only based on imports of characters out of  the installed Windows system fonts, with no possibility to edit the pixels.

The new GLCD font editor feature gives this capacity of editing the fonts and/or to create new characters and icons.

The GLCD font editor component is called “Editable Font ” and the associated functions can be found in the main menu, see below.

  • Open an existing Editable Font File (*.EFF)
  • Create an Editable font from  scratch
  • Quit the Editable Font Edition Mode

The GLCD font editor possibilities are shown below

[ Editable Fonts : up to 256 colors ]

An Editable Font file created with Bitmap2LCD, is saved in a *.EFF file with his associated GIF file, all single characters bitmaps being saved in the frames of a GIF animation. The GIF becomes a sort of catalogue of images.

The Editable font GIF file can also be displayed in the GIF file reader , like a normal animation. The *.EFF file (Editable Font File) is just a script witch contains additional informations.

When opening an editable Font (*.EFF) , by clicking on it in the file explorer, the associated GIF companion file is opened automatically.