Tag Archives: GLCD symbols

Import System Chars into the Font Editor

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

Import System Chars into the Font Editor

Update V3.7e – V3.8z  Standard Edition

From Version V3.9 watch this video

[ Editable Fonts : up to 256 colors ]

bitmap2lcd-glcd-font-menu

Let’s see how we can export selected characters out of a Windows System font into the Font Editor of Bitmap2LCD :

  • Create a GLCD Font Script by clicking the Main menu item or the Font Panel Button (blue arrow)
  • Choose a Font Name and define its size

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_1

  • In the “Ascii Grid“, select the chars you want to export, here for example A, B and C  (red arrow)
  • In the menu, click on item ” Start editable font Export > Editable (Translate LCD Font Script to an Editable Font (green arrow)

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_2

The “editable font” has been created. It is an Editable Font File (EFF) and an associated GIF file, which is the catalogue of char bitmaps. Both files are located in the Fonts folder.

  • Quit Font Script Creator mode and Open editable (orange Arrow)

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_3

In this example, the selected font name and font size were Aria Unicode MS and 20, in this case the filename of the file will be Arial Unicode MS_20Editable_Font.EFF

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_4

The patterns of theses 3 chars (green Arrow) can now be freely edited.

Example 2

In the first example above, the height of the chars is 25 pixels.

This time, we want to limit the Size of chars in Height and in Width and export a Fixed Size Font.

  • Change the first 3 Parameters (purple arrow) and you will see a red frame in the char View (green arrow)
  • Export To editable (blue arrow)

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_5

  • You get these editable chars

bitmap2lcd-editable-font_6

Graphic LCD and International Fonts and Characters

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

International Fonts and Characters

Update V3.7c

Quote :

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing systems. Developed in conjunction with the Universal Character Set standard and published as The Unicode Standard, the latest version of Unicode contains a repertoire of more than 110,000 characters covering 100 scripts and multiple symbol sets. The standard consists of a set of code charts for visual reference, an encoding method and set of standard character encoding, a set of reference data computer files, and a number of related items, such as character properties, rules for normalization, decomposition, collation, rendering, and bidirectional display order (for the correct display of text containing both right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, and left-to-right scripts).

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode

The standard is maintained by the Unicode Consortium.

http://www.unicode.org/

// Quote

To access the international characters, open the Font panel, select the Unicode fonts (blue arrow)

Select the Font ( for example Arial Unicode MS ) (yellow arrow) and the Unicode Block (in this example Thai )

To have an overview of the Unicode block names, addresses, types and language, select the Unicode List tab and click on the List Unicode Information Table button (red arrow)

bitmap2lcd-unicode-information-list

 

Overview of the Unicode Blocks

Bitmap2lcd Unicode _2

 

The information of the selected block (red arrow below) are located in the Unicode Info Tab (yellow arrow)

The available information are the number of chars of the selected block, the number of sub-Blocks, if the number of chars exceeds 256 chars ( size of the grid ) , the address range of the chars ( from – To ) , the block type and the block language if specified.

If the number of chars in the block exceeds 256, there are buttons to navigate in the sub-blocks of the block (blue arrow)

bitmap2lcd-unicode-block-info