In the meanwhile I deleted the font I was using. I realized that it’s hard to find a good-looking font. Because all fonts are using not only black/white pixels but also gray and gray is not supported, it looks very different after the conversion. So maybe I will stick to the standard fonts that come with NG for the first time. I’m more interested in getting the HD-bars running
Yeah, it is tough to create good looking fonts if they have to be a) this small and b) only black and white. If you´re looking on the internet, then try to find some dedicated lcd fonts or particular small or squared fonts as a template.
I think the true potential here lies in creating nice icons or bars, especially since the original glcd fonts from TK are nice to look at and functional.
This program converts fonts to bmps. You can set the resolution you want. After that you have to do a bit of size editing in GIMP, but its A LOT easier, than putting the puzzle in GIMP together.
Check it out! I just put Arial into MBNG quite easy… (well… The resolution I choosed was a bit high so one letter fills the whole display… but… it works).
…heres one more tip from me: instead of using hundreds of programs for thousands of uses, stick with one program that is more versatile! eg. for creating icons/fonts use a spreadsheet. attached is an example of how i create fonts in excel. no converting issues, no looking for converters, etc…its really great for all sorts of code-related stuff, in fact any spreadsheet will do the job…
I just converted your *.bmp to *.xpm with Gimp Portable 2.8.10 (see attachement). No problems here…
Unfortunately I can´t tell what the problem might be on your end. I´ve not seen this error before. If I had to take a guess I would say maybe there is an issue with the file path (dots, exponents). I´ve encountered errors with paths like this before. Not necessarily with Gimp, but with other Apps.
Other than that I´m afraid I can´t be of much help.
Your *.bmp looks fine, the *.xpm I created seems to be in order and ready for further processing.
Till you get around this problem I´m happy to convert your *.bmps. Just pm me.
Nice work with the spreadsheet. I´m not that deep into excel, so I can´t entirely follow your process. Maybe you could upload a sample sheet, so I can have a deeper look.
@john: thanks! like your wiki regarding fonts as well! the only thing that i dont get are all these seperate programs for drawing and converting. this is why i have made my own in excel. its nothing complicated either! the first column is the ascii-code (hex), the 2nd is the character in a normal font, the 3rd is the character taken from a truetype-font, then the pixel-drawing (done with conditional formatting) plus the bits for the code. they are then just added binary into decimal and the last column tells you the hex-value. no need for seperate programs…
i cant upload that spreadsheet now, because it contains much more “private” stuff, but i will upload an example tomorrow. i have done characters for dot-matrix-displays with excel as well! the point is, that normal lcd-characters are small and i believe using a “paint”-like program for that is a bit over the top. i have done similar stuff on my amiga about 20 years ago. the converting bit is just not worth the hassle, especially because theres only one bitplane on lcds .
with excel you get exactly, what you want. you simply copy the last column into a text-editor of your choice and make up your include-file for the compiler. eg. im using sublime-text, which comes with macro-functions to do this type work.
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