Bitmap font (pcf and/or bdf format)

[razor5k]

Hi, I've a display which has a resolution of 256x64 Pixel (SSD1322 controller) and I need also small font sizes (8px and so on). But every rendered font don't look very pretty. Is it possible to edit a font after rendering (with a font editor tool from lvgl or something) or can I use bitmap fonts such as pcf or bdf format? Does lv_font_conv handle bitmap information embedded in ttf or otf etc? If I disable autohinting, the font seems to look better but I thought hinting should make the font better look.

[kisvegabor]

Unfortunately there is no easy way to edit the generated fonts.

For monochrome displays I think the best you can do is selecting a pixel font. The Terminus font might be a good first candidate.

Alternatively you can try Image font.

[razor5k]

Thx. I tested Terminus and it looks very pretty. It's a mono space font and it looks very 'sharp'. I also found a way to "convert" a bdf to a ttf. Binary information of the bdf files will be embedded to a single ttf file by using 'mkttf'. It uses fontforge, imagemagick and potrace. Now I'm able to use every bdf font. It would be nice if lvgl_font_converter could use the bdf format as well. Because the pixel information is directly available, no complicated rendering would be necessary. But mkttf works for me as well :)

[kisvegabor]

The font converter uses FreeType, so we can use the font types supported by FreeType.

Would you be interested in documenting the process of bdf to ttf conversation? If so I think a section after this would be quite useful for others. (You need to edit this file to update the docs)

[razor5k]

Yes, I will document the use of the BDF files in the next few days.

[kisvegabor]

Great, thank you!