More unscii font version

There is multiple version of the montserra font, but only 1 for unscii.
The following unscii variant should be added as well:

  • 16
  • 8 with thin line
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Thank you very much

Finally, do you mean adding a double-sized version as well?

According to the naming in http://pelulamu.net/unscii/
It would be nice to have:

  • unscii-8 (that the one already included)
  • unscii-8-thin
  • unscii-16

Ah, thanks. I didn’t know that there are so many variants.

As we don’t add different weight types (thin, regular, bold, etc) for “normal” fonts, I think we shouldn’t do this for monospace fonts either. I’m afraid finally we will end up with too many built-in fonts.

Anyway, I like the idea to add unscii-16.

I understand your concern for the thin/regular/bold variant.
But I don’t think there are many good alternative bitmap font at this 8x8 size.

The only other good monospace bitmap font that I know, (and could also be a good addition) is with 8x16 or 16x16 depending on character (european vs asian) with full Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane support
http://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html

Wow, I didn’t know about this font. It’s very impressive.
The only problem is that it has GPL2 license which is not compatible with LVGL’s MIT license.
With GPL2 the user needs to disclose his source code if the executable is distributed but with MIT you don’t have to do so. :frowning:
See https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-general-public-license-v2

Anyway, I don’t insist on uniscii. So suggestions are welcome!

These font files are licensed under the GNU General Public License, either Version 2 or (at your option) a later version, with the exception that embedding the font in a document does not in itself constitute a violation of the GNU GPL.

So the question would be whether or not an LVGL application is considered a document. I would agree that it’s ambiguous so we probably shouldn’t include this font out-of-the-box.

Please, add unscii-16 at least.

Does the unscii font can be showed on TFT LCD and OLED

This font is the best for monochrome display, as it is bitmap with no anti-aliasing. But it still can be used on greyscale or color display

IMO it would be better to create document with list of good TTF font sources. Because:

  • list of embeded fonts can’t grow endless.
  • font license can be not compatible with lvgl.

Convering good TTF font with lv_font_conv is trivial, IMO.

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When aiming for monochrome and small font, font need to be finely tuned for clearity, I don’t think it is possible to achieve good font quality by converting a TTF, you will always get pixel misplaced due to the conversion process.

Being bitmap, unscii (and gnufont) is very good font for this use case.
For example on screen like this: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4001066065622.html

If you are lucky enough to have better screen you will have endless choices and be better with TTF.

This could also be solved by having lv_font_conv being able to process bitmap font in hex and pcf format.

I’m ok with that. Will do it at least on Monday.

Thank you very much,I get it

@sdalu I think, your info is a bit outdated. There are enough of “pixel-perfect” fonts (good at fixed size on bitonal display), packed as TTF in vector format.

Take a look https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl/issues/1004

I certainly has no plans to spend time for this.

  • Because more effective solutions possible, IMO (just create list of appropriate TTF sources). Those exists.
  • Because pcf/others do not support kerning. In modern wold that’s equal to “defective by design” :).
  • If anyone need ancient pcf sources for some reasons, there are vectoriser tools for convert to TTF.

@puzrin
I’ve tried to add the uniscii again but something strange happened. For size = 8 it generated but I got about half-sized font.

Command line:

lv_font_conv --font unscii-8.ttf -o a.c -r 0x20-0x7f --size 8 --format lvgl --bpp 1

Font file: unscii-8.ttf.zip (58.4 KB)

Could you take a look at what could be wrong?

Something wrong with vector source. See screenshot. Glyphs are really 1/2 of declared size.

PS. If something goes wrong - open font in FonForge and pick glyphs. That’s usually enough o verify metrics & artifacts.

Seems unscii was updated to 2.1 recently. I’ve reported author about problem by email.

The only thing i can suggest now - if you have no old ttf file, try dowload 2.0 source from site, and built it.

Try attached font

unscii-8.ttf.zip (66.1 KB)

I created it from svg (from author), after patching metrics.

Full svg set is in https://github.com/fontello/svg2ttf/issues/98. You can fix units-per-em and ascent, and convert with svg2ttf.

Author said he uploaded fixed fonts, by i still see no changes on website.


Update: fixed fonts were uploaded, but old version was in my browser cache. Probably, caused by server settings.

If you have the same issue - clear cache or try different browser.