Breaking the physical limits of fonts (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

112 pointsgraphitemaster6y ago23 comments

23 comments

A weird thing about some early discrete arcade games is that they generated 3x5 pixel digits without a ROM. They used a 7448 seven-segment decoder -- you know, like those cool LCD/LED clock radios. A BCD counter drives the 7448, then it feeds into a couple of multiplexers and a handful of gates, which generates the video signal.

I gotta think there's a better way, but I'm not inclined to second-guess these designers.

grzm6y ago

Related submission on Millitext from 5 months ago, over 240 points, over 50 comments :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18702900

jejones31416y ago

It certainly tested the physical limits of my aging eyes. The version on the poorly-calibrated display was a good bit easier to read than that on the well-calibrated display.

dpau6y ago

lovely article. but also i find it so refreshing to read this as a simple github readme vs. a tweetstorm or popup-filled, gated medium article.

mooman2196y ago

DPI scaling can ruin this effect too. Sub-pixel rendering is really a game for mature font renderers unfortunately.

benplumley6y ago

I'm glad you pointed this out, I was ready to write this off as an illusion that just doesn't work for me. Provided your render scale is 100%, it's a very cool trick. Naturally easier to see on a lower DPI screen too.

jbreckmckye6y ago

Great article. As an aside: I found the bit buffer function a little hard to read. I suspect that's because I haven't done a lot of work where I've needed to manipulate bits in a procedural way. Can anyone recommend any resources / exercises for me to get better at this?

emaro6y ago

One could actually learn to read these five pixel characters. Amazing

Yetanfou6y ago

Not so amazing for those who, tired of the 40-column limit of their Commodore-64 or similar machine, took to such tricks to get up to 80 columns of text on screen (e.g. SpeedScript did this [1] as did TASword [2]). Was it easy to read? No, it wasn't. It was hardly readable to be honest but it did make it possible to get a full line of text on the screen.

[1] https://archive.org/stream/1987-12-computegazette/Compute_Ga...

[2] https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g2rIQtaJyKE/V2VO_lF88vI/AAAAAAAAB...

bitwize6y ago

Meanwhile, those of us still slumming it on our TI-99/4As were stuck with a word processor that didn't even try. Not only was TI-Write stuck in 40- (or perhaps 32-) column mode, but they didn't even bother changing the TI's default font, which mapped lowercase code points to small-cap glyphs, making text look nasty, hard to read, and nothing like printed output.

The dedication and achievements of the Commodore community never cease to amaze me.

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zimpenfish6y ago

Tasword didn't do sub-pixel tricks, did it? Certainly didn't on the Spectrum to get 64 columns on a 32 column display - they just drew the letters themselves instead of using system output. I'd imagine the C64 version was exactly the same?

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mpweiher6y ago

I typed quite a few papers in Screenwriter II on my Apple II, with its 70 column text (hi-res graphics was only 280x192) and its floppy-disk based virtual memory.

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salutonmundo6y ago

this would be a nice easter-eggy way to watermark photographs.

adrianmonk6y ago

Maybe photographs not compressed with JPEG. I'm pretty sure JPEG wouldn't preserve this detail.

vectorEQ6y ago

very nice article, love the background info on what's being done. been looking at implementing a simple font renderer for some bare metal software and something like this would be awesome to try and save some resources!

nerd74736y ago

This is really cool.

akx6y ago

I once made something similar-ish (sans the fancy subpixel stuff) for rendering numbers into favicons for my cryptocurrency tracker.

Tiny number renderer: https://github.com/akx/bdf.js/tree/master/tinyb Cryptocurrency tracker: https://akx.github.io/goligoi

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

23 comments

sehugg6y ago

I gotta think there's a better way, but I'm not inclined to second-guess these designers.

grzm6y ago

Related submission on Millitext from 5 months ago, over 240 points, over 50 comments :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18702900

jejones31416y ago

It certainly tested the physical limits of my aging eyes. The version on the poorly-calibrated display was a good bit easier to read than that on the well-calibrated display.

dpau6y ago

lovely article. but also i find it so refreshing to read this as a simple github readme vs. a tweetstorm or popup-filled, gated medium article.

mooman2196y ago

DPI scaling can ruin this effect too. Sub-pixel rendering is really a game for mature font renderers unfortunately.

benplumley6y ago

jbreckmckye6y ago

emaro6y ago

One could actually learn to read these five pixel characters. Amazing

Yetanfou6y ago

[1] https://archive.org/stream/1987-12-computegazette/Compute_Ga...

[2] https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g2rIQtaJyKE/V2VO_lF88vI/AAAAAAAAB...

bitwize6y ago

The dedication and achievements of the Commodore community never cease to amaze me.

1 more reply

zimpenfish6y ago

1 more reply

mpweiher6y ago

I typed quite a few papers in Screenwriter II on my Apple II, with its 70 column text (hi-res graphics was only 280x192) and its floppy-disk based virtual memory.

1 more reply

salutonmundo6y ago

this would be a nice easter-eggy way to watermark photographs.

adrianmonk6y ago

Maybe photographs not compressed with JPEG. I'm pretty sure JPEG wouldn't preserve this detail.

vectorEQ6y ago

nerd74736y ago

This is really cool.

akx6y ago

I once made something similar-ish (sans the fancy subpixel stuff) for rendering numbers into favicons for my cryptocurrency tracker.

Tiny number renderer: https://github.com/akx/bdf.js/tree/master/tinyb Cryptocurrency tracker: https://akx.github.io/goligoi

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse