Building a Better Bitmap (font system)
Intro There is a common need in the computer world to display text on dot-addressable displays. As with everything else, there are many ways to accomplish the same task. For computers with sufficient memory and CPU power, a popular solution has been to use vector graphics fonts such as the popular system called TrueType . This system uses a bit of math (Bezier curves) to define scalable characters. It can also include Kerning information. Another challenge is how to represent the text - e.g. ASCII or UTF-8. TrueType supports the Unicode character set which is composed of thousands of possible symbols. TrueType font files are usually in the range of 30-200K bytes in size. The data size and math don't represent a big challenge for mobile or desktop level systems, but how can you display nice looking fonts on a microcontroller with only 1K of RAM? A Clever Workaround Anyone who works with computers long enough will be familiar with the workaround - a way of getting something done i...