bitmap font

[hhharkness]

as the online font converter linked in the docs doesn't seem to exist anymore, and the js file linked returns a 404 - is there any way to convert bitmaps into a font anymore?

[gfwilliams]

That's a shame - I'm sorry to see the online font converter go down. It might just be temporary though - right now http://ebfc.mattbrailsford.com/ seems to just be taking a long time to respond, rather than not being there?

We moved the font conversion tool for Espruino - I'll update the docs. The script itself is now at https://github.com/espruino/Espruino/blob/master/libs/graphics/font/fontconverter.js and it uses the tool at https://github.com/espruino/EspruinoWebTools/blob/master/fontconverter.js which allows you to loads fonts in several different ways (see the comments at the bottom of that file)

There are some commented out examples in the Espruino tool, and you likely want https://github.com/espruino/Espruino/blob/master/libs/graphics/font/fontconverter.js#L82-L87 to convert an image. Something along the lines of:

load = require("../../../../EspruinoWebTools/fontconverter.js").load;
var f = load({
  fn : "font6x8.png", // currently a built-in font
  height : 8, // actual used height of font map
  range : [ min:32, max:255 ]
  // fixed width
});
f.debugChars(); // handy to see what it's actually going to make the font like
console.log(f.getJS());

I guess ideally we'd extend the online font tool (that works from TTF/etc fonts - https://www.espruino.com/Font+Converter) as that uses the fontconverter.js file under the hood and so could easily load the characters from a bitmap, but hopefully ebfc.mattbrailsford.com will be back online soon anyway

[gfwilliams]

Update to this - I have just re-hosted the converter at https://www.espruino.com/Bitmap+Font+Converter

[hhharkness]

amazing, thank you! just one question and then a weird issue (let me know if i should create a separate thread for the issue); is there any way to make the space between letters bigger than one pixel? (in my case 3 would be ideal)
as for the issue - while numbers and symbols (weirdly even the symbols that are past the letters in ascii order) are working fine, for some reason only the first letter is showing up when i use any locale function, and if i try to input just a string of text as a test none show up at all? i did test using the vector font just to make sure the issue isn't my coding and the words show up as intended.
attached pictures of my original setup using dow and month, and as a test long date string and the result of typing "12345 67890abc[]\te/#@st_n", as well as the original font bitmap (18x15, not fixed width)
edit: just noticed the backslash is also missing 🤔

[gfwilliams]

There wasn't a way of changing spaces, but I have just added one if you refresh the page now.

Your issue is just that you've only provided uppercase letters in your font I think, so lowercase ones won't render. To fix it simply do g.drawString(txt.toUpperCase(), ...) so lowercase get converted and you'll be sorted.

[gfwilliams]

... also backslash is missing because it's used as an escape character in JS strings, so it's being read as "\t" (a tab character). Just do "\\" if you want a single slash in a string.

[hhharkness]

🤦‍♂️ of course... well thank you for adding the spacing option and helping me with the embarrassing brain fart!

[RKBoss6]

As of today, the online font converter is still not online, instead loading forever. Do we know what's happening at all, and is it a problem with servers on our end, or external? I use the online converter quite a bit, and I'm hoping that it will come back soon for us developers!

[RKBoss6]

Looks really nice! For using existing fonts from google fonts, would we then download the file and convert that to bitmap, and then convert to js? The old font converter is broken/doesn't work anymore, so I'm wondering how to use preexisting fonts.

[gfwilliams]

For using existing fonts from google fonts, would we then download the file and convert that to bitmap

No, you'd use the normal font converter: https://www.espruino.com/Font+Converter

It's got instructions on it specifically for using Google fonts - you just copy/paste the link from the website and it handles everything for you.

The old font converter is broken/doesn't work anymore

Which font converter do you mean? And how is it broken?

[RKBoss6]

Oh sorry, I was referring to that one, as it was broken and wouldn't generate the js. Now it seems to be up and running again though, thanks for the help!

[gfwilliams]

Ok, that's a strange one, I wasn't aware of it being broken before. If you spot something like that (one of those tools generating an error) please let me know though and I'll try and get it sorted!

[RKBoss6]

Alright, thanks!