Typography in 8 bits: System fonts

Nowadays such fonts are still actively designed and maintained for the game Dwarf Fortress, where they are used for tilesets.

Here's an overview of some DF tilesets: https://dwarffortresswiki.org/Tileset_repository#8.C3.978

(the images you see on the left ARE the tilesets)

That's a great resource. I needed a 10x10 font for an emulator, and they have at least half a dozen.

I suppose any PC with a BIOS needs to maintain such fonts as well

Don't miss his other posts about system fonts:

https://damieng.com/blog/2011/03/27/typography-in-16-bits-sy...

https://damieng.com/blog/2014/07/20/typography-in-bits-other...

https://damieng.com/blog/2016/08/09/typography-in-bits-for-a...

Another interesting historical font I stumbled upon recently is Simplex Roman, designed in 1967 by Dr. A. V. Hershey for vector-based rendering on early CRTs. It still looks remarkably pleasant today: http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/hershey/

OpenType conversions: https://github.com/scruss/AVHershey-OTF/tree/master/otf

I've used the Hershey fonts in several projects and they look really good.

MicroPython code to write using Hershey fonts a LCD Display: https://github.com/russhughes/ttgo-hershey-fonts

MicroPython based robot that draws using Hershey fonts: https://github.com/russhughes/turtleplotbot3

I've been toying around with adding text to the EtchArtDuino and turning it into a "typewriter" or serial terminal. https://github.com/russhughes/EtchArtDuino

For those who like bitmap fonts:

https://github.com/robhagemans/hoard-of-bitfonts

Preview them here: http://robhagemans.github.io/monobit/

Anyone have an idea of the remaining licenses or restrictions on these? I have a small pixel font package and it would be cool to bundle some if possible.

In general, bitmap fonts are not copyrightable in the United States. Scalable fonts like TrueType and so on are protected as computer programs, but typefaces are not copyrightable and bitmap fonts are just direct representations of the typeface.

Other countries have different treatment of typefaces, though.

You could sell non copyrightable product, right? I don't think it is implicit that GP can redistribute without author's approval.

I have this page bookmarked in my list of bitmap fonts. Allow me to share some more:

https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=87880&sid=bef3cfd8... - A collection of fonts ripped from some NES games

http://pelulamu.net/unscii/ - A font meant to look good in ASCII art

https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html - a tiny 3x5 bitmapped font.

SFont aren't monochrome, and working with them might take some work, but here are 2 nice collections: https://opengameart.org/content/the-collection-of-8-bit-font... and https://opengameart.org/content/a-package-of-8-bit-fonts-for...

http://www.type-invaders.com/sinclair/8bitfonts/ - a set of fonts for ZX Spectrum emulators

Nostalgic, I have used MSX as a kid before Model 80 arrived at home. Good times, typing over the code from a magazine, just to play a game :)

The ability on the Amstrad CPC to define your own characters was fantastic for me when I was learning to program. It meant you had a dead simple way to draw sprites but just use text commands to draw everything. I do remember liking the default serif font as well, made text seem more apt in the terrible RPGs I wrote.

Yeah, I used that, too. Very handy to code a game in Basic. Firmware even allowed to draw characters at pixel-precise position (enabled with TAGON, disabled with TAGOFF). Since characters are defined with only "on" and "off" pixels, this trick was limited to two-color graphics, which is a pity considering the CPC had real bitmapped display with up to 16 simultaneous colors, without any of the colour clash that limited most machines of the era. Despite no sprite features in Basic, the CPC firmware (including Basic) is rather complete in the graphics and sound for the era. See https://github.com/meesterturner/cpcsprite for a replacement usable from Basic.

Related, there is also the Olschool PC font Resource which is a fun site to visit:

https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/

Does anyone have a reference to the rev 7 Apple ][ that has lower case that the article refers to?

Apple’s first professionally built computer was the Apple ][ which from rev 7 onwards added lower-case letters.

The Apple IIe (1983) and onwards had the lower case characters that are shown in the image for the the Apple II (1977). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe#New_features

https://theromexchange.com/blog/15th-september-2020

Late to the party, but any idea what "inverse letter mode" in Rationale for Atari 400/800 is?

https://damieng.com/blog/2011/02/20/typography-in-8-bits-sys...

With Cyrillic support: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Press+Start+2P#standard-st...

Bitmap fonts are useful for WebGL/Canvas games.

I still love the Acorn font, it has a very consistent look.

(2011)