FireHawken / font-generator

Font/animation editor for low-density monochrome displays

font-generator

Useful tool for creating pixel fonts or animations for low density monochrome displays, like 11x7 matrix from Pimoroni.

Features:

• configurable matrix display size
• animated font
• optimized for animation

Requirements:

• Python 3 for running this tool
• Microcontroller or device capable of running python with numpy package for using generated file

Installation

1. Clone this repo or just download font_generator.py and requirements.txt
2. Execute in terminal pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

To run the tool, execute in terminal python font_generator.py

GUI explanation

workflow

1. Create a new file with desired size by clicking "New file"
2. Draw a character or the first frame of animation bu clicking grey square glyphs in working area
3. Click on "+" button to add new character/frame. Frame counter will display "Frame:2 ", but the contents of the frame will remain. This is done on purpose, because in most cases you would need a reference to a previous animation frame
4. Create new character/frame
5. Repeat steps 2-4 as many times as needed.
6. Save your work by clicking "Save". File will be saved under the name specified in the lower-left corner, with extension .npy
7. Transfer your font/animation file to a RPi (or any other device capable of using numpy library for python)
8. Use the following example to display your font/frame

how to use generated file on your device

import time
import numpy as np
from matrix11x7 import Matrix11x7

matrix11x7 = Matrix11x7()
matrix11x7.set_brightness(0.4)
m = np.load('anim.npy')

def show_img(img, display):
    for i in range(img.shape[0]):
        for j in range(img.shape[1]):
            display.set_pixel(j, i, img[i, j])
    display.show()

while True:
    for i in range(0, m.__len__()):
        show_img(m[i], matrix11x7)
        time.sleep(0.1)

Function show_img() takes approx. 61ms to run on RPi Zero for 11x7 display, so you can reach 15 fps for such a small screen.

example