Font Library Usage & Creation

Built-in Bitmap String Fonts

128-Character Bitmap Fonts

128-character bitmap fonts are suitable for displaying the basic ASCII character set. These fonts come in different sizes and styles to suit a variety of display needs.

Font File	Example Image
vga1_8x8.py
vga1_8x16.py
vga1_16x16.py
vga1_16x32.py
vga1_bold_16x16.py
vga1_bold_16x32.py

256-Character Bitmap Fonts

256-character bitmap fonts include a wider character set, including some international characters and symbols. These fonts are usually used in more complex application scenarios.

Font File	Example Image
vga2_8x8.py
vga2_8x16.py
vga2_16x16.py
vga2_16x32.py
vga2_bold_16x16.py
vga2_bold_16x32.py

Usage Example

from lcd import LCD
import vga1_16x32 as font

# Initialize the LCD
lcd = LCD()

# Clear the screen
lcd.fill(LCD.BLACK)
lcd.text(font, "hello", 0, 0, LCD.WHITE, LCD.BLACK)

info

Displaying bitmap text:

• Call the lcd.text() method to display the text "hello" at position (0, 0) on the screen.
• Set the font color to white (LCD.WHITE) and the background color to black (LCD.BLACK).

Built-in Vector String Fonts

Vector Character Fonts

Font File	Example Image
astrol.py
cyrilc.py
gotheng.py
gothger.py
gothita.py
greekc.py
greekcs.py
greekp.py
greeks.py
italicc.py
italiccs.py
italict.py
lowmat.py
marker.py
meteo.py
music.py
romanc.py
romancs.py
romand.py
romanp.py
romans.py
romant.py
scriptc.py
scripts.py
symbol.py
uppmat.py

Usage Example

from lcd import LCD
import astrol as font

# Initialize the LCD
lcd = LCD()

# Clear the screen
lcd.fill(LCD.BLACK)
lcd.draw(font, "Hello", 0, 0, LCD.WHITE, scale=1.5)

info

Displaying vector text:

• Call the lcd.draw() method to display the vector font astrol text "hello" at position (0, 0) on the screen.
• Set the font color to white (LCD.WHITE) and a 1.5x magnification.

External Chinese Font Library (User-made)

Schematic

By running the font2bitmap.py program, convert specified text into a bitmap file of specified font, then store the bitmap file on the Beetle S1's SD card. You can then use the font library to display Chinese text!

Creation Steps

1. Download the font-to-bitmap conversion program: font2bitmap.py
2. Download the font file: NotoSansSC-Regular.zip (needs to be unzipped before use)
   • You can use any other font; this is just used as an example.
3. Open a CMD terminal and run font2bitmap.py!

Execution process:

1. For example, download the files to D:\font

2. Open CMD: press Win + R, type cmd, then press Enter.

3. Type the command D: to enter the D drive (enter whichever drive the files are on).

4. Type the command cd d:\font to enter the folder.

5. Type the conversion command: python font2bitmap.py -s "你好" NotoSansSC-Regular.otf 16 > font.py, then you will get a bitmap library file font.py containing the Chinese text "你好".

Note

Before running the command python font2bitmap.py -s "你好" NotoSansSC-Regular.otf 16 > font.py, you need to install python3 and other required tools.

Usage Example

1. Copy the bitmap file font.py to the Beetle S1's \SD\sys\font directory
2. Then import the font module (note that you must add the environment variable path first)

import sys
sys.path.append('/sd/sys/font')

import font as font

3. Use the write(bitmap_font, s, x, y[, fg, bg, background_tuple, fill_flag]) method to display the text.

import sys
sys.path.append('/sd/sys/font')
import font as font

from lcd import LCD
# Create an LCD instance
display = LCD()

# Clear the screen to black
display.fill(LCD.BLACK)

display.write(font,"你好",0,0,LCD.WHITE)