Silly Font Idea

[johnno56]

Screen 7
cls

locate 1,1
Print "A"

for xx = 0 to 7
	for yy = 0 to 7
		col = point(xx,yy)
		pset (20+xx,20+yy), col
		line (40+(xx*2),40+(yy*2))-step(2,2),col,bf
		line (60+(xx*4),60+(yy*4))-step(4,4),col,bf
		line (100+(xx*8),100+(yy*8))-step(8,8),col,bf
	next
next

end

The above snippet uses a simple 'point' and 'pset' to 'enlarge' the existing text. Imagine if 'get' and 'put' were involved, then the 'text' can be placed at the graphics cursor. A few drawbacks: Colour will be determined by the 'original' character. I have tried this with various 'screens' (0, 7, and 14) and they all work without modification. But when I switch to a '_newimage' screen the character is chopped in half.

With a bit of practice (and a bucket load of patience) an entire character set could be 'scanned and stored'.

I just remembered... all this could be made much simpler... LETCHR$()

Oh well, the thought was there... even if a little too late... lol

J

[CharlieJV]

I like it.

Now you have me thinking: what if we had a string function, _GETCHR$(ascii_code), that returned the character bit pattern as a string?

So sticking with capital letter "A":

_GETCHR$(65) would return the 64-character bit pattern string:

"..XXX....XX.XX..XX...XX.XXXXXXX.XX...XX.XX...XX.XX...XX........."

which is (just to make it human-readable):

"..XXX..." + ".XX.XX.." + "XX...XX." + "XXXXXXX." + "XX...XX."" + "XX...XX."" + "XX...XX."" + "........"


I wonder if this could be useful.

[johnno56]

I had even toyed with the idea of making a character (single letter) designer. I kind of have an idea as to how to do that but I have my doubts. I had started to make a sprite editor, for a basic that shall not be named, but did not finish it. I may be able to gleen some functions from that and cobble together something. The problem could be loading and saving files.

I think I should focus on creating the enlarged fonts and converting those to the LETCHR$() 'on the fly'. On the other hand, use a designer to make the characters, then use that info to make a set of 'data' statements that can be 'read' into the program/game. Something like that... I need to give it more thought. Too many methods flying around the old grey matter... lol More research...

Your idea is looking pretty good at the moment...