Fonts and Font Writer for the MicroPython framebuffer

A collection of fonts sourced from the u8g2 project and packaged for use on small devices, with small displays, running MicroPython.

They will work with EZ FrameBuffer Font Writer (see below).

• This is optimised for ease of installation and use; especially for small 'info panel' type projects and will work with any display that has a driver for the built-in microPyton framebuffer.

And will also work with Peter Hinches comprehensive writer class.

The fonts presented here were processed using the tools provided in Peter Hinches excellent font-to-py repo using font data sourced from the Arduino/C++ u8g2 project.

Status

The fonts and libraries have been tested on a ssd1306 OLED display, and a st7567 LCD module, both using I2C.

The above is showing demo programs from the examples; with various fonts, alignments and colors.

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Fonts

Font files are in the mpy-fonts folder

• Currently there are 92 font/size combinations available
• Each font comes in 4 increasing sets of characters (eg 'numbers' packs are smaller than 'latin-1' ones)
• See the README there for a description, a table of all the fonts and heights, and the conversion tool itself.

This is a limited subset of the U8G2 fonts, many of the fonts available there are in an older version of .bdf font file format that is not supported by the converter tool. Others have unclear or burdonsome licence restrictions 😇

The selection provided here covers the default U8G2 fonts, a lot of common X11 fonts and the 'spleen' small font set. There are some symbol and icon fonts too.

They are all derived from freely redistributable sources and retain their original copyright notices, most are very 'free', but the proportional X11 derived fonts need extra consideration. See the fonts page documentation for more.

Drivers

The font writer should work with any display that has a MicroPython framebuffer compatible driver.

A selection of 'good' drivers is provided,along with some documentation on using your own driver, in the drivers folder.

Alternatives

If you are implementing a full 'GUI', or have a color display, especially a large(ish) one, then you should consider the alternatives below. They support large displays, full color displays, have GUI elements, and are faster.

The fonts in this repo will work with Peter Hinches comprehensive writer class:

• https://github.com/peterhinch/micropython-font-to-py/blob/master/writer/WRITER.md
• This is a good class to use if you are driving a console type display since it has goodies like word-wrap, tab alignment, etc.

Also from the same author are the display drivers here:

• https://github.com/peterhinch/micropython-nano-gui/blob/master/DRIVERS.md
• These support many larger and color displays and can also use the fonts from this repo.
• They are part of a complete 'small gui' Library for Micropython.

Another great resource, especially for display drivers, is at:

• https://github.com/bdbarnett/mpdisplay

And finally, for people building fast GUI's on color displays and who are willing to deal with more complex installs; there is LVGL:

• https://docs.lvgl.io/7.11/get-started/micropython.html

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Easy font use via ezFBfont.py

easyFBfont is a python class that is initiated against a framebuffer device, and a font.

install:

Copy the ezFBfont.py file from this repository into the root (or path) of your MicroPython project, along with the relevant display driver and font files you want to use.

quickstart

See the examples folder for some working code that uses all the features described below.

from ezFBfont import ezFBfont
import mPyEZFont_XYZ

... create a font object attached to a framebuffer device
myfont = ezFBfont(device, mPyEZFont_XYZ)

... use it to write on the framebuffer
myfont.write('string', x, y)

... eventually..
device.show()

Create an instance for the font:

The font class and the font(s) required need to be imported:

from ezFBfont import ezFBfont
import mPyEZFont_myfont
#...etc for all fonts

You then create a font instance for each imported font:

myfont = ezFBfont(device, fontName, fg=None, bg=None ,tkey=None, halign=None, valign=None, colors=None)

Positional Arguments:

• device : The framebuffer device to write to.
• fontName : the name of the font you imported above, eg: mPyEZFont_myfont.

Optional Arguments:

• fg, bg, tkey: (integers) foreground and background colors, plus transparency key.
  • foreground and background will default to max-color and min-color respectively (see below).
  • transparent key is -1 by default (none), otherwise it defines a font color that should be rendered transparent, currently we only support mono fonts so is limited to -1, 0 or 1.
• halign: (string) left|right|center : how to align on the X axis.
  • Defaults to left.
  • This also works as justification, and is applied on a per-line basis.
• valign: (string) top|center|baseline|bottom : how to align on Y axis.
  • Defaults to top.
  • The baseline setting is applied for the first line of multi-line strings.

Device dependent: May need to be supplied if your display device driver does not report it's settings properly.

• colors: (integer) the total number of colors or greyscales we support, 2 for mono, up to 65536 for 16 bit color.
  • The max-color used above will always be total colors - 1, min-color is always 0.
  • This defaults to 2 (mono displays) if not supplied and not determined automatically.

Methods:

(After writing your data do not forget to do a device.show() to see the results 😉)

write()

myfont.write(string, X, Y, fg=None, bg=None, tkey=None, halign=None, valign=None)

Positional Arguments:

• string : The text to be written to the framebuffer
• x, y : position (pixels), framebuffer top-left is 0, 0

Optional Arguments:

• as per init options, values supplied will override the default.

Returns False if any characters failed to be written (not present in the font).

size()

x, y = myfont.size(str)

Returns the pixel width and height of the string.

rect()

xmin, xmax, width, height = myfont.rect(str, x, y, halign=None, valign=None)

Returns the exact area that the string would be written to with myfont.write().

• The return is suitable for passing directly to display.rect().

set_default()

myfont.set_default(fg=None, bg=None, tkey=None, halign=None, valign=None)

Changes the default value of the supplied argument(s).

Properties

myfont.name   : font name
myfont.fg     : default foreground color
myfont.bg     : default background color
myfont.tkey   : default transparency key
myfont.halign : default horizontal alignment
myfont.valign : default vertical alignment
myfont.colors : total number of available colors

Thoughts:

Some ideas; see the issue list for status/planning.

• Flip, Mirror, Turn: these will allow all text directions and effects etc.
• Padding : both removal and addition.

Wanted:

a python library to rotate MONO_VLSB and MONO_HMSB framebuffers by 90 degrees.