FROGBLOCK - a textmode font

a 1bit asset · By Polyducks

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FROGBLOCK - a textmode font community

A thanks and a question on font formats

A topic by bearror created Dec 02, 2021 Views: 341 Replies: 6

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bearror2 years ago(+1)

Thanks for your hard work once more, the font is great — and perhaps small enough for me to finally get started illustrating my notes :)

Appreciate the detailed license, but there's one thing I'd like to clarify: Is it alright to convert the TTF font file to other formats? I'd be particularly interested in WOFF and WOFF2 conversions, since that'd reduce the size of the font by quite a bit (~an order of magnitude). Of course, it'd be even better if you could include the other formats as official downloads! Including the three formats (TTF, WOFF, WOFF2) should be a pretty happy medium for web usage.

PolyducksDeveloper2 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

Bearror! I'm always glad to see you because I know my work is being thoroughly tested :~D

Hopefully the new character assignments work out better than last time now that I'm sticking to the ASCII format.

Good call on the WOFF/WOFF2. I've uploaded those for you and I've explained to Batfeula how to do the same. Let me know if you encounter any errors with those.

Also of note, I've updated the license with a second addendum:

ADDENDUM II - Converting content

* If you need to convert the font to another format (i.e. a .bin file), please feel free to do so to make it viable for your project - as long as it is not in violation of the above terms.

Thanks for your support of the project and for the thorough checking. It's always the biggest help.

PolyducksDeveloper2 years ago(+1)

P.S. I've also renamed the files to make them easier for web use and for referencing them in code.

bearror2 years ago (1 edit)

Awesome~ I think you've made the right call with the mappings following ASCII, it's definitely a lot easier to work with when not being able to see the actual rendered output, compared to using the Private Use Areas with a bunch of s — and trying to match glyphs would be a tall task too, not to mention resulting in rather scattered mappings. Keep on making cool stuff, it's always great to see!

I'm sure this isn't the place for the discussion, but feel free to ping me if Batfeula has trouble with the mappings on CHUNKY, what with the character widths and such being a little off currently on the TTF. (Although given how clean FROGBLOCK is, I'm sure you'll manage just fine :D)

PolyducksDeveloper2 years ago

I think Bats has fixed that up now :~) I gave him my letter spacing values, so that should make for a cleaner font.

I think you're right about condensing all that data into ASCII in one place. The only thing that isn't in the ASCII layout is the final char (255) which seems to be reserved for a null space or something. I replaced that with a line box character. Fingers crossed that doesn't misbehave!

Also may not be the right place to ask, but what do you use the fonts for? I always see you collect them.

bearror2 years ago

My hoarding habits are mostly just that I really dig the aesthetic. Even on a broader scale, mediums that have strict restrictions are very interesting to me. As someone who deals with quite a bit of sprawling and ugly (socio-technical) systems at my day job, it's refreshing to see something small, simple, and elegant. Makes it fun to start making, you know? In contrast, something like regular pixel art kind of stresses me out whenever I try, given that the increased freedom makes "good" an ever smaller target.

So far, it's been small demos I've made as a hobby and then promptly dropped, like experiments for a 3D textmode game (based entirely on CSS transformations) akin to Tactics Ogre back in 2018, and a textmode UI for a FamiTracker browser port I wrote around the same time. Next, I'd like to start illustrating and adding diagrams to my notes on systems—perhaps those'll end up becoming public some time? I'm sure I'd have a thousand things I'd like to do with each font if I found the time and energy, but honestly, I'm quite happy by just participating as a supporter :)

PolyducksDeveloper2 years ago(+1)

Always appreciate your support and interaction. Sometimes putting out content feels a bit like throwing things out into the void, you know?

I used to love illustrating my CSS/HTML with textmode back when I was doing web development. I put all the documentation into my code with carefully made flow charts. It really makes a difference to tie your documentation into your code.

I like your platformer, it looks very clean. When doing pixelart I usually crunch myself into a restriction to improve the output. Limited palettes, sprite size restrictions etc always help. This is my favourite tutorial too: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

Nice dabbles! I hope to see more. DM me on Twitter(@polyducks) or Discord(@Polyducks#3597) if you make anything new :~)

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FROGBLOCK - a textmode font

A thanks and a question on font formats