colossus-ltsm 1.0.3

Font conversion and visualization tool for embedded systems

Colossus_LTSM

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Libraries
• Usage
• Input
• Output
• Configuration file
• Desktop Entry
• Glyph rendering
• Screenshots
• Projects
• See also

Overview

Colossus_LTSM is a Python tool for converting TrueType fonts (.ttf) into C/C++ bitmap arrays and for visualizing font data stored in C/C++ header files.
It is aimed at users working with embedded systems, LCDs, and GUIs where compact fonts are needed.

• Convert .ttf fonts to C/C++ arrays
• Adjustable font size, ASCII range, and addressing mode
• Visualize fonts from existing C/C++ headers
• GUI built with Tkinter
• Lightweight: only depends on Pillow

Installation

1. github repository
2. Arch Linux AUR package
3. Pypi package

The program is present in python package index, Pypi. Install (you can use pip or pipx) to the location or environment of your choice.

# For example with pipx 
pipx install colossus-ltsm

Libraries

Pillow for image processing

Usage

0. Github repository: Colossus_LTSM
1. PyPI package name: colossus-ltsm
2. Import path: import colossus_ltsm
3. Executable command: colossus

Run the GUI:

Select from application menu(if desktop entry installed) or run from terminal with:

colossus
# or directly with Python
 python3 -m colossus_ltsm.colossus_main

Input

• Select a .ttf font file
• Set font size, Width and Height(e.g., 12, 16, 24)
• Define ASCII range (e.g., 32-126)
• Choose data addressing mode (horizontal or vertical)
• Choose C or C++ arrays
• Choose file extension (.h or .hpp)
• Choose font name and file name
• Some ttf files are available in the extras/ttf directory for testing.

Output

• Generates a C or C++ header file with bitmap arrays.
• Visualizes the font in the GUI, a PNG image can also be exported.

Example output :

// Example Font
// An 8 by 8 character size font starting at 
// ASCII offset 0x30 in ASCII table with 0x02 characters in font. 
// 0 and 1 , size 20 bytes, 4 Control bytes at start.
static const std::array<uint8_t, 20> FontBinaryExample =
{
0x08, 0x08, 0x30, 0x01,   // x-size, y-size, offset, (last character-offset : 0x31-0x30)
0x7C,0xC6,0xCE,0xD6,0xE6,0xC6,0x7C,0x00, // ASCII font data '0' : 0x30
0x18,0x38,0x18,0x18,0x18,0x18,0x7E,0x00 // ASCII font data  '1' : 0x31
};

Exported PNG image of font data visualization:

Configuration file

The configuration file is created on startup and populated by default values. The file is located at '~/.config/colossus_ltsm/colossus_ltsm.cfg' on Linux systems.

Setting	Value	Default	Note
scale	int	4	Scale of font displayed
Columns	int	16	Number of columns of font characters to display
glyph color	hex color	#0078FF	Color of font glyphs in visualization
background color	hex color	#000000	Background color for visualization
screen_resolution	str	1000x800	Window size for GUI on start up
debug	bool	False	Enable debug output to terminal
input_path	str	$HOME	input file path when a file dialog opens
output_path	str	$HOME	output file path when a file dialog opens

Desktop Entry

A button on the main GUI allows Linux users to install a desktop entry and icon for Colossus.This creates a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/ and an icon in ~/.local/share/icons/, allowing Colossus to be launched from the application menu. The button is automatically disabled if the desktop entry is already installed. Uses Curl to download the icon from GitHub and creates the desktop entry file with the correct paths.

Glyph rendering

Glyph rendering help readme. Explains how the converter measures and positions glyphs within the bitmap cell, and how to interpret messages in the conversion log related to width scaling and clipping.

Screenshots

Projects

Some of my libraries that use these fonts are:

MCU type	Library link	Data adddressing mode
Arduino	GFX	Horizontal
Raspberry Pi Pico	GFX 16 bit	Horizontal
Raspberry Pi Pico	GFX 1 bit	Vertical
Raspberry Pi	GFX	Horizontal
PIC	OLED	Vertical

See also

Guardian_LTSM is a Python tool for converting image files into C/C++ data arrays and for visualizing image data stored in C/C++ header files. It is aimed at users working with embedded systems, LCDs, and GUIs where compact images are needed.

Guardian_LTSM