Font Pixel Generator

A robust, modular CLI tool and Python library designed to bridge the gap between high-quality typography and embedded systems. This tool rasterizes TTF font files from the Google Fonts library into clean, C++ compatible header files for use in memory-constrained GUI projects.

Overview

Working with embedded displays often requires custom, bitmap-based fonts. This tool automates the process of finding fonts, rasterizing specific characters into boolean arrays, and exporting them as C++ constants. It includes intelligent symbol mapping to ensure all exported character variables adhere to C++ naming conventions.

Features

• Automated Repository Handling: Automatically downloads and manages a local cache of the Google Fonts repository.
• Fuzzy Font Discovery: Easily find and select fonts by family name and style variant.
• C++ Header Generation: Exports character data into .h files with namespaced structures.
• Symbol Safety: Automatically maps non-alphanumeric characters (like # or @) to safe, readable names (e.g., char_hash, char_at).
• Visual Previewing: Uses matplotlib to render and display a pixel preview of your selected character before finalizing your export.

Installation

Clone the repository:

pip install glyph-bridge

CLI Reference

You can run the tool directly from your terminal:

glyph-bridge \
  --family "Inter" \
  --style "Regular" \
  --size 48 \
  --export \
  --output "./include/fonts" \
  --char "A"

Argument Details

Library API Usage

Beyond the CLI, font_gen can be imported into your own Python automation scripts:

from font_gen import get_glyph_data, export_header

# 1. Generate glyph data (returns a NumPy boolean array)
pixel_data = get_glyph_data(
    char="A",
    font_path="path/to/font.ttf",
    size=48,
    is_fake_italic=False
)

# 2. Export an entire set to a C++ header
export_header(
    font_path="path/to/font.ttf",
    fam="Inter",
    sty="Regular",
    size=48,
    is_fake_italic=False,
    output_dir="./gui_assets"
)

How It Works

1. Rasterization: Uses the Pillow library to render text to an off-screen buffer.
2. Thresholding: Converts grayscale pixel data into a bool array (true for foreground, false for background).
3. Serialization: Writes the data as a namespaced C++ constant array, sanitizing special symbols to prevent compilation errors.

License & Requirements

Requirements: numpy, matplotlib, Pillow, requests