lofifonts

lofifonts provides access to raw data for the included bitmap and vector fonts.

Bitmap and vector fonts allow for bespoke rendering of pixels and strokes in situations where fine control over rendering is required. For example, individual pixels and strokes could be animated to create novel effects like exploding or coalescing text. With access to coordinates, variations in 3D also become possible.

This package will render text with a specified bitmap or vector font to:

What’s in the box

Fonts

Type Name Sizes Unicode? # glyphs
Bitmap Spleen 5x8, 6x12, 8x16, 12x24, 16x32 Some 450-1000
Bitmap Tamzen 5x9, 6x12, 7x13, 8x15, 8x16, 10x20 bold/regular Some 180
Bitmap Unifont 16x16 Yes. Plane 0, 1 113446
Bitmap Unscii 8x8, 8x16 Some 3240
Vector gridfont Lower case ASCII only 68
Vector gridfont_smooth Lower case ASCII only 68
Vector arcade Upper case ASCII only 66
Vector asteroids Upper case ASCII only 68

Bitmap fonts:

Vector fonts

Installation

This package can be installed from CRAN

install.packages('lofifonts')

You can install the latest development version from GitHub with:

# install.package('remotes')
remotes::install_github('coolbutuseless/lofifonts')

Pre-built source/binary versions can also be installed from R-universe

install.packages('lofifonts', repos = c('https://coolbutuseless.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Included fonts

get_lofi_names('bitmap')

#>  [1] "spleen-12x24"  "spleen-16x32"  "spleen-32x64"  "spleen-5x8"   
#>  [5] "spleen-6x12"   "spleen-8x16"   "tamzen10x20b"  "tamzen10x20r" 
#>  [9] "tamzen5x9b"    "tamzen5x9r"    "tamzen6x12b"   "tamzen6x12r"  
#> [13] "tamzen7x13b"   "tamzen7x13r"   "tamzen7x14b"   "tamzen7x14r"  
#> [17] "tamzen8x15b"   "tamzen8x15r"   "tamzen8x16b"   "tamzen8x16r"  
#> [21] "unifont"       "unscii-8"      "unscii-8-thin"

get_lofi_names('vector')

#> [1] "arcade"          "gridfont"        "gridfont_smooth" "asteroids"

Bitmap font: Rendering text

Text may be rendered with a bitmap font to

  1. A data.frame of pixel locations
  2. A binary matrix of pixel locations
  3. A simple raster object
library(lofifonts)
bitmap_text_coords("Hello", font = 'unifont') |>
  head()

#>      char_idx codepoint x  y line x0 y0
#> 2524        1        72 7 12    0  7 12
#> 2525        1        72 2 12    0  2 12
#> 2526        1        72 7 11    0  7 11
#> 2527        1        72 2 11    0  2 11
#> 2528        1        72 7 10    0  7 10
#> 2529        1        72 2 10    0  2 10

bitmap_text_raster("Hello", "unifont") |>
  plot()

# Render codepoints directly
bitmap_text_raster(intToUtf8(c(0x1f44d, 0x1f44e)), "unifont") |>
  plot()

Bitmap font: Bespoke pixel rendering

This is an example of bespoke rendering of the pixel data for an example string.

Each pixel in the coords data.frame has an x and y coordinates, and to render this font, a small square will be drawn for each pixel.

A gap will be left between the rectangles to highlight the pixelated origin of the text.

library(grid)
coords <- bitmap_text_coords("Hello\n#RStats", "spleen-6x12")
head(coords)

#>     char_idx codepoint x  y line x0 y0
#> 516        1        72 5 23    0  5 11
#> 517        1        72 1 23    0  1 11
#> 518        1        72 5 22    0  5 10
#> 519        1        72 1 22    0  1 10
#> 520        1        72 5 21    0  5  9
#> 521        1        72 1 21    0  1  9

grid.newpage()
grid.rect(
  x = coords$x * 4, 
  y = coords$y * 4, 
  width  = 3, 
  height = 3, 
  default.units = 'mm',
  gp = gpar(fill = rainbow(nrow(coords)), col = NA)
)

Vector font: Rendering text

Text may be rendered with a vector font to

  1. A data.frame of stroke endpoints
  2. A binary matrix of pixel locations
  3. A simple raster object
library(lofifonts)
vector_text_coords("Hello") |> 
  head()

#>     char_idx codepoint stroke_idx         x        y line        x0       y0
#> 494        1       104          1 0.0000000 9.000000    0 0.0000000 9.000000
#> 495        1       104          1 0.0000000 3.000000    0 0.0000000 3.000000
#> 496        1       104          2 0.0000000 5.666667    0 0.0000000 5.666667
#> 497        1       104          2 0.1666667 6.333333    0 0.1666667 6.333333
#> 498        1       104          2 0.6666667 6.833333    0 0.6666667 6.833333
#> 499        1       104          2 1.1666667 7.000000    0 1.1666667 7.000000

vector_text_raster("Hello\n#RStats!", scale_coords = 5) |>
  plot()

Vector font: Bespoke pixel rendering

This is an example of bespoke rendering of the strokes for an example string.

For each character (char_idx) there are 1-or-more strokes (stroke_idx). Each stroke has has 2 or more rows giving the path for this particular stroke.

When plotting with ggplot, draw paths for stroke-within-character.

library(ggplot2)

coords <- vector_text_coords("Hello")
head(coords)

#> # A tibble: 6 × 8
#>   char_idx codepoint stroke_idx     x     y  line    x0    y0
#>      <int>     <int>      <int> <dbl> <dbl> <int> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1        1       104          1 0      9        0 0      9   
#> 2        1       104          1 0      3        0 0      3   
#> 3        1       104          2 0      5.67     0 0      5.67
#> 4        1       104          2 0.167  6.33     0 0.167  6.33
#> 5        1       104          2 0.667  6.83     0 0.667  6.83
#> 6        1       104          2 1.17   7        0 1.17   7

ggplot(coords) +
  geom_path(aes(x, y, 
                group = interaction(char_idx, stroke_idx), 
                colour = as.factor(char_idx)), 
            linewidth = 4) +
  geom_point(aes(x, y), color = 'yellow') + 
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.position = 'bottom') + 
  coord_equal()

Unicode support

The font with the best unicode coverage is the bitmap font unifont

library(lofifonts)

txt <- "二項分布\xF0\x9F\x8E\xB2の英語表記は\n「Binomial distribution」である。"

#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# Render quickly with built-in conversion
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
bitmap_text_raster(txt, "unifont") |>
  plot()

#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# Bespoke plotting of the pixel locations
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
coords <- bitmap_text_coords(txt, "unifont")

ggplot(coords) +
  geom_tile(aes(x, y, fill = as.factor(char_idx)), na.rm = TRUE) +
  theme_void(10) +
  coord_equal() + 
  theme(legend.position = 'none')

Rendering with {bittermelon} fonts

bittermelon is a package which supports reading and manipulating many different types of bitmap font.

To use a font loaded with bittermelon is must first be convert to the lofi format which this package understands.

# Load font using "bittermelon"
filename <- system.file("fonts/fixed/4x6.yaff.gz", package = "bittermelon", mustWork = TRUE)
bmfont <- bittermelon::read_yaff(filename)

# Convert to lofi format
lofi <- convert_bm_font_to_lofi(bmfont)
lofi

#> [lofi bitmap font] 4 x 6. 919 codepoints.

# Layout the text and render to a raster
bitmap_text_raster('hello', font = lofi) |>
  plot()

Large block of text in bitmap font

library(lorem)

set.seed(1)
lorem::ipsum(1) |>
  strwrap(40) |>
  paste(collapse = "\n") |>
  bitmap_text_raster() |>
  plot()

Large block of text in vector font

library(lorem)
set.seed(1)

lorem::ipsum(1) |>
  strwrap(50) |>
  paste(collapse = "\n") |>
  vector_text_raster() |>
  plot(interpolate = TRUE)

Bitmap Fonts: Font Sheets

A selection of the glyphs from each of the bitmap fonts

Vector fonts: Font Sheets

A selection of the glyphs from each of the vector fonts