ZX Spectrum Font Frenzy
Wednesday 1 April, 2020, 12:58 - Much Ado About Nothing
An ultra-geeky and totally un-wireless-related post today...You may be aware that as well as running the Wireless Waffle web-site, we also run the Short-Wave.Info web-site. Amazingly, the short-wave site has now had over 27 million visitors. The software is updated from time-to-time to improve the performance or, in the most recent update, to make the map look nicer!
As a result of updating the map software routine, the question of the font used to print the details along the bottom of the image raised itself. For a while this had used a font called 'DejaVu Sans'. However, it seemed more fun if the font could be more interesting and the question arose as to whether it might be possible to use the font that was originally deployed in the ZX Spectrum.
The original ZX Spectrum font uses 8 by 8 pixel blocks (as shown on the right) and isn't that pretty by today's standards, most likely as it is monospace, and as for the majority of characters (apart from the copyright sign) the grid of pixels actually used is only 6 wide by 6 high. This leaves a lot of whitespace around the pixels.The Short-Wave.Info web-site is written in php, in which there is a function called 'imagestring'. This writes a string of text onto an image and as well as using internal fonts, can also use 'GD' fonts. If the ZX Spectrum character set existed as a GD font file, it would be possible to write text using it and this function.
After some time conducting a web-search, no evidence of a GD version of the Spectrum fonts appeared and so we created one of our own! The image below is now how the bottom of the maps on the Short-Wave.Info web-site looks.
Look at the shiny ZX Spectrum font letters! If you are equally geeky, and also increasingly driven to doing mad things by the current global pandemic lockdown, Wireless Waffle is happy to make the font available for anyone who wants it. Simply download the ZX Spectrum GD font and using 'imageloadfont' you are on your way.
Join us next time on Wireless Waffle, when we share some equally lockdown crazy ideas such as:
- how to make wholesome lard-free bread using old £20 notes and a nail file,
- simulating a Spanish beach holiday with a wet towel and some curdled milk, and
- exciting methods for igniting 5G base stations that are emitting coronavirus.
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