HP Forum Archive 08

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HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #1 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 24 July 2002, 12:48 p.m. Hi; I intend to turn it into an article, but I believe I can count on you , guys, to give me a feedback. In 1995 I wrote a book about both HP41 and HP48 (Portuguese only) and it dealt with the transition "from the HP41 to the HP48" (in Portuguese, that's exactly the title: "Da HP41 para a HP48"). I was known about Wickes' "HP41/HP48 Transitions" when I was writing mine, and in fact I did not have the pleasure yet to read it. I have the first two volumes of the HP48 Insights, and I believe Transitions may also be a great reading. At that time, I used to think how good would it be if I had TTF that could give me the LCD's characters for the HP41. In my book I used some BMP from transferred HP48 screen to the computer. But the LCD's characters in the HP41 are something more than BMP imageses. After finishing the book, I spent some time researching, and found Corel DRAW! as the, at least for me, available tool to generate the TTF. I spent one month, about one hour a day, Monday to Friday, and I could finally generate a TTF file with all characters in the 41's LCD, another with all possible keycodes for all HP calculators (recently updated to accept HP49's new characters), other three ones with all three-size HP48 characters, one with the inverted smallest HP48's font (softkey menus) and one with voyagers' LCD characters. Only one problem: I created them all as standard set, not symbol char sets, and some problems appeared. Well, three fellows from here (contributors) have test-driven the HP41 LCD character font, and one of them alerted me about its size (somewhat tall). I fixed it and also converted the hole font to symbol font (in fact, I had to redraw the pattern and save all characters again; it took me a few couple of hours, but definitely a lot less time then when I created the files). I asked Dave if he could host the HP41 TTF file (it is somewhat small, no need to zip it) and he accepted. If you want to download it, go here for the HP41 font, and if you want first to have a look at it, download this PDF demonstration. Please, 41 users and maniacs (as I am), send me any feedback about this TTF (like it or not, let me know). I'd gladly improve it, if needed. The Voyager Charset is also something to see. If you want to try it, send me an e-mail. If people ask to, I'll ask Dave to host it too. Hope you enjoy. Best regards.

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #2 Posted by jose goncalves on 24 July 2002, 4:07 p.m., in response to message #1 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Good contribution, mr Vieira ! BTW, where can I find your book for sale ?

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #3 Posted by Chris Catotti on 29 July 2002, 12:01 a.m., in response to message #2 by jose goncalves Wow! I think this is really great! Luiz, please contact me via email kd4ace@earthlink.net I wold like permission to use your fonts on my module webpage, and also provide a lint to download your font. http://home.earthlink.net/~kd4ace/HP-41/HP-41.htm My webpage is a thought in progress, but your font has given me several ideas! Can I provide a download link, or Dave Hicks, should I point to the download at the HP Museum? Thanks! Chris. Chris

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #4 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 29 July 2002, 9:56 a.m., in response to message #3 by Chris Catotti Hi; be my guest using the fonts anywhere they fit in. You do not even need to mention it's origin. Let's say it belongs to us (I'd rather be a j... if I try keeping it with me, don't you think?), 41 users. There is (at least by now) no other downloanding point than the Museum's. I asked Dave about it, and I guess it's fine pointing to it. As soon as I have my own page (time is comming, time is comming...) I'll let everybody know. I also have a nice Voyager's style LCD TTF. I'm posting it here soon. Thanks, Chris. Your recognition, as Mr. Goncalves', is more than gold. I posted my e-mail here, so you, please, feel free contacting me anytime. (I forgot this in first post...) Cheers.

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #5 Posted by thibaut.be on 29 July 2002, 5:07 p.m., in response to message #4 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Hi Luiz, Your fonts are just great. I just love them, and wish to congratulate you for the good job you did. I just have a suggestion : wouldn't you extend the fonts to the small letters, so tht this font type could be used more extensively ? Thibaut

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #6 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 29 July 2002, 7:24 p.m., in response to message #5 by thibaut.be Hello, Thibaut; thank you very much for your support. I believe I understood what you mean, and I agree with you. Anyway, let me see if I need to clear some points. Just to figure it out: when you mention small letters you mean lower-case alphabet? If so, I tried some, but I encountered some difficulties building, e.g., lower-case x, that looks exactly as its upper-case counterpart, as some others. I do not know how to draw some lower-case letters with the 14-segment scheme. You know, I decided that building the font as closed as possible to the 41's LCD characters would satisfy the 41 team. But you are right again, a complete set of lower-case letters will allow the font to be used with other purposes, as for example the HP digital multimeters that use 14-segment display characters. I can build the lower-letters, no matter at all, I'd just like to know how to draw them, how would they look. If you are not talking about this, just forgive me: what do you mean by small letters? Thank you for your suggestions. Cheers.

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #7 Posted by thibaut.be on 30 July 2002, 5:08 a.m., in response to message #6 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Yes, i was speaking about "lower case" letters... I arrived quite tired yesterday night and just did not remember how to say that... well, my impression is that if it absolutely not possible to build a lower case letter different than the upper case scheme, use the upper case, but completing the whole alphabet would be great to use UMHO... Best regards, Thibaut

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #8 Posted by Chris Catotti (Florida) on 30 July 2002, 9:41 a.m., in response to message #7 by thibaut.be There is great value in having the font set display EXACTLY as the HP-41 LCD, including the inability to display all ASCII values as a unique charachter (the boxed star gets a lot of use). Having said that, a seperate EXTENDED HP-41 LCD FONT would be great too. The last font (From an HP-41 entusiast) that is needed is the dot matrix printer. Then anyone (me) could publish webpages about the HP-41 and show how the display and how the printer really looks.

Re: HP41's LCD Characters TTF File available Message #9 Posted by thibaut.be on 30 July 2002, 10:32 a.m., in response to message #8 by Chris Catotti (Florida) Yes, Chris, I totally agree, for consistency with the original purpose it would be good to dissociate the original font set and an extended 41 font set. And why not creating the same for the printer fonts... Note how paradoxal this comes : we had resolution 300, 600, 1200, 2400 dpi laser printers, and all we want now is to use the accuracy of this resolution... to print 6x7 matrix character types...

OK, guys. Consider it done! Message #10 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 30 July 2002, 10:40 a.m., in response to message #8 by Chris Catotti (Florida) Hí; well, just give me a few days (I'm just finishing to do some urgent stuff) and I;ll build the 82143A Char Set (does it sound good? Suggestions? It will be ours, not mine, so you should suggest, too.). I'll be testing the new typos this very weekend. Thank you a lot.

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