For A Project, I need to learn about the historical origins of #bitmap #fonts.
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For A Project, I need to learn about the historical origins of #bitmap #fonts. Highly doubt these were first created on computers; where in the world have rectangular #tiles or #bricks carried a textual message? (The tiled signs in the #NYC subway are #mosaics, not based on a grid.) Where did bitmap fonts really start?
#typography #font #letters #lettering #history #histodons
Image credit: https://myfontlib.com/font/gorgeous-pixel-font
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק last edited by [email protected]
@aarbrk They have all sort of uses in fabric crafts. Loom weaving, for an example, inherently provides a rectangular grid on which graphic patterns can be presented (and there's centuries old devices allowing the patterns to be encoded on punched cards for a machine to them knit them into the fabric). Knitting patterns follow similar quasi-grid (it's only mostly rectangular, though, in that for most rows, you make a new loop corresponding to a loop in the previous low, but there's types of deviations), and if you plan in advance, you can knit all sorts of fancy pixel art into your work. One of my grandmas used to do this sort of thing for knitting woolen hats and shawls and socks with people's names embedded in the fabric. The other one used to do a different pixel art thing, in which she started with a square mesh fabric (I can't figure out its proper name, I'm sorry), and fill in some of the squares with a crocheting hook, creating patterns for wall decorations and clothing appliques and pillowcase and stuff like that. I only remember her filling the transparent squares of a white mesh in using a white yarn, and then attaching the result atop contrasting backgrounds, but it should also be possible to use multiple colours to begin with.
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@aarbrk Oh, and brick masonry.
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@aarbrk Cross-stitching is nowadays often associated with pixel arts, but this might be a new development,
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Aaron Brick — אהרן בריקreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@riley Yes! I think that approach may be called needlepoint. The practices are old for sure. Thank you.
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק last edited by
@aarbrk Player pianos might have been an early use case. They involved storing much information on paper rolls (or folds) using punched holes, and some types of roll loading mechanisms can't start reading from the very beginning of a roll, so some piano roll makers would have probably punched the name of the piece into the unreadable lead. Which requires a sort-of-bitmap font (although with somewhat different grid restrictions than modern bitmap fonts).
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Aaron Brick — אהרן בריקreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@riley Sure, could be. Sampler and monogram embroidery is older.
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק last edited by
@aarbrk Most historic monograms are embroidered in a form of vector art, though, at least AFAIK.
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Aaron Brick — אהרן בריקreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@riley There was definitely a process of complicating the letters into a single form. The alphabets on cross-stitched samplers are a better source. Check out this one from 1798:
https://scarlet-letter.com/tt-id-scottish-sampler/ -
Riley S. Faelanreplied to Riley S. Faelan last edited by
@aarbrk FWIW, there's Hellschreiber, an 1920s' German device for transmitting bitmaps over telephone or radio. But as far as I know, it was always used in conjuction with live scanning of graphical data off a sheet of paper; there doesn't appear to have been an effort to digitally embed any pixel font messages into the transmtted grid.
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Riley S. Faelanreplied to Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק last edited by
@aarbrk Thanks! I learnt something today.