Using Multiple Bitmaps to Interpolate in Size ?

Moritz Rädler
Moritz Rädler Posts: 2
in Type Design Software
Good Day, 
I would like to know if there is a way to use one or multiple bitmaps as 'fixed-hinting' for e.g. in 8px and 12px and than interpolate from these steps. What I hope to get is a sharper and more accurate representation of my font in smaller sizes. I'm also a hobbyist Pixel artist so I would create these bitmaps manually in a 3 or 4 greyscale palette, simulating antialiasing.

Thank you for any Hint :smile:
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Comments

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,190
    It is possible to embed bitmaps in a TrueType font, but these may not get used in modern environments. To my knowledge, there is no way to ‘interpolate’ embedded bitmaps for intermediate sizes: for any size for which an embedded bitmap is not provided, normal rasterisation would occur.
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    @Moritz Rädler Ever since MacOS started treating bitmapfonts like dirt things have been too impracticable in that department.

    That said, you might be interested in checking out this hand–anti-aliased font family of three I made a while back. (Needless to say, there was much squinting.  :-)
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    edited January 2021
    And what a perfect demonstration of the situation that this site is scaling it willy-nilly and blurring it into irrelevance...  :-/

    The zoomed-in 9th frame should give you a good idea though.
  • Moritz Rädler
    Moritz Rädler Posts: 2
    edited January 2021
    Well First Thank you both for the insight, and a shame that bitmap support get dropped instead of enhanced !  If something looks atm obsolete It doesnt mean it stay that way.
    Thank you @Hrant P. Papazian I will definitely will have a in-depth look at this font :) 
    (opening the image in a new tab helps me with the forced scaling )
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,190
    Note that two of the four colour font formats included in the OpenType specification are bitmap formats, so you may get more satisfaction out of using those rather than the older TrueType embedding bitmap format. This is especially the case in browsers, where support for Apple’s SBIX and Google’s CBDT/CBLC bitmap formats is quite broad.

    More information:

    OpenType sbix table.

    OpenType CBDT table.
    OpenType CBLC table.

    Roel Niesken’s helpful browser colour format test.

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