bedstead/index.xhtml
2017-07-03 00:43:22 +01:00

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<!DOCTYPE html
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-GB" xml:lang="en-GB">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type"
content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Bedstead &ndash; MODE 7 for the 21st century</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="bedstead.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<h1><img alt="Bedstead" src="title.png"/></h1>
<p>Bedstead is an outline font based on the characters produced by the
Mullard SAA5050 series of Teletext Character Generators. The
SAA5050 is familiar to those of a certain age as the chip that
produced the <code>MODE 7</code> display on the BBC
Microcomputer. It generates characters from a 5 × 9 pixel
matrix, smoothing diagonal lines to produce an interlaced 10 ×
18 matrix for each character. Bedstead extends that algorithm to
continuity, converting a 5 × 9 pixel grid into an outline with
smooth diagonals.</p>
<p>Bedstead includes all the character designs from the SAA5050
and its various sister chips, including Cyrillic and Hebrew
alphabets. It also has a large number of custom-designed glyphs,
all of them of course based on the same 5 × 9 pixel grid.</p>
<p><img alt="[ A sample of Bedstead's characters ]" src="sample.png"/></p>
<p>The standard version of Bedstead is based on a square pixel
grid. This is good for displays with square pixels, but not
entirely faithful to the SAA5050. There is a second version,
Bedstead Extended, that more accurately reflects the character
shapes generated by an SAA5050 driving a 576i display.</p>
<p>To simulate teletext double-height mode, Bedstead and
Bedstead Extended each has a half-width version, Bedstead
Condensed and Bedstead Semicondensed respectively.</p>
<p><img alt="[ Bedstead and Bedstead Extended ]" src="extended.png"/></p>
<p>The outline version of Bedstead is generated by an ANSI C program
which emits a Spline Font Database file for use with
<a href="http://fontforge.github.io/">FontForge</a>, which
can convert it into most reasonable font formats.</p>
<h2>Copyright</h2>
<p>The program that generates Bedstead and all of the
newly-designed glyphs have been released into the public domain.</p>
<p>
<a rel="license"
href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">
<img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/p/zero/1.0/88x31.png"
style="border-style: none;" alt="CC0" />
</a>
</p>
<p>I believe that the original SAA5050 bitmap font is essentially
in the public domain in the United Kingdom as a result of
<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/1988/48/section/55"
>Section 55 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988</a>
as applied by
<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/1988/48/schedule/1/paragraph/14/5"
>subparagraph 14(5) of Schedule 1</a>. Im not a lawyer, though,
so this may well be wrong.
</p>
<h2>Downloads</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="bedstead-001.002.zip"><code>bedstead-001.002.zip</code></a>
&ndash; Full source and binary distribution containing everything
below.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead.c"><code>bedstead.c</code></a> &ndash; The C
program that generates the font.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead.sfd"><code>bedstead.sfd</code></a> &ndash;
The Spline Font Database file for use with FontForge.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead.otf"><code>bedstead.otf</code></a> &ndash;
The finished font in OpenType format.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead-ext.sfd"><code>bedstead-ext.sfd</code></a>,
<a href="bedstead-ext.otf"><code>bedstead-ext.otf</code></a> &ndash;
Spline Font Database and OpenType versions of the extended font.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead-con.sfd"><code>bedstead-con.sfd</code></a>,
<a href="bedstead-con.otf"><code>bedstead-con.otf</code></a> &ndash;
Spline Font Database and OpenType versions of the condensed
(double-height) font.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead-sem.sfd"><code>bedstead-sem.sfd</code></a>,
<a href="bedstead-sem.otf"><code>bedstead-sem.otf</code></a> &ndash;
Spline Font Database and OpenType versions of the semicondensed
(double-height extended) font.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead-10.bdf"><code>bedstead-10.bdf</code></a>,
<a href="bedstead-20.bdf"><code>bedstead-20.bdf</code></a> &ndash;
Bitmap versions at 10 and 20 pixels high.</li>
<li><a href="bedstead-10-df.png"><code>bedstead-10-df.png</code></a>,
<a href="bedstead-20-df.png"><code>bedstead-20-df.png</code></a>
&ndash; 10-pixel and 20-pixel tilesets for use with
<a href="http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/">Dwarf Fortress</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The code to generate Bedstead is held in
<a href="http://bazaar-vcs.org/">Bazaar</a>.
You can get your own copy by running</p>
<blockquote>
<p><kbd>bzr branch http://bjh21.me.uk/bedstead/</kbd></p>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>