From df9dfb243a72d89e935a8480d6f77434496ce601 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rob Hagemans Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2019 18:43:42 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] update README --- README.md | 18 +++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 2286a76..26f1799 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,10 +1,18 @@ Bitmap fonts for humans ----------------------- -This repository contains bitmapped fonts from various sources, in human-readable text format. +This repository contains bitmapped fonts from disused operating systems and graphical user interfaces. -The plain-text `.draw` format is a generalisation of [Roman Czyborra's hexdraw format](http://czyborra.com/unifont/), in that: -- I use it to store fonts of all sizes (in the obvious way) -- The code points can be those of the original character set, rather than unicode +As operating systems and GUIs have moved on to scalable vector fonts, the bitmap fonts that dominated +the 1980s and 1990s languish away in non-obvious and often binary formats that are rapidly falling +into obscurity. -You can also see the fonts as images. +The main purpose of this repository is to liberate these fonts from their binary shackles, +preserving the ancient art of monochrome bitmap typography for human appreciation. I say this in jest, +but only partly. + +The fonts in this repository are stored in a human-friendly text-based format. As such, the easiest way +to view them is to open the text files directly. Alternatively, you can use +[`monobit`](https://github.com/robhagemans/monobit) to render them to images or convert them to +font formats supported by current operating systems. You can also +[see the fonts as images here](http://robhagemans.github.io/monobit/").