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by ludocode 51 days ago
The 5x5 is very nice, and the 3x5 isn't bad either. Unfortunately neither of them have all of ASCII. The size is also a bit misleading because you need to add spacing so really they need a 6x6 or 4x6 grid.

I'm quite fond of Spleen:

https://github.com/fcambus/spleen

It has a 5x8 font which has all of ASCII, but most glyphs are actually 4x8 and include horizontal spacing. I modified it to reduce the rest for a project I'm doing so all glyphs are 4x8. The result can be rendered on a 5x9 grid with a guaranteed line of horizontal and vertical spacing between all glyphs. It's very nice.
2 comments
RachelF 50 days ago
In the early 1980s there were actually word processors for the Apple 2 which had a 40 column display (7 pixel wide fonts default) that gave 60 columns using the a 5x5 font in graphics mode. It was a selling point.

The hardware solution was to buy an "80 column card" that gave 80 columns of proper text, if your monitor could handle it.

link
tomtomtom777 50 days ago
At 3x5 it states:

> The "M", "W" and "Q" suffer, but it's still got a distinct O and zero.

The Q is weird; I would think it makes more sense to draw it as a zero with the bottom right set.

link