ESP8266 TFT Display - Support for Material Design Icons

[jkwim]

I wonder whether ESP8266 TFT Display can support Material Design Icons (https://pictogrammers.github.io/@mdi/font/2.0.46/) kind of graphics using the DisplayText command.

There are references in Home Assistant (HA) discussion groups on using a MDI font like:
common/fonts/materialdesignicons-webfont.ttf
Wonder whether this is possible with Tasmota on ESP8266.

There are some details about Tasmota's built in Font types, though I haven't been able to understand how it works currently.

https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Displays/#fonts

[sfromis]

The point you refer to with the docs link is for the built-in fonts. The more general font support is when loading a "RAM font" from a .fnt file which are "are special binary versions of GFX fonts", and needs a build with USE_RAMFONT. Some existing files here. Note that ESP8266 has a rather low amount of RAM, meaning that options are limited. Still, it might work if you convert a selection to the format.

You'd have a lot better options with ESP32+PSRAM, and HASPmota or LVGL.

[jkwim]

Q1: Is there a way to preview .fnt files? Is the format different from a .ttf file?

Q2: Is there a way to convert a .ttf file in to .fnt file?

[sfromis]

While I know nothing, a quick Google search lead me to this library where the description includes words like "a command-line tool for converting TTF fonts to Adafruit_GFX header format".
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GFX-Library

Whether that's even useful, I'm not trying to guess.

[valdus2]

You can convert whatever font you like.
Tools you will need:

1. GLCD Font Creator (To see the font range)
2. FontConvert (For converting ttf to h files for importing to script editor)
3. Script Editor (For converting .h to .fnt files)

For example converting some characters from Roboto Bold ttf font:

In command prompt you run the below command
FontConvert Roboto_Bold.ttf 24 902 973 > Roboto_Bold24.h

Explaining:
24 is the font size that you want
902 973 The characters range that you want (from 902 to 973) and you have find them from GLCD Font Creator
Roboto_Bold24.h The name of the file that it will create

After that, you open the created Roboto_Bold24.h file in script editor and you convert it by choosing h file to fnt file.

That's it.

[jkwim]

Great will give it a try.