Nova64 Bitmap Font - Character Reference

Complete Character Set (95+ Characters)

Uppercase Letters (A-Z)

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Lowercase Letters (a-z)

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Numbers (0-9)

0123456789

Basic Punctuation

! ? . , : ; ' " - _ /

Brackets & Parentheses

( ) [ ] { } < >

Mathematical & Logic Symbols

= + - * / % ^ ~

Special Symbols

& $ # @ ` | \

Arrow Characters (Unicode → ASCII Art)

← → ↑ ↓ ↔ ↕

Whitespace

(space character)
(newline \n)

Emoji Handling

Automatically Replaced Emojis

These emojis are automatically converted when rendering:

Unsupported Characters

Any character not in the font will be:

• Silently skipped (not rendered)
• Never shows as "?"

Usage Examples

Print Text

// Basic text
print('Hello World!', 100, 100, rgba8(255, 255, 255, 255));

// Uppercase
print('GAME OVER', 200, 150, rgba8(255, 0, 0, 255));

// Lowercase
print('score: 1234', 50, 50, rgba8(255, 255, 0, 255));

// Mixed case
print('Press Space to Start', 150, 200, rgba8(200, 200, 200, 255));

With Arrows

// Control instructions
print('↑↓ Move  ←→ Strafe', 20, 340, rgba8(255, 255, 255, 255));

// Menu navigation
print('← Back  Select →', 200, 300, rgba8(200, 200, 200, 255));

With Special Symbols

// Game stats
print('Health: [##########] 100%', 20, 20, rgba8(0, 255, 0, 255));
print('Score: 1,234,567 pts', 20, 40, rgba8(255, 255, 0, 255));
print('Ammo: 45/100 rounds', 20, 60, rgba8(255, 150, 0, 255));

// Math expressions
print('Speed: 50% (+10% bonus)', 20, 80, rgba8(100, 200, 255, 255));

With Emojis (Auto-cleaned)

// These work automatically - emojis are stripped/replaced
print('🚀 STAR FOX', 100, 50, rgba8(255, 255, 255, 255));
// Renders as: "STAR FOX"

print('⚡ BOOST ACTIVE', 100, 70, rgba8(255, 255, 0, 255));
// Renders as: "* BOOST ACTIVE"

print('🎮 Ready Player One', 100, 90, rgba8(0, 255, 0, 255));
// Renders as: "Ready Player One"

Font Specifications

• Font Type: Monospace Bitmap Font
• Character Size: 5×7 pixels per character
• Spacing: 1 pixel between characters
• Format: ASCII art patterns stored as string arrays
• Color: Supports any RGBA color via rgba8()
• Scaling: Supports integer scaling (1x, 2x, 3x, etc.)

Technical Details

Character Rendering

1. Text is cleaned via cleanText() function
2. Unknown emojis are replaced or removed
3. Each character is looked up in GLYPHS map
4. Unknown ASCII chars fall back to "?" glyph
5. Pixels are drawn using framebuffer pset()

Performance

• O(n) text cleaning where n = string length
• O(n×w×h) rendering where n = chars, w×h = 5×7
• Extremely fast for typical game text
• No memory allocation during rendering

Font Limitations

Not Supported

• ❌ Accented characters (é, ñ, ü, etc.)
• ❌ Non-Latin scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, etc.)
• ❌ Proportional spacing
• ❌ Kerning
• ❌ Ligatures
• ❌ Most Unicode symbols beyond what's listed

Workarounds

• Use ASCII equivalents when possible
• Remove unsupported chars (automatic)
• Use ALL CAPS for emphasis instead of bold
• Use symbols creatively: * for stars, + for health, etc.

Best Practices

Do ✅

print('SCORE: 12345', x, y, color); // Clear and readable
print('Health: [####------] 40%', x, y, color); // Creative use of chars
print('Press X to Fire!', x, y, color); // Uppercase for keys
print('← Back    Continue →', x, y, color); // Arrow navigation

Avoid ❌

print('Pokémon', x, y, color); // Accented chars not supported
print('日本語', x, y, color); // Non-Latin scripts not supported
print('   ', x, y, color); // Won't render properly

Summary

The Nova64 bitmap font provides 95+ characters covering:

• Complete English alphabet (upper & lower case)
• All numbers and common punctuation
• Mathematical operators and special symbols
• Unicode arrows for game controls
• Smart emoji handling to prevent rendering issues

Result: No more "?" characters in your games! 🎮