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Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2002 8:59 am
by uwradu
I need a display with a soft function key menu across the bottom, and I'd like to differentiate the menu visually from the rest of the on-screen info by displaying it in inverted colors (i.e. white character inside a black box). Do any of the character LCDs handle both regular and inverted text? I'd rather not get into graphical displays, both for cost and increased programming effort reasons.
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 10:02 am
by Henry
No, because that's not how LCD displays work. They only way you could get inverted in a standard display like that is to use the custom characters (eight of them) and invert the text... making your own text really). But on graphic displays, you can create an entire font that inverted (I know you didn't want to get into it, but it's the easiest) and there should be some pics in the forum of the "inverted" font (and it's on the download section).
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 2:19 pm
by uwradu
> on graphic displays, you can create an
> entire font that inverted
Well, I assumed as much and went ahead and ordered a 128x64 graphic panel. That means quite a bit more work, but it's actually the kind of work I don't mind, plus it buys lots of other benefits, especially WRT to soft menu presentation.
Still, it seems to me that there's no reason a character LCD manufacturer couldn't create a display that allowed for text attributes, like the old text displays: two bytes per character, one for the ASCII value, the other for the attribute. This shouldn't increase the cost all that much.
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 2:35 pm
by Henry
Enough to make it unatractive generaly. With our graphic displays, all the fonts are bitmaps that you upload to the LCD and then call them, making it a very easy process, so it's usualy very easy to add and use.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Henry on 2002-09-23 14:37 ]</font>