Hacking with Style: TrueType VT220 Font (2009)

dmd|3 years ago

A lot more information here, including how the phosphor decay is part of the font and you won't get the right appearance if you don't take it into account: https://www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/2019/dec-crt-typography

mattigames|3 years ago

With CSS (text-shadow to be exact) you can get pretty close, here is my shot at it: https://codepen.io/ivanca/pen/oNPZMLx

rodgerd|3 years ago

I do wonder if a sufficiently clever person could coerce OpenType's Variable Font extension to simulate phosphor behaviour.

nickdothutton|3 years ago

My formative years at uni were spent on VT320s, the smell of hot dust on CRT, the tick, tick, key click sound, the subtle off-white colouring, the tasteful thickness of it…

chasil|3 years ago

MAME will actually emulate a VT240.

We spend a bundle, both on Charon VAX emulation and Bluezone Rocket terminal emulation. We used to run the Reflections terminal emulator, but that is up to $500/seat.

I was actually looking for a functional UTS-20 emulator for our OS2200, but that is another story.

MAME will tie the rs232 to an outgoing socket, and I ran it over stunnel to login to my VAX VMS.

It was a really slow Friday.

naikrovek|3 years ago

how well did it work?

naikrovek|3 years ago

Pro tip for people who make fonts:

if you have a webpage for the font, include quality, high resolution pictures of the font.

spindle|3 years ago

Fans of this might enjoy https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term

rbanffy|3 years ago

And it comes with my 3270 font!

mrlonglong|3 years ago

I use this font all the time with my gnome terminal set at 132x43 to remind me of my good times with OpenVMS using a VT220.

bitwize|3 years ago

I used to love this font but the fake scanline effect was eyehurty after a while. DEC Terminal Modern is the same font with a nice vector look that won't interfere with the scanlines when you use it in cool-retro-term.

suprjami|3 years ago

https://www.dafont.com/dec-terminal-modern.font

Does this have any particular size it's supposed to be used at?

epilys|3 years ago

Here's how to do the same thing in Fontforge (with .otf file ready for download) https://gist.github.com/epilys/95869773037d3d2235d324bd5a048...

johnea|3 years ago

I built it into a package for arch AUR, then when I loooked at it, I have to agree. The scan lines built into the font are not desirable.

I installed the DEC Terminal Modern package 8-/

Cool notes on the rendering process by the author though...

stkai|3 years ago

I installed this font, set my default foreground color to #FDDF7D, and am feeling like I've transported back to 1984.

ggm|3 years ago

You need something to emulate flyback whine. Which I can't hear any more having old ears.

Maybe a bit of horizontal hold wobble too

kreelman|3 years ago

Neat. It does look just like the font I had on that terminal.... back in the day.

There's some interesting design in it.

beej71|3 years ago

De Anza College in the early 1990s--we had quite a few VT220s. Super nostalgia...

jpl56|3 years ago

Thanks! Just installed the font.

Next time I need to email a SQL query, I will use it <3

woefblaf123|3 years ago

Nice font but I wish it didn't consist of lines like that.

rbanffy|3 years ago

That’s more or less how it shows on the terminal screen. Scanlines were part of the experience.

You can manually trace over the ROM bitmaps and make the contour - I did that with my 3270 font.

33 comments