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This is a short demo of truetype font rendering on an ESP32 WROOM. Doing it on a WROVER was historically doable because of its 4MB of PSRAM. The WROOM has no PSRAM. It only has 512kB of SRAM, and only about 300kB of that is actually usable by your code. The right was clipped a little in the demo. I was a couple pixels off on the size of my bitmap. I fixed it but didn't reupload.
This is a Lilygo TTGO board - basically an ESP32 WROOM with an embedded color screen.
This is a monospaced truetype font embedded byte for byte in a header file in order to store it in program flash space because it's too big for RAM.
It's rendering from that using a hashtable for glyph lookups, making the device just fast enough to do it with one of its 240mhz cores.
I don't know of any other graphics library offering that can even remotely do this. Even the LVGL TTF implementation only works on a WROVER (and can only be compiled from a linux machine!)
New GFX bits enable realistic TTF rendering on a WROOM (see comments) : esp32[^]
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
modified 21-Mar-22 22:58pm.
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Congrats,
I put a little flair on your reddit post to make it shine. 
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Thank you =)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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nothing like a computer graphics treat. seeing is believing. good job.
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What do you recommend?
/ravi
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The wider it is the more it should be curved in my opinion. I have 27-inch monitors and they are flat and that's as wide as I would want to go with a flat monitor. I also have a 34-inch monitor that is curved and it's terrific.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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My problem with curved big screens is simple: are they good for your eyes?
I'm pretty sure that my eyesight has got worse as a result of decades of screen use, and curved screens mean that for 6~8 hours a day you are focusing at exactly the same distance which can't be good long term for the eye muscles. Can it?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Changing focusing distance is not an exercise that can compensate for the lack of flexibility in your crystallin. Anyway you would need large changes in focusing distance to have any noticeable effect. The small adjustments required by the monitor surface would just stress your eye muscle for no reason. The recommendation of relaxing your eyes periodically by looking out the window is based on the fact that ciliary muscles are in a relaxed state when focusing to infinity.
Best is to have a rather fixed focusing distance and good lighting conditions. Good lighting reduces the pupil opening increasing the depth of field (just like in a camera where you go for large diaphragm numbers when you want more depth of field).
Not sure how crazy Ravi wants to go with his ultrawide, but I recon that up until 35-37" flat or curve doesn't make any difference. After that, curved ones get the edge.
Mircea
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I used to make it a habit of looking away every 20m to a distance of more or less 20ft for 20s as I read somewhere once this prevents eye strain known surprisingly as the 20/20/20 rule, but have since forgotten and neglected to do so, but your post has reminded me, so I thank you. Also I wear blue filter glasses and am glad of it. Also the Visual Studio edit window background set to Color of the Universe 0xFFF8E7 255 248 231 I find soothing. Your post has led me to examine recommended for minimum eyestrain monitors. Will consider same. Again thank you. - Best
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I bought a new monitor a few months ago. I lost my right eye in a fall year before last, and the 20" monitor I had wasn't working well. I chose a 24" flat model. 24" seems to be the starting point where curved screens are available.
I looked at a lot of monitors in the store, including curved ones and even an ultrawide curved model. I think the curved model looked great when playing video or games, but I didn't care for it looking at text. In a standard wide-format, I wouldn't like a curved screen. For ultrawide I might change my mind, but that's probably due to my monocular vision peculiarities more than anything else.
I'd definitely go look in the store. Take some text or source code with you to see how it feels. The demos they run on monitors aren't good for judging this sort of usage.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Funnily enough (not, don't ask) I had an accident with my 43" Sony Bravia flat screen I was using. Was 10 years old, but still pretty nice for 1920x1080.
Its flat, and while I thought about a curved screen for this it didn't really seem to matter. It was arms length away, so not like I was doing a lot of head turning from left to right.
Ordered a refurbished 43" Samsung tv, quad density, for only a quarter of the price that I paid for the Sony. I think the higher density will be nice, we will see....
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At home I use a 49" 4K LG TV for a monitor. Now that we're back in the office part time I've ordered a 43" 4K monitor. Flat seems to work fine although I admit to being curious about a curved monitor.
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My last monitor was one of those curved thingies (yes, that's a technical term) from Sam's Club, about a 32" I believe. I liked it quite a bit until I discovered that it didn't like the free-flying recoil spring cap from a M1911 .45 ACP pistol any better than its predecessor. I promised its replacement that I would refrain from doing any gunsmithing whilst sitting in front of it.
Will Rogers never met me.
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... and if it is big enough to be curved thingie*, which R-size?
*I learnt new tech word this morning
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'
Benny Hill
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The further away, the flatter, I would say. Unless it was really wide.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Thanks everyone for your replies. I should have substantiated my question with some background information.
I often need to view Visual Studio (often 2 files side by side), an Android emulator and a Zoom window at the same time. I currently use a single 1920 x 1200 monitor at home only because I have limited desk space. At work I have 2 1920 x 1200 flat panels with the option of having a third, but these days I work from home most of the time.
I've been asked to select a an ultrawide of my choice, so I want to ensure I do due diligence (reviews can be misleading because they're often sponsored by the manufacturer) before having my company fork out $$ for the device. As I understand it, the value of a curved ultrawide is that it provides better edge-to-edge clarity than a wide flat panel since the distance from the eye is roughly the same throughout the width of monitor. On the flip side, curved monitors provide a less than accurate rendition of extreme detail at the edges and therefore aren't recommend for CAD, design or photographic applications.
While curved ultrawides come in a wide array of widths, my desk will allow for a maximum diagonal size of 34", which in my informal testing seems ideal for development. I intend to face the left half of the monitor head on and view the right curved portion from time to time. If I had more desk space, I would just use 2 flat panels, with the one on the right being tilted a bit towards me.
I'm leaning towards one of these 3440 x 1440 (21 x 9) monitors which are priced at the lower end of the market:
Again, thanks very much for your input.
/ravi
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Since you have a limit of 34" I would say go with 34" 
I am very happy with my Dell S3220DGF. It is 2K curved monitor, but I think that 4K would work well too on this size as long as it isn't too far away from you.
There can be only one.
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Google 'troy hunt monitor'. You'll find images and blog post(s) about his search. I forget the results.
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I bought the Dell 32 Curved 4K UHD S3221QS about a month ago and am happy with it. I can fit two instances of VS side by side. I really like the added vertical space compared to my old school 24" monitors.
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Do you think you'd have space for 2 monitors if the one on the right were vertical instead of horizontal? I've not tried it, but I know several who prefer their second screen to be vertical.
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I might, but I prefer to work in landscape mode. I experimented with a vertical screen at work and found it hard to use.
/ravi
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Personally, I'd look to find a solution to get two monitors, such as using a wall mount or one of those two monitor stands. I keep my main monitor just a bit to the left of center and the second one to the right. I get a lot of screen real estate since when developing, there's often a need to have something else open that you may refer to and it may need more than just a "sidebar" view.
That's a personal preference but I really wonder if a wide monitor really accomplishes the same thing since you want to keep your center of focus on your main IDE. I'd have to try both out personally, I think.
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I, too, have limited desk space at home, and only set my second monitor up occasionally. I have 2 24” screens.
I’ve been considering a dual monitor arm, such as the Ergotron at Amazon. I saw one in use at a doctors office and was pretty impressed.
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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I'm using 34inch 1000R curved monitor for a year now, and I love it.
Previously I used two monitors, but lots of applications nowadays are optimized for bigger screens rather then two screens (ex. VSCode).
Browsing web is weird, many web pages does not optimized for 34inch, so I wrote many custom css scripts for some of the most used ones. It's all good now.
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I have used both and I prefer a curved screen. However, a curved screen does take up more desk space. I also like that my monitor has a Thunderbolt connection because it is a much cleaner connection to my PC and it powers my laptop PC. No additional power brick connection is needed freeing up a power outlet and reducing cabling.
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