An assortment of bitmap fonts from the first version of the Macintosh operating system

A bitmap font is one that stores each glyph as an array of pixels (that is, a bitmap). It is less commonly known as a raster font. An illustration of the fonts available for the original Apple Macintosh. ... An illustration of the fonts available for the original Apple Macintosh. ... Original 1984 Mac OS desktop Current 2005 Mac OS X desktop Mac OS, which stands for Macintosh Operating System, is Apple Computer’s name for the first operating systems for Macintosh computers. ... In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ... A glyph is a carved figure or character, incised or in relief; a carved pictograph; hence, a pictograph representing a form originally adopted for sculpture, whether carved or painted. ... A pixel (a contraction of picture element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ... For the use of the term raster in radio regulation, see frequency raster. ...

Scaling

Bitmap fonts look best at their native pixel size. At non-native sizes, many text rendering systems perform nearest-neighbor resampling, introducing ugly jagged edges. More advanced systems perform anti-aliasing on bitmap fonts whose size does not match the size that the application requests. This technique works well for making the font smaller but not as well for increasing the size, as it tends to blur the edges. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In digital signal processing, anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal at a lower resolution. ...

A "trace" program can follow the outline of a high-resolution bitmap font and create an initial outline that a font designer uses to create an outline font useful in systems such as PostScript or TrueType. Outline fonts scale easily without jagged edges or blurriness. PostScript (PS) is a page description language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ... TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ...

Uses outside computing

Bitmap fonts may be used in cross-stitch. A sample cross-stitch of a Welsh dresser Cross-stitch is a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture. ...

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