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Letafont by John P Stevenson

Letafont is a public domain screen font editor for the PCW, supplied with 16 example fonts. Each font comes both as a raw 2048-byte font (with the file type .UDG) and as a .COM file that installs the font when run.

Both Letafont and the .COM files are specific to the PCW, and don't check that they are running on the PCW before attempting to use PCW features.

Of the programs provided, LETAFONT.COM prints a text file to an Epson-compatible dot matrix printer using one of the provided .UDG fonts. LETAEDIT.COM allows the .UDG fonts to be edited, and saved either as .UDG or as a self-loading .COM file.

In the version distributed by Advantage Software, at least, there is also a third file, GO.COM, which displays a splash screen (TITLE.SCR).

Files

Fonts

Here are the 16 fonts, as supplied. Some of them have characters at nonstandard (for the PCW) points. These have not been corrected but the Unicode tables have been updated appropriately.

The self-loading .COM files have been rebuilt to support operation on the CPC, Spectrum +3 and PcW16.

Many of the fonts define only characters 0-249, leaving 250-255 either containing random data or a placeholder bitmap.

FontPreviewDownloadNotes
Army
  • ARMY.COM: Self-loading font for PCW, CPC, Spectrum +3 and PcW16
  • ARMY.UDG: Font in raw .UDG format
  • ARMY.PSF: Font in PSF format
 Obviously based on a Spectrum font, as witness the £ sign at position 96 where the PCW should have a backtick, and the copyright symbol at position 127. Characters 230-234 are replaced with a "JPS." monogram.
Arty
  • ARTY.COM: Self-loading font for PCW, CPC, Spectrum +3 and PcW16
  • ARTY.UDG: Font in raw .UDG format
  • ARTY.PSF: Font in .PSF format
Arty 1 Differs from Arty mainly in the style of the digts, though some letters are also affected.
Bold
  • BOLD.COM: Self-loading font for PCW, CPC, Spectrum +3 and PcW16
  • BOLD.UDG: Font in raw .UDG format
  • BOLD.PSF: Font in .PSF format
Chunkee Leaves characters 0-31 blank.
Data 1 Leaves characters 0-31 blank. Character 96 is a second underline rather than a backtick.
Data 2 Another obvious Spectrum conversion — characters 32-45 and 96-126 are unchanged from the Spectrum font. In addition to the JPS monogram and missing characters 250-255 found in several fonts, has a number of other defects:
  • Character 59 appears to be corrupt.
  • Character 60 is ? rather than <
  • Characters 61-63 are Spectrum C D E rather than = > ?
  • Character 64 is a triangle rather than @.
  • Characters 46 (full stop) and 127-129 are missing altogether.
Gothic
Handy 1 Does not define characters 0-31 or 127.
Handy 2 Another Spectrum conversion. Does not define characters 0-31.
Neat 1
Neat 2 This is identical to the standard PCW font, except that it's missing characters 250-255.
Sanserif This is the 8x8 font included in the BIOS ROM of Amstrad PCs from the PC1512 to the PC3086.
Small 1 This is a bold version of the Spectrum font.
Small 2 This is the Spectrum system font itself.
Square
Letafont The 16×8 font used by the Letafont program itself.

Other files

John Elliott 2020-12-20