No descender in text

SmartMatrix Shield
1

I’m scrolling text on a custom 16x32 display using 5x7 font. The display is fine except it does not display the descender for the “y” in Merry Christmas. The same thing happens on an Adafruit 16x32 display using a Teensy 3.2 with the SmartMatrix shield. Here’s the relevant code:
`void MerryScroll()
{ backgroundLayer.fillScreen({black});
backgroundLayer.swapBuffers();
scrollingLayer1.setColor({0xff, 0x00, 0x00});
scrollingLayer1.setMode(wrapForward);
scrollingLayer1.setSpeed(10);
scrollingLayer1.setOffsetFromTop(2);
scrollingLayer1.setFont(font5x7);//option 3x5, 5x7, 6x10
scrollingLayer1.start(“Merry Christmas”, 1);
delay(10000);
}
It displays okay with 3x5 font. If I move the 5x7 up to the top, the descender still does not work, yet is on the top 8 rows Is this a font issue, ie a problem with the “y” in that size? How do I fix?

Oh, and when I try 6x10, I only get the first 5 rows. There’s a pattern there.

2

I ran the FeatureDemo example modified like so and I see clear “y” characters on all fonts:

#if (DEMO_SCROLL_FONTS == 1)
    {
        scrollingLayer.setColor({0xff, 0xff, 0xff});
        scrollingLayer.setMode(wrapForward);
        scrollingLayer.setSpeed(40);
        scrollingLayer.setOffsetFromTop(1);

        scrollingLayer.setFont(font3x5);
        scrollingLayer.start("Merry Christmas", 1);
        while (scrollingLayer.getStatus());

        scrollingLayer.setFont(font5x7);
        scrollingLayer.start("Merry Christmas", 1);
        while (scrollingLayer.getStatus());

        scrollingLayer.setFont(font6x10);
        scrollingLayer.start("Merry Christmas", 1);
        while (scrollingLayer.getStatus());

        scrollingLayer.setFont(font8x13);
        scrollingLayer.start("Merry Christmas", 1);
        while (scrollingLayer.getStatus());

        scrollingLayer.setOffsetFromTop(defaultScrollOffset);
    }
#endif

I tried calling MerryScroll at the end of setup and the y looks fine. There’s not really descenders on these small fixed spacing fonts, this is how it’s supposed to look like:

compare to the ‘z’, it’s just one pixel below the line

3

Bob emailed me directly, the solution was to allocate more memory for the GFX scrolling layer so it had enough pixels to render the bottom rows

4

Yes, sorry when I responded to email I thought it would be posted in the forum. Some forums work that way.
My “solution” also answered the question why the 6x10 fonts were cut off half way through. It was my error that I misplaced the code that was provided by Pixelmatix.
All okay now.

5

Glad you got it working, no worries on emailing thinking it would respond, I’ve done that too.