ArSpr

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ArSpr

by AlexClay

Cart #ar_spr-0 | 2019-08-21 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

3

ArSpr is a set of 2 utility functions that let’s you write Arabic text in Pico8. You input a Latin text and it will transliterate it to Arabic. I made it because I want to make localized Pico8 games, and to practice writing my own implementation for Right-to-Left text and Arabic Shaping.

ArSpr’s specifications:

2 sprites
510 out of 8192 tokens
~30% of compressed space
No dropped frames when filling the screen

Usage is easy, but slightly different from the regular Print() function in Pico8; you have to initialize a variable to contain the text data then draw it. Here’s an example:

function _init()
  text1=create_ar_spr([string])
end

function _draw()
  cls()
  draw_ar(text1, [x], [y])
end

You can read how the font is encoded in this blogpost.

This project was inspired by TinyText which uses a similar method, but my cart is written from scratch and has an Arabic Shaper that's not in TinyText.