SwissMicros Calculator Forum

The only option I'd consider is a reverse video option, grey on black background.
No fonts from 42, printer or other: this is a 41!

Dave Britten wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:01 pm

smp wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:55 pm

Before this gets to be too much of a landslide, I'll cast my vote - no, please do not change the font away from the original-looking HP-41 font.

If a change is considered, please make it a selectable option buried somewhere.

smp

Completely agree, don't remove the 41 font! I'd only want optional extras.

Yes, of course.

Again, the proposal is NOT to remove the LCD font but provide an alternate font for easier accessibility. The original LCD "font" was necessitated by the LCD technology of its time. This is no longer the case. While the LCD font is good for nostalgia, if we take nostalgia far enough we would also want the slow speed of the original.

Tanveer

I'd love to cast another vote for optional extra fonts! Don't remove the original, but more to choose from would be really nice.

tanveerg@gmail.com wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 2:15 am

While the LCD font is good for nostalgia, if we take nostalgia far enough we would also want the slow speed of the original.

That's what the SLOW command is there for...

tanveerg@gmail.com wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 2:15 am

The original LCD "font" was necessitated by the LCD technology of its time. This is no longer the case. While the LCD font is good for nostalgia, if we take nostalgia far enough we would also want the slow speed of the original.

This is not entirely correct in several ways. First of all, the speed of computers has advanced with time. But even fonts that are hundreds of years old are sometimes still very modern.

The use of a segment font may be due to the technology, not the font itself. And in contrast to pixel fonts, segment fonts hardly benefit from better displays. Whether you like the font or not is a matter of taste, but it is not out of date.

To choose a segment font may be nostalgia but I don't know of a more suitable font for displaying numbers on a pocket calculator diplay. Regardless of this, the new DM42 font as additionally choose would certainly be an enrichment in the text/program editor.

akaTB wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:12 pm

The only option I'd consider is a reverse video option, grey on black background.
No fonts from 42, printer or other: this is a 41!

+1

i asked for his during the development but apparently there are difficulties to make it happen, a shame...

Just to add another vote, for what it's worth, the old digital watch font is quaint, but I would like something easier on the eye, given the power of the display and all.

And the fact that I am not retired and need to use this thing daily....

First of all: I like the style of the HP-41's original font, but that's not my point here.

The segment display was sharp, had an extremely high resolution and very good contrast. After the HP-41 (and his siblings, e.g. Voyager) it took about 30 years until you could see comparably clean representations on a display again. First we had to go through an absolute low (with pixel displays like the HP-42S or HP-48), then we got first completely unbearable, then usable color diplays. Only with e.g. the iPhone IV (retina display) came back a screen so clean like the HP-41.

In my opinion, softening this feature would destroy much of the appeal of the HP-41. If you accept the technology of a segment display, then the display of the HP-41 is still state-of-the-art in 2021. With the 41 it's just a matter of personal taste, not the quality of the font. With the 42 on the other hand, there was really a need for action.

But the segment display is NOT used on the DM41X; it is an emulation that relies on dots, it is the same 400 x 240 pixels screen used on the DM42.
So you have something that looks a bit like the original HP41 display (with pretty big differences, since it shows two lines instead of one, and keeps half of the real estate of that screen for alarms, memory status and the like -- in a easier on the eye format).
The emulated HP41 font only 'advantage' is an air of nostalgia, and that is done at the expense of enhanced readability and usability; skeuomorphism plain and simple.
To be perfectly honest, one of the main reason I haven't bought a DM41X yet is the lack of an adjustable font -- the other is that I am waiting to see what Swiss Micros will come up with next, and if it turns out to be a DM41+ (or whatever they want to call it) that might be a DM41X but with adjustable fonts among other enhancements (or better yet, a DM48; one can always hope), that is what I would get instead.
I already have a DM41, and the display on that one does not try to emulate the 14 segments of the original HP41.