Purposefully retro low-res / 8-bit music font (SmuFL)?

[wing]

For an art/film project, I am looking to reference the scores of early software in the 80s: Commodore, Amiga, Music Construction Set, etc.

Some reference images of the aesthetic I am looking for:

I’m aware this need would be quite niche. I read some of the forum posts from @benwiggy and others regarding DIY SmuFL fonts and using Font Forge, but I’m wondering if there is a way to “pixellate” a newer font to get me in that wheelhouse more easily? Or if there is some old font which I could convert over to SmuFL etc?

Or is this a completely insane undertaking with little reward?

[judddanby]

@wing

Or is this a completely insane undertaking with little reward?

Just don’t byte off more than you can nibble.

[wing]

@judddanby

Just don’t byte off more than you can nibble.

Story of my life…

[meixner]

Just for fun, I just exported a slice from Dorico as PNG 72 dpi (Layout Options: Space Size 3mm):

[wing]

OMG that will be wayyyyyyy easier and accomplishes my goal perfectly. Clever solution, thank you!

[meixner]

Here is the example from your photo.
I “refined” it by chosing a different font and and doing this:

Then I thickened stems, barlines and staff lines to 3/8, so they don’t disappear.
Then exported as PNG 72 dpi. You have to play a bit with staff sizes to get the best blockyness. I remember how we all installed “Adobe Type Manager” to get rid of this, in the dark days …

Don’t say, Dorico is not flexible

[jesele]

Wonderful.

Jesper

[meixner]

Hehe …

[wing]

Haha it’s fun right? I love it. I was only a child in the 80s but I have early memories of music software on our family’s Commodore 64… ahhh the nostalgia of printing scores out on a dot matrix printer which took all day, the sound and the perforated paper… really takes me back lol. Thanks for the extra tips!

[meixner]

Yes, this one was real fun

In the 80s I (*1962) was a young student at music university, and looked for ways to produce better notes … Letraset, then – when it became affordable – a Mac LC and Finale 2.0 …

8bit Dorico.dorico (505.1 KB)