Gifs vs. Custom Characters

Crystalmancer

New member
I was wondering if there are any advantages using gifs over making the custom characters in the CC2 panel, other than it's a little easier to work with a "whole picture" in a gif than the "sectioned" custom characters.

Right off the bat, it seems that the gifs are a little more limited in size than the custom characters, so that's a small minus for gifs. But other than that, do the gifs load more quickly or slowly or is there even any significant diference? Do gifs somehow free up resources for the module? Will too many custom characters bog down the screens?

I can go either way, I was just wondering

Thanx all.

Crystalmancer
Looking for additional LCD resources? Check out our LCD blog for the latest developments in LCD technology.
 

jc634

Administrator
Gifs and custom characters have the same limitations size-wise. If you have a gif editor and animated gif editor, that is the way to go. If not, use custom characters.

Edit: BTW, the biggest advantage of gifs is transportability. Create 1 gif and you can use it in a hundred different screens
 
Last edited:

Crystalmancer

New member
Gifs and custom characters have the same limitations size-wise. If you have a gif editor and animated gif editor, that is the way to go. If not, use custom characters.
Thanx JC

However, could you kindly elaborate just a bit more on why you say "gifs are the way to go"? I'm the kind of person that retains information better if I understand the "why" of things.

If the explanation is beyond the scope of a brief explanation, then that's cool.

Crystalmancer
 

jc634

Administrator
Thanx JC

However, could you kindly elaborate just a bit more on why you say "gifs are the way to go"? I'm the kind of person that retains information better if I understand the "why" of things.

If the explanation is beyond the scope of a brief explanation, then that's cool.

Crystalmancer
Well, if you want to use it in more than 1 screen, gifs is the only way to go. You can "write" a screen file for custom characters to use in multiple places, but is a little difficult to do it this. If you use the GUI to create CC's, you have to repeat the creation of the CC for each screen you create.

When I create animated gifs, I start with the "full" gif and modify this one for each animation. Again, much more difficult with CC's.
 

Crystalmancer

New member
Well, if you want to use it in more than 1 screen, gifs is the only way to go. You can "write" a screen file for custom characters to use in multiple places, but is a little difficult to do it this. If you use the GUI to create CC's, you have to repeat the creation of the CC for each screen you create.

When I create animated gifs, I start with the "full" gif and modify this one for each animation. Again, much more difficult with CC's.

Well, that was obvious. So, obviously, it escaped me... LOL.

Good call. Gifs it is.

The CC2 Programming Guide ROCKS, by the way. Very helpful. But I did have one question: One of the gif dimensions is "18x24"... Now, unless I'm having another alzheimers moment, isn't that a 3x3 character grid??? (3x6=18w and 3x8=24h). I do have the 10/24/05 version of the guide (the other zip file will not open for me, using 3 different decompressors), so maybe it was a typo that's been fixed.

Thanx

Crystalmancer
 
Last edited:
Top