---
description: Website imitating teletext aka *Tekst-TV* featuring schedule
created: 2024-07-07
---

## --> [text-tv.bornhack.node5.net](https://text-tv.bornhack.node5.net/) <--

![Text TV CRT](Text&#32;TV&#32;CRT.png)
![](2025.webp)
![](2024.webp)

## Idea

This years BornHack (2024) will feature an even cooler Pixelflut setup, which inspired me to make something for it.
An important goal was to have something with a low barrier of entry to interact with it.
My first idea involved a keyboard presented at the Pixelflut setup,
allowing one to type messages to be displayed on screen.
Then later i got the idea to make it Text TV themed, this works well with the nerdy culture, and allows me to add a
schedule, and get user interaction through a "news" section.

### Mock up

![Mock up](Mock&#32;up.png)

### Inspiration
 <iframe src="https://www.dr.dk/cgi-bin/fttv1.exe/100" style="border:none;height:490px;width:320px" title="Tekst TV - dr.dk"></iframe>

---

## Renderer coding

### Text rendering in C using pango & cairo

Based on a cairo pixel flut code sample from a fellow hacker, which i could expand to import and image, rather easily, 
and render text, which worked, but it was anti aliased, making it look horible in the small format.

![Anti aliased text](Anti&#32;aliased&#32;text.png)

Top is gimp mock up text,
bottom is pango cairo rendered text

### Turning off anti aliasing

This was annoying, because `cairo_set_antialias(cr, CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE);` didn't work,
it had to be done in pango context.

[Change font rendering (non-antialiased) with pango - stackoverflow.com](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16106659/change-font-rendering-non-antialiased-with-pango#answer-73221211)

An answer in this stack overflow question, mentions that:
*"In C you can turn off anti-aliasing when drawing with Pangocairo like this:"*
```c
cairo_font_options_t *options = cairo_font_options_create();
cairo_font_options_set_antialias(options, CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE);
pango_cairo_context_set_font_options(context, options);
cairo_font_options_destroy(options);
```

Next problem then, is getting the context.

I found out how to do this in: [pango examples cairoshape.c - gitlab.com](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/pango/-/blob/239e030e4f38f0b7b899a8a405437601daf2860d/examples/cairoshape.c#L137)

Using `layout = pango_cairo_create_layout (cr);` and `pango_layout_get_context (layout);`

This means i can now turn off, anti aliasing

Here's a code sample:

```c
  cairo_surface_t *surface;
  cairo_t *cr;

  surface = cairo_image_surface_create_for_data(
    f->image, f->format,
    f->width, f->height, f->stride);
  cr = cairo_create(surface);

  //cairo_scale (cr, 2, 2);
  //cairo_set_antialias(cr, CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE);

  int              w, h;
  cairo_surface_t *image;

  image = cairo_image_surface_create_from_png ("../base.png");
  w = cairo_image_surface_get_width (image);
  h = cairo_image_surface_get_height (image);
  //cairo_translate (cr, 0, 1080 - h);

  cairo_set_source_surface (cr, image, 0, 0);
  cairo_paint (cr);

  // Set up the Pango Cairo context
  PangoLayout *layout = pango_cairo_create_layout(cr);
  PangoFontDescription *font_desc = pango_font_description_from_string("Monospace 7");
  //pango_font_description_set_size(font_desc, 8 * PANGO_SCALE);
  pango_layout_set_font_description(layout, font_desc);
  pango_font_description_free(font_desc);

  // Turn off antialias
  PangoContext *pango_context = pango_layout_get_context (layout);
  cairo_set_antialias(cr, CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE);
  cairo_font_options_t *options = cairo_font_options_create();
  cairo_font_options_set_antialias(options, CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE);
  pango_cairo_context_set_font_options(pango_context, options);
  cairo_font_options_destroy(options);

  // Move
  cairo_translate (cr, 6, 115);

  // Set the text to display
  pango_layout_set_text(layout, "Hello World!", -1);

  // Render the layout
  cairo_set_source_rgb(cr, 1, 1, 1); // Set color to white
  pango_cairo_show_layout(cr, layout);

  // Clean up
  g_object_unref(layout);


  cairo_destroy (cr);
  cairo_surface_destroy(surface);
```

Which renderes non-anti-aliased text

![Anti aliasing turned off](Anti aliasing turned off.png)

Again, top is gimp mock up text,
bottom is pango cairo rendered text

---

So 2024 Bornhack happened, sadly the pixel flut screen died, so i shifted from pixel flut to a website.
Which was featured at the bar in 2024 and in our village in 2025