Show HN: E-Paper Family 2 Day Calendar

#1

Post by gabeiscoding » Mon, Sep 01, 2025, 3:55 PM UTC

Hi HN, I did this project over the Labor Day weekend.

My family runs off our shared Google Calendar. This project was to use a ESP32 and three-color e-ink display to create a wall-mounted daily updated calendar, weather and news dashboard for us to coordinate our lives.

Show HN: E-Paper Family 2 Day Calendar
github.com

Re: Show HN: E-Paper Family 2 Day Calendar

#2

Post by gabeiscoding » Mon, Sep 01, 2025, 4:16 PM UTC

Feel free to ask me any questions. I put enough documentation in here to make this an easy to copy with your own hardware.

Re: Show HN: E-Paper Family 2 Day Calendar

#3

Post by gabeiscoding » Mon, Sep 01, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

I sunk a lot of time trying to get perfect 1-bit font rendering running under Docker (Debian Linux), but could not get it match the precision of the Mac default Arial font rendering.

I have a side-by-side rasterized image showing the difference here:

https://github.com/gaberudy/epaper-calendar/blob/main/docs/f...

Linux insists on doing some freetype font thickening, giving the output a random thick-line look. If anyone knows more tricks to disable this or influence the anti-alias font rendering behavior, let me know!