OpenDesktop / Firefly

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A Chinese bitmap font first released in 2004, reworked from Arphic's open-sourced Fine Shanghai Song and Bulletin Song faces and named after the online handle of its author, Firefly, who drew the bitmap layer (GPL v2). Publication later moved to Taiwan's OpenDesktop project, with the same author at work. It ships in distributions such as Arch and FreeBSD. Catalogued here is the final bitmap release, 1.4.2, in six sizes from 11 to 16px.

Variant size table

Variants Nominal size Han ink box Max ink extents
fireflyR11 11 px 10×10 11×11
fireflyR12 12 px 11×11 12×12
fireflyR13 13 px 12×12 13×13
fireflyR14 14 px 13×13 14×15
fireflyR15 15 px 14×14 15×15
fireflyR16 16 px 15×15 16×16
Presets
Copy dot matrix

Metrics

Nominal size 16 px
Han ink box 15×15
Cap height 13
x-height 9
Max ink extents 16×16
Ascent / Descent 13 / 3
Font bounding box 16, 16, 0, -3
Spacing Monospaced
Advance width distribution 6px×1 8px×187 16px×18435
Nominal box 16×16 Han ink (median) 15×15 Max ink 16×16

Character coverage

Overview

Encoded characters 18,623 / 297,264 6.26%
BMP 18,623 / 62,089 29.99%
Compatibility Ideographs * 438 / 1002 43.71%
Private Use Areas (PUA) · BMP PUA 365 / 6,400 5.70%
Private Use Areas (PUA) · Plane 15 0 / 65,534 0.00%
Private Use Areas (PUA) · Plane 16 0 / 65,534 0.00%

General & international

International Ideographs Core (IICore) 9,429 / 9,810 96.12%
Unihan Core 2020 16,410 / 20,720 79.20%
Windows Glyph List 4 352 / 650 54.15%
Basic Latin 95 / 95 100% ✓ Complete
Latin-1 Supplement 44 / 96 45.83%
Latin Extended-A 8 / 128 6.25%
Latin Extended-B 8 / 208 3.85%
Cyrillic Everyday Characters 66 / 97 68.04%
Greek Everyday Characters 48 / 72 66.67%
Arabic Everyday Characters 0 / 92 0.00%
Thai Everyday Characters 0 / 87 0.00%
Vietnamese Latin 63 / 186 33.87%
IBM Code Page 437 202 / 255 79.22%
Box Drawing 113 / 128 88.28%
Block Elements 18 / 32 56.25%
Powerline Symbols 0 / 41 0.00%
Braille Patterns 0 / 256 0.00%

CJK character map

CJK unified ideographs Unicode 17 16,368 / 101,996
Selected CJK, without duplicates 14,376 / 26,28154.7%
CJK character map Schematic overlaps; areas are not proportional to character counts. Taiwan · Common/Less-common Traditional Han: 11,145 / 11,151; Mainland China · General Simplified Han: 7,475 / 8,105; Japan · JIS X 0208 Level 1: 2,965 / 2,965; Korea · KS X 1001 unified Han: 4,514 / 4,620. Simp Trad Shared: 4,899 / 4,899. Taiwan · Common/Less-common Traditional Han 11,145 / 11,151 99.9% Common 4,808 / 4,808 Mainland China · General Simplified Han 7,475 / 8,105 92.2% Level 1 3,499 / 3,500 Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han Simp Trad Shared 4,899 / 4,899 Japan · JIS X 0208 Level 1 2,965 / 2,965 Korea · KS X 1001 unified Han 4,514 / 4,620 97.7%
Taiwan · Common/Less-common Traditional Han11,145 / 11,151 99.9% Common 4,808 / 4,808
Mainland China · General Simplified Han7,475 / 8,105 92.2% Level 1 3,499 / 3,500
Japan · JIS X 0208 Level 12,965 / 2,965 100%
Korea · KS X 1001 unified Han4,514 / 4,620 97.7%
Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han4,899 / 4,899
Hiragana & Katakana 171 / 171 100% Other kana 69 / 408
Hangul syllables 0 / 11,172 0% KS X 1001 syllables 0 / 2,350
Hangul Jamo, with extensions 0 / 451
Basic Bopomofo 37 / 37 100% Other Bopomofo 0 / 38
Schematic overlaps; areas are not proportional to character counts.
Explore the counts & definitions

The selected CJK total combines the four Han tables, the JIS hiragana and katakana with ー・, Hangul syllables and basic Bopomofo, counting each code point once. Jamo, compatibility Han, other kana and other Bopomofo are listed separately.

“Simp Trad Shared” counts Unicode code points shared by the Simplified and Traditional Han reference sets. Shared code points can still have different regional glyph shapes, for example through OpenType locl; coverage does not imply identical glyphs.

Unicode 17. Counts use exact code points, with no variant-form or compatibility normalization. The Han map includes the 12 unified ideographs in the compatibility block; other compatibility ideographs are listed separately. “Only” means absent from the other three reference sets.

Taiwan: the 4,808 common and 6,343 less-common character tables. Mainland China: the 8,105 standard characters in three levels. Japan: the 2,965 JIS X 0208 Level 1 kanji. Korea: the unified Han subset of KS X 1001. The small lines under Taiwan and Mainland China show the common table (4,808) and Level 1 (3,500), which the Traditional and Simplified Chinese labels are judged on. The kana figure is the 83 hiragana and 86 katakana of JIS X 0208 plus ー and ・; rare, historical, extended and halfwidth kana are listed as other kana. Basic Bopomofo is the 37 letters U+3105–3129; dialect letters and the extended block are listed as other Bopomofo.

Shared & unique characters
Shared & unique charactersCovered / total
Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han 4,899 / 4,899100%
Japanese Kanji ∩ Traditional Han 2,495 / 2,495100%
Japanese Kanji ∩ Simplified Han 1,904 / 1,904100%
Korean Han ∩ Traditional Han 4,294 / 4,294100%
Korean Han ∩ Simplified Han 2,790 / 2,79999.7%
Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han ∩ Japanese Kanji 1,771 / 1,771100%
Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han ∩ Korean Han 2,733 / 2,733100%
Traditional Han ∩ Simplified Han ∩ Japanese Kanji ∩ Korean Han 1,698 / 1,698100%
Traditional Han ∪ Simplified Han 13,721 / 14,35795.6%
Traditional Han ∪ Simplified Han ∪ Japanese Kanji 14,058 / 14,69495.7%
Traditional Han ∪ Simplified Han ∪ Korean Han 13,884 / 14,61795%
Traditional Han ∪ Simplified Han ∪ Japanese Kanji ∪ Korean Han 14,168 / 14,90195.1%
Traditional Han only 4,632 / 4,63899.9%
Simplified Han only 2,407 / 3,02879.5%
Japanese Kanji only 284 / 284100%
Korean Han only 110 / 20753.1%

Reference tables: Unicode 17 · FontPixel

CJK character totals

CJK unified ideographs 16,368 / 101,996 16.05%
Selected CJK, without duplicates 14,376 / 26,281 54.70%

Simplified Chinese · National standards

GB/T 2312 Hanzi 6,763 / 6,763 100% ✓ Complete
GB/T 2312 Level 1 Hanzi 3,755 / 3,755 100% ✓ Complete
GB/T 2312 Level 2 Hanzi 3,008 / 3,008 100% ✓ Complete
GBK Hanzi 16,372 / 20,923 78.25%
GB/T 12345 Traditional Hanzi 6,789 / 6,866 98.88%
GB 18030-2022 Implementation Level 3 16,582 / 88,115 18.82%
GB 18030-2022 Implementation Level 2 16,368 / 27,780 58.92%
GB 18030-2022 Implementation Level 1 16,368 / 27,584 59.34%

Simplified Chinese · Language standards

Table of General Standard Chinese Characters 7,475 / 8,105 92.23%
General Standard Chinese Characters Level 1 3,499 / 3,500 99.97%
General Standard Chinese Characters Level 2 2,927 / 3,000 97.57%
General Standard Chinese Characters Level 3 1,049 / 1,605 65.36%
List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese 3,499 / 3,500 99.97%
Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (2500) 2,500 / 2,500 100% ✓ Complete
Less Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (1000) 999 / 1,000 99.90%
List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese 6,823 / 7,000 97.47%
Compulsory Education Chinese Character List 3,499 / 3,500 99.97%
Standard Glyph Forms for Ancient Book Printing 11,172 / 14,250 78.40%
Kangxi Radicals 214 / 214 100% ✓ Complete
CJK Radicals Supplement 1 / 115 0.87%
Hanyi Simplified & Traditional Set 9,029 / 9,169 98.47%
FounderType Simplified & Traditional Set 9,351 / 9,664 96.76%

Traditional Chinese · Taiwan

Taiwan common and less-common Han (total) 11,145 / 11,151 99.95%
Standard Forms of Common National Characters 4,808 / 4,808 100% ✓ Complete
Standard Forms of Less-Common National Characters 6,337 / 6,343 99.91%
Big5 All Hanzi 13,053 / 13,053 100% ✓ Complete
Big5 Frequently Used Hanzi 5,401 / 5,401 100% ✓ Complete
Big5 Less Frequently Used Hanzi 7,652 / 7,652 100% ✓ Complete
Basic Bopomofo 37 / 37 100% ✓ Complete
Other Bopomofo 0 / 38 0.00%

Traditional Chinese · Hong Kong

List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters 4,758 / 4,762 99.92%
Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set Hanzi 892 / 4,603 19.38%
Hong Kong Supplementary Characters in Common Use 461 / 1,102 41.83%

Japanese

JIS X 0208 Non-Kanji 501 / 524 95.61%
JIS X 0208 Level 1 Kanji 2,965 / 2,965 100% ✓ Complete
JIS X 0208 Level 2 Kanji 3,390 / 3,390 100% ✓ Complete
JIS X 0213 Level 3 Kanji 994 / 1,260 78.89%
JIS X 0213 Level 4 Kanji 1,449 / 2,397 60.45%
Joyo Kanji 2,134 / 2,136 99.91%
Kyoiku Kanji 1,026 / 1,026 100% ✓ Complete
Jinmeiyo Kanji 862 / 864 99.77%
Hiragana & Katakana (JIS X 0208, with ー・) 171 / 171 100% ✓ Complete
Hiragana 83 / 83 100% ✓ Complete
Katakana 86 / 86 100% ✓ Complete
Other kana 69 / 408 16.91%
Other Hiragana and Katakana block characters 6 / 18 33.33%
Kana extensions 0 / 327 0.00%
Halfwidth Katakana 63 / 63 100% ✓ Complete
JIS X 0201 158 / 158 100% ✓ Complete

Korean

Hangul Syllables (All Modern) 0 / 11,172 0.00%
KS X 1001 Hangul Syllables 0 / 2,350 0.00%
KS X 1001 Han (total) 4,782 / 4,888 97.83%
KS X 1001 unified Han 4,514 / 4,620 97.71%
KS X 1001 compatibility Han 268 / 268 100% ✓ Complete
KS X 1001 Symbols 670 / 987 67.88%
Hangul Jamo, with extensions 0 / 451 0.00%
Hangul Compatibility Jamo 0 / 94 0.00%
Hangul Jamo · base block 0 / 256 0.00%
Hangul Jamo extensions A and B 0 / 101 0.00%
Unicode blocks(36)
Basic Latin 95 / 128 74.22%
Latin-1 Supplement 44 / 128 34.38%
Latin Extended-A 8 / 128 6.25%
Latin Extended-B 8 / 208 3.85%
Spacing Modifier Letters 8 / 80 10.00%
Combining Diacritical Marks 1 / 112 0.89%
Greek and Coptic 48 / 134 35.82%
Cyrillic 66 / 256 25.78%
General Punctuation 20 / 111 18.02%
Currency Symbols 1 / 34 2.94%
Letterlike Symbols 6 / 80 7.50%
Number Forms 29 / 60 48.33%
Arrows 8 / 112 7.14%
Mathematical Operators 40 / 256 15.63%
Miscellaneous Technical 1 / 256 0.39%
Enclosed Alphanumerics 138 / 160 86.25%
Box Drawing 113 / 128 88.28%
Block Elements 18 / 32 56.25%
Geometric Shapes 16 / 96 16.67%
Miscellaneous Symbols 21 / 256 8.20%
CJK Radicals Supplement 1 / 115 0.87%
Kangxi Radicals 214 / 214 100%
CJK Symbols and Punctuation 33 / 64 51.56%
Hiragana 83 / 93 89.25%
Katakana 94 / 96 97.92%
Bopomofo 37 / 43 86.05%
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months 12 / 255 4.71%
CJK Compatibility 11 / 256 4.30%
CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A 4 / 6,592 0.06%
Yijing Hexagram Symbols 64 / 64 100%
CJK Unified Ideographs 16,364 / 20,992 77.95%
Private Use Area 365 / 6,400 5.70%
CJK Compatibility Ideographs 438 / 472 92.80%
CJK Compatibility Forms 27 / 32 84.38%
Small Form Variants 25 / 26 96.15%
Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms 162 / 225 72.00%

Glyph overview

Use arrow keys to select a glyph, Enter to inspect it, and Escape to return to the grid.

Downloads

fireflyR11 BDF 393.7 KB PCF 412.7 KB
fireflyR12 BDF 394.2 KB PCF 415.6 KB
fireflyR13 BDF 432.0 KB PCF 444.5 KB
fireflyR14 BDF 468.5 KB PCF 483.6 KB
fireflyR15 BDF 517.0 KB PCF 525.9 KB
fireflyR16 BDF 555.7 KB PCF 564.1 KB
Full family BDF ZIP opendesktop-firefly.zip 2.82 MB
Bitmap TTF opendesktop-firefly.ttf 3.67 MB
Vector TTF (square) opendesktop-firefly-16px-square.ttf 4.51 MB
Vector TTF (round) opendesktop-firefly-16px-round.ttf 11.64 MB
Web font (square) opendesktop-firefly-16px-square.woff2 1.03 MB
Web font (round) opendesktop-firefly-16px-round.woff2 717.7 KB

Files are gzip-compressed; checksums are SHA-256.

One file with every size of this font packed in as bitmap strikes, no vector outlines. Install it and each size is there to use on any system that renders bitmap strikes.

Real outline fonts that draw every lit pixel as a square or a round dot, so they work at any point size. Square keeps the bitmap exactly as drawn; round is the same bitmap read in circles. Only the largest pixel size of each face is offered as a vector font, since outlines scale freely anyway. Faces with very large glyph counts get the square version only.

Use it on a web page

woff2 built from the vector outlines. Set a font size that is a whole multiple of the design size to keep the pixel grid crisp.