Screens & compatibility¶

Tesserae renders a dashboard headlessly and pushes the frame over MQTT; a small client on the other end paints your panel. What panel you can drive comes down to which client you flash and which renderer feeds it.

Panel presets¶

Built-in sizes (Settings → Panel). Pick custom for anything not listed, the dimensions are all that matter to the renderer.

Preset	Native resolution	Panel
`inky_13_3`		Inky Impression 13.3", 1600x1200
`inky_7_3`		Inky Impression 7.3", 800x480
`inky_5_7`		Inky Impression 5.7", 600x448
`inky_4`		Inky Impression 4", 640x400
`waveshare_e6_7_5`		Waveshare E6 7.5", 800x480
`waveshare_photopainter_7_3`	S3), 800x480	Waveshare 7.3" PhotoPainter (ESP32
`waveshare_e6_13_3`		Waveshare 13.3" Spectra 6 (ESP32), 1200x1600
`custom`	any (set width + height)	anything the inky / Waveshare path drives

Renderers¶

A renderer turns the composition PNG into the exact bytes a client wants. Each ships as a drop-a-folder plugin under renderers/<id>/.

Renderer	Output	Target client(s)	What it's for
`esp32_bin`	`.bin`	tesserae-esp32-bin-client (13.3" Waveshare) tesserae-photopainter-7.3-bin-client (7.3" PhotoPainter)	Composition PNG packed into the Waveshare E6 4-bpp buffer the ESP32 firmware streams to SPI.
`pi_bin`	`.bin`	tesserae-pi-bin-client	Composition PNG packed into the panel-native 4-bpp buffer the .bin Pi client consumes.
`pi_png`	`.png`	tesserae-pi-png-client	Composition PNG, rotated to the Pi client's landscape-native pixel grid.
`trmnl_png`	`.png`	tesserae-trmnl-client	Composition PNG fitted to the device's panel size, then quantised to 1-bit black/white with the selected dither.

Device kinds¶

The bundled client kinds Tesserae knows how to talk to. A flashed client announces itself on tesserae/<device-id>/status and shows up under Settings → Devices → Discovered. See Install a client and Set up a device.

Device kind	Default panel	Renderers	What it is
`esp32_client`	800×480	`esp32_bin`	Battery-powered ESP32 firmware that subscribes to tesserae/esp32/frame/bin (retained), paints the panel via SPI, and goes back to deep sleep.
`pi_bin_client`	1424×1200	`pi_bin`	Raspberry-Pi-side client that consumes the 4-bpp .bin frame.
`pi_png_client`	1424×1200	`pi_png`	Raspberry-Pi-side client that consumes the PNG frame.
`trmnl_client`	800×480	`trmnl_png`	HTTP-polled e-paper client compatible with the TRMNL BYOS protocol.

What's been tested on real hardware¶

Honest status from the maintainer's own bench. Untested doesn't mean broken, it means nobody's confirmed it yet. Got one working? Open a PR or issue and we'll mark it.

Renderer	Hardware	Status	Notes
`esp32_bin`	Waveshare 13.3" Spectra 6 (ESP32-S3-WROOM-2) + Waveshare 7.3" PhotoPainter (ESP32-S3)	Tested	Primary daily driver, battery-powered, deep-sleep. The 13.3" client lives at tesserae-esp32-bin-client; the 7.3" PhotoPainter client at tesserae-photopainter-7.3-bin-client. Both pair with the same renderer; the panel preset (waveshare_e6_13_3 vs waveshare_photopainter_7_3) selects the firmware-native row stride.
`pi_bin`	Pimoroni Inky Impression (Spectra 6 / Waveshare E6)	Tested	Fastest Pi path, packed buffer written straight to inky's _buf.
`pi_png`	Pimoroni Inky Impression (via inky set_image)	Tested	Works on every inky-supported panel; quantises on the Pi each frame.
`trmnl_png`	Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 (jailbroken) via KOReader trmnl-display plugin	Tested	1-bit greyscale PNG fitted to the panel + dithered server-side. Native TRMNL hardware is supported but not yet confirmed here.