Adding Hebrew fonts - G1 Android Development

One of the things that frustrated me most on my T-Mobile Dash was the luck of Hebrew support. I was hoping that the G1 will have the ability to support Hebrew out of the box but I guess that wasn't a real priority and I don't see this added soon.
Anybody knows how difficult should it be to add Hebrew fonts so that I'll be able to watch Hebrew on the G1. Of course, this means that I'll need right to left support for text as well.

I am looking for this too. I will messege you if I find something.

Bradley1865 said:
I am looking for this too. I will messege you if I find something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually got a great responsen from someone at the Android Community forum who is working on this. It appears that the SDK has hebrew font and it just a matter of putting them on the phone.

I'd like to use Lithuanian fonts on my G1. It would be great if there was a tutorial on how to modify keyboard.

Hebrew....
bash-3.2# ../adb remount
remount succeeded
bash-3.2# ../adb push /Library/Fonts/Tahoma.ttf /system/fonts/DroidSans.ttf
985 KB/s (681120 bytes in 0.674s)
bash-3.2# ../adb push /Library/Fonts/Tahoma\ Bold.ttf
/system/fonts/DroidSans-Bold.ttf
819 KB/s (626928 bytes in 0.746s)
bash-3.2#
Reboot - G1.

Tahoma, really?
I'm using the DejaVu fonts myself - kinda look like the android ones and are approximately the same size
anyways, if anybody wants, i made a jfv 1.3 version with the fonts already installed (with DejaVu fonts)
by the way, i'm also in contact with the company that made the fonts and a person in google trying to get a version of the droid sans that has the hebrew in it, i'll keep you posted
also, i'm in contact with a person called 'worry' in this forum who has created a russian keyboard - which i can make into a hebrew keyboard, however, right now, it is impossible to switch between them...
after cupcake it might be easier
this is the jfv 1.3 with hebrew
http://rapidshare.com/files/179198030/JFv1.3_RC30_WHeb_Signed.zip
to install it, just follow the instructions on this forum for installing jfv or if you need hebrew instructions, let me know.
--
Peace

Elad,
I've used your RC30 (thanks!) and the fonts worked. However, one of the fonts (I think it's just DroidSans.ttf) makes the contacts list look wrong (the letters look like this: contac
ts
And the browser is kinda weird as well, certain pages appear funny.
I tried using other fonts (Tahoma off my ubuntu machine), but it just screws up the screen.
Do you know what I can do?
Thanks....

Hey Yochai,
You can try using Dejavu-Fonts v2.28. I am using them right now and almost everything is looking fine (only the "Favorites" word doesnt look good).
Dejavu have some versions of fonts I used the "condensed" fonts but I think they also have "light" fonts which should be ok.
If you want to try my version its RC30 v1.31 and with the Dejavu-Fonts, its here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/180440296/Update.RC30.v1.31.Heb.DejaVu.by.Zrubi.zip

Thanks!
I have a question though... are there no font packs that read hebrew and display everything correctly? At the moment I get weird browser display issues with dejavu....
Also, sometimes when I try to add the fonts manually, as in through
adb push FONT /system/fonts
a few will work but eventually it will say "no space left on device"
Why is this?

I don't really know why do u have those errors.
I use the same fonts and its working just fine but I didn't upload the fonts with adb push, I used an update zip file that already include those fonts.

zrubi said:
I don't really know why do u have those errors.
I use the same fonts and its working just fine but I didn't upload the fonts with adb push, I used an update zip file that already include those fonts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I have no issues at all.

I also had this problem with the fonts not fitting in /system. I ended pushing them to /data/local/fonts instead, remounting /system rw, renaming /system/fonts to /system/fonts.orig and creating a symlink from /data/local/fonts to /system/fonts.

mod1 said:
I also had this problem with the fonts not fitting in /system. I ended pushing them to /data/local/fonts instead, remounting /system rw, renaming /system/fonts to /system/fonts.orig and creating a symlink from /data/local/fonts to /system/fonts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt it should be an issue in JFv1.3. There should be at least 3.5mb of space available in system.
Keep in mind if you try to delete or replace a file that is currently in use, it will cause that disk space to be lost. The only way to get it back is to reformat /system (i.e. by re-installing the update.zip).
If you are messing with system files, it is much better to go into recovery mode, open an adb shell, and replace or delete them from there.

Oh, that explains it. I thought it behaves the standard way, with the inode refcount dropping but the file occupying the space temporarily until the last process that holds it dies and refcount drops to zeros. I simply replaced the files and rebooted to make all processes close the deleted files.
If the space in this filesystem is not freed when refcount drops to zero implicitly (not through unlink), then of course we're losing that space since many processes hold the old fonts while they're being deleted. Next time I'll do it through recovery, now that recovery has a shell.
btw, any idea why the filesystem behaves unposixly in that manner?
Thanks!

mod1 said:
btw, any idea why the filesystem behaves unposixly in that manner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet. It's on the "long list" of stuff I want to look into

anyone find a font combo that looks perfect everywhere? thanks

Hebrew for 1.41
Hi there Zrubi or whoever is into this
Now that the JF1.41 is out, any body feel like making the Hebrew adjustment with that version too ? so we can have all new benefits and Hebrew as well ?
thanks

Hebrew supporting Droid font mix
Hi,
For those interested, I did a "mix" of the original Droid font from Google and the Hebrew glyphs from the DejaVu font.
The result is a regular Droid font (so everything looks normal), that also displays Hebrew.
IANAL, but from my understanding the license for the two fonts are compatible, so I've put the file for download on my web site here (it's in Hebrew, but would you need hebrew fonts if you can't read hebrew? anyway )
Android Hebrew fonts
For those wondering how I did it and/or want to do the same for a difference language, it's quite easy - grab the original Droid fonts, grab a font that has the glyphs (letters) you need and use the free and open source FontForge program to cut & paste the glyphs from the font in your language into Droid. Just make sure the letter height are similar so the result will be good.
Cheers,
Gilad

hi guys, i already did a guide on installing hebrew,
i have it on my phone
it is covered in this post

Not a guide, a better font
superxnova said:
hi guys, i already did a guide on installing hebrew,
i have it on my phone
it is covered in this post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey superxnova, you missed the point - what I posted is not a guide to installing Hebrew (I saw yours and it is excellent).
What I posted is a version of the original Droid font that comes with Android that I added Hebrew glyphs (letters) to, so you get to see the original font in English text but also see Hebrew letters where there is hebrew.
Gilad

Related

easy way to change font??

Hi,
I've been looking for an easy way to change the font on my TP.
I've tried someones cab file which works, but then I can only use the font supplied in the CAB.
Someone else suggested copying the new ttf over the existing one and renaming it..
eg, new font is red.ttf, rename to tahoma.ttf and copy over existing tahoma.ttf
but, in my windows/font folder I don't have tahoma!!
maybe this is a result of a theme I installed (the font in the font foler is nyama or something)
so, what is the quickest and easiet way to change system font?
thanks
Use this tool ,it works for me
but this app only has 3-4 fonts in it...I want to be able to add any font I like. is there a way to do that?
can I add fonts to this app and therefore make them selectable?
twisted-pixel said:
but this app only has 3-4 fonts in it...I want to be able to add any font I like. is there a way to do that?
can I add fonts to this app and therefore make them selectable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok..I found out that if you add fonts to the windows font folder then they appear in the drop down as selectable with this app..
however...I can't change the system font (I say system font, but I mean the main one, that is displayed on the now page in SPB MS etc. it stays as tahoma...and what's even more interesting is that I can't find the tahoma font anywhere on the device!! (I was going to copy over this with my new font)
so...has anyone got any other ideas about how to change the font on the TP?
As you can see here I've changed my font for the entire device (you might not see that it's for the entire device but it is) the rest of what I know is in that post, cheers
I seem to recall that Tweaks 2K2.NET allowed you to change fonts as well (via the registry) but be prepared for disproportionate buttons and dialogs which may flow off the screen.
Did you want to change the fonts as a user pref thing or is it in order to increase their size and make them easier to read?
just a user preference thing. I find the tahoma font quite boring. Tweaks2k2 does allow you to change fonts but again, not the main one.
I can't quite understand it. you can change the one in the drop down menus, the dialogue boxes etc but the main one (for sms or emails for example) stays the same.
Pixel, I could've sworn that I did this on my wife's PPC.
Using Tweaks2K2.NET, you can change the system font and size.
The only caveat is that you have to have the font installed to your PPC's \Windows\Fonts folder first.
Wait a sec. Lemme g00gle this...
--------
K, back.
Check out this: http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/24/changing_your_system_font
And this: http://www.multicellphone.com/change-windows-mobile-5-6-system-font/
I'm sorry if this doesn't help. I might not be understanding what you are trying to do.
Take care!
thanks for your efforts. I had to hard reset my device last night after weeks of happy life. so I'm going to get round to changing the font with the methods as indicated as soon as I've finished all my other config work that is required.

What fonts are used where?

I've just been messing with the fonts on my phone, and so far I've found some pretty cool ones to use (custom 3rd party fonts I've downloaded). The only thing is, some of them are decorative and will look HORRIBLE if they're used in the browser as the default text. Does anyone know specifically what filename is used by the browser? Thanks!
I can't even get that far!
Everytime I try to change one of the default .ttf's my phone locks up on the HTC logo. I just replaced one of the fonts (droidsans.ttf) with my custom font renamed to droidsans.ttf and it locks up.
If I can get past that part I would narrow down what fonts do what.
mrinehart93 said:
I've just been messing with the fonts on my phone, and so far I've found some pretty cool ones to use (custom 3rd party fonts I've downloaded). The only thing is, some of them are decorative and will look HORRIBLE if they're used in the browser as the default text. Does anyone know specifically what filename is used by the browser? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DroidSans and DroidSans-Bold are the two fonts for the entire system, they are universal (Correct me if I'm worng)... meaning, every application, menu, and even the keyboard uses those fonts. However... there might be a way to change the font via the browser.apk or maybe by doing an .xml edit, neither of which I've done. But that's what I'd look in to.
poor_red_neck said:
I can't even get that far!
Everytime I try to change one of the default .ttf's my phone locks up on the HTC logo. I just replaced one of the fonts (droidsans.ttf) with my custom font renamed to droidsans.ttf and it locks up.
If I can get past that part I would narrow down what fonts do what.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More info would be best.
Are you pushing these fonts (via adb)?
Are you flashing these fonts (via update.zip?)
Also, make sure you include BOTH DroidSans.ttf AND DroidSans-Bold.ttf when you rename your custom fonts. This means that the fonts you find have to be in pairs, one regular and the other in bold.
Secondly, notice the way the font name is spelled... Linux is CASE-sensitive. So droidsans != DroidSans.

[Q] Adding additional fonts

I get squares sometimes when i check a website or run an application that contains non latin or API fonts. I really REALLY hate square and i wonder if it's possible to fix thisby adding additional ttf fonts to the /system/fonts/
whould that also affect my phone overall preformance?
I'm using 2.1 on Galaxy S
It will only read one font file. You have to use a better font (more complete).
evilkorn said:
It will only read one font file. You have to use a better font (more complete).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so...
Any suggestions please.

Swype DIY Themes + Vector Templates

Alright, so we all love swype, and with the developers not wanting to share means you cannot load a theme'd apk file, this seems like the next best route, teach you how to make your own and gives the tools to make it easy!
I am not distributing Swype here, so plz don't ask, this is how to theme your current Swype set up.
Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at themes, and since im just offering my work for freeeee, don't give me crap if I overlook'd something just politely inform me and I'll do what I can. Also I only have my Droid X for testing so its kinda on you if your keyboard is not similar to mine for now. Also, im not even going to attempt to water mark this or put some symbol to show I made it since I'm giving you the files you could just remove it anyway plus they are annoying to look at, so plz just dont take credit for my work.
So first things first, to ensure this post is quick and to the point you will need to already have a few things up and running,
Currently I use keyboard manager so portrait orientation is Swype, and landscape is multi-touch since its too wide to be efficient with swype, therefore; I only created templates for portait swype so far, sorry.
ADB
WinRar(for exploring apk)
Adobe Illustrator version CS 1 and up (for editing templates)
Adobe Photoshop (for resizing keyboard images)
Side Note: Other programs will work, and other methods work, these are just tried and proven so your on your own or at least quite possibly beyond the realm of my help by using different editors.
Step 1:
ADB pull the Swype.apk file from system/app
Step 2:
Back up said Swype.apk file to ensure you can revert to stock
Step 3:
Open apk and extract "assets" folder to an easily accessible location with WinRar
Step 4:
Download 4 Illustrator Templates attatched
Step 5:
Edit templates as you see fit (font, size, color, button color, background color, GO CRAZY!)
Step 6:
From Illustrator export as .png file (make sure to keep the same file names!)
Step 7:
In Photoshop, resize images to same size as the stock ones in the folder /assets/keyboards, (480 x 320 for Droid X but you should check yours to make sure)
Step 8:
Place your newly made and sized .png files into the previously mentioned /assets/keyboards folder overwriting existing. You can make other changes here, I was focusing on the keyboards here because they are the most tedious to change but go ahead, Run Amok. "Amok Amok Amok Amok" yeahh line from the movie "Hocus Pocus" ANYWAY
Step 9:
re inject Assets folder into Swype.apk overwriting old, (i usually delete Assets, then inject to ensure overwrite)
Step 10:
ADB push back to phone and switch input method back to Swype
Step 11:
Show off your newly customized keyboard!
Step 12:
Post your .png files to help the community and show off what you did!
Alternate Lazy Way: Sit around wait for a cool keyboard to be posted and leach, simply inject someones .png files into your Swype.apk
Daves Dark Theme 1
Alright so here is the .png files for my first theme, just to get the ball rolling. Lets see what you got!
HOLY SHYTE I was planning to create AI files for this and Launcher Pro Icons, this will save some time
Any chance you have LP Icons in vector format too?
Dude.
Thanks for providing .AI files, what a great contribution! I was going to take the stock png's and photoshop them. This is much cleaner!
You don't have full-width .AI's laying around do you?
Morkai
sorry I just started making themes last night, so I don't have any Icon files lying around. Although, in the newer versions of Illustrator you can use "live trace" to make vector formats from raster images.
Jeftep
You're asking about the landscape aspect ratio keyboard right? Currently I didn't make it yet if I do landscape it will be for the stock multi-touch keyboard first then maybe id get around to swype. The keys are just too spaced out to be efficient to use with 1 finger.
And yes, thats exactly where I started too, "well lemme just see what I can do with photoshop.... awww screww it Fresh Start in illustrator"
So sorry thats a no to both questions, but come on, I just started.
SharkBaitDave said:
Morkai
sorry I just started making themes last night, so I don't have any Icon files lying around. Although, in the newer versions of Illustrator you can use "live trace" to make vector formats from raster images.
Jeftep
You're asking about the landscape aspect ratio keyboard right? Currently I didn't make it yet if I do landscape it will be for the stock multi-touch keyboard first then maybe id get around to swype. The keys are just too spaced out to be efficient to use with 1 finger.
And yes, thats exactly where I started too, "well lemme just see what I can do with photoshop.... awww screww it Fresh Start in illustrator"
So sorry thats a no to both questions, but come on, I just started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying you can use one keyboard portrait and the other Landscape? Please say you are.. and do tell how!!
Morkai Almandragon said:
Are you saying you can use one keyboard portrait and the other Landscape? Please say you are.. and do tell how!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yepp! and its Amazing!!!
http://getandroidstuff.com/download-keyboard-manager-android-dual-keyboard-switch-portraitlandscape/
Batman Theme
Thinking about Batman Theme'ng out my phone, I'm not sure what the keyboard needs, but its not quite there yet...
SharkBaitDave said:
Alright, so we all love swype, and with the developers not wanting to share means you cannot load a theme'd apk file, .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.......?
Ummm.. I have always shared how to theme with whom ever has asked.. plus all mine are simple to load... some swypes are custom to certain themes, and in those cases the dev's aren't going to spend time explaining how to do each part.
Not trying to bash, just stating a point.
As many know i have made quite a few swype themes(check sig), and many custom order for other devices who "technically" arent supposed to have swype.
If anyone needs help modding the tracer, or if you run into the "amp&" issue when playing with any other KB's i will be happy to help.
Good work btw, all the extra people theming makes more stuff avail, never anything wrong with that.
Swype C&D
Alright thats my fault, I meant the developers of Swype, not the XDA community.
http://www.xda-developers.com/announcements/xda-notice-swype/
this is what I was talking about with not really being able to share swype on the forum in an installable format. I was just trying to show a new way we can still all share themes while keeping the forum out of the firing range of C&D letters or worse.
While I'm certainly not claiming this to be a breakthrough in any means as its simply another way we can continue to share themes for this great app. I definitely agree there is a better way to install than this run around...
Have you modified the tracer for version 1.64.40.9380? I found a few forums that showed how to do it, but only in the newer versions and not droid X. Is libSwypecore.so different by Swype version? manufacturer?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=801770
Says to modify 5b410, 5b411, and 5b412 for Blue, Green, Red but it doesn't seem to change the color after I push it back to the phone. I got a newer version, but it was configured for 800x480 not our screen and repeadly threw errors.
Thanks
ahh, agreed. The creators are definitly unfriendly towards devs.
you are correct on the file to edit for the tracer. If you open up an unmodified .so file and search for the string "dda25bff" that is the hex color part. Since its in hex its backwards. The proper color code would be ffb52add. So say you wanted to make the color black = ff000000. You would type it in reverse 000000ff.
Only change that string and you should be good.
Tracer Edit worked like a charm, thanks.
Sketch theme
just found an new ADW theme and wanted a sketchey/hand drawn style KB
how do i complete step 4? where are the 4 Illustrator Templates attatched?

Fonts for Android

Been looking to change my system fonts for my Samsung Fascinate. After some research I figured out how to do it, but I ran into a problem. Most fonts are missing spaces that the Android OS relies on. If these spaces are missing you end up with ugly boxes in some areas, particularly in the app drawer. I found the fix for this issue when I stumbled on this url. I verified that the font I am using is indeed missing the character spaces mentioned there and they do exist in the fonts that come on my phone. All I need to do is add them.
http://blog.piratemedia.tv/2010-08-06-the-balad-of-the-crazy-boxes-android-fonts/
Here is my question. How are people editing existing fonts for use with Android? I tried using FontCreator but it is only a eval and will not let me save me changes. I can't afford to purchase this program so thats a no go.
Can a custom app be created to add the entries listed in the above url if they are missing since this seems to be a common issue and would allow much more user creativity?
Fonts are a very big deal when someone is looking to customize their phone and I have seen very little info on these subjects. Was hoping to find a few more answers and maybe help some other people in the process.
If anyone is wondering what I am doing that prompted me to ask this here the thread is below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=924213
Bueller? Bueller?
I find it hard to believe that not a single person in the Android community can help.
I am interested in this topic as well Holliday. I haven't come across much help. It sounds like others have altered the fonts as you mention:
I was having the same problem. My font was not working in android either but I needed it to work. Using a font editor, I copied the characters from my font into the font that comes with the FontSampler example from Android-src-2_1. It worked perfectly.
While I will admit that my method was questionable from an intellectual property point of view, I didn't actually wind up using the original font, as all of the characters were replaced and all references to the old font where replaced as well. I had tried 'looking' at the way the two fonts were defined but making all the font variables match didn't work either. So in the ned, I used a skeleton of the original font as a template for the new font
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1426244/use-external-fonts-in-android
No mention of the application that they used however. Will continue to follow this thread for any recommendations from others and post if I find anything.
like the quote said, editing fonts is a bit questionable, since you're making changes to someones copyrighted material. There are a number of font editors out there, but they're all for commercial use I belive, and even the ones that aren't are still pretty expensive.
Your best bet is to keep trying new fonts until you find one that doesn't have those issues, or at least has a large enough character set so it's not noticible. Check out my font thread (link's in my sig). You should be able to find something usable - I have over 250 fonts packaged up with screenshots, ready to be flashed.
fachadick said:
I have over 250 fonts packaged up with screenshots, ready to be flashed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic collection. Thanks!

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