using external fonts (.ttf)

Archived
1

I have a Roku XD/S.
I’m trying to use external font(s) for my application.
From what i’ve read, it seems that it should work, but I don’t see the resulting font on display - just using the system font.

Do I have the BrightScript syntax wrong ? Or should it even work ?
Here’s the code snippet:

    reg = CreateObject("roFontRegistry")
    reg.Register("pkg:/fonts/ROCKB.TTF")
    reg.Register("pkg:/fonts/tahoma.ttf")
    reg.Register("pkg:/fonts/tahomabd.ttf")
       
    rockwellFont = reg.Get("Rockwell", 30, true, false)
    tahomaFont = reg.Get("Tahoma", 30, false, false)
    tahomaBold = reg.Get("Tahoma", 20, true, false)

    fonts = reg.GetFamilies()
    print "the fonts are " fonts              ---this is actually showing that i'm using the Rockwell/Tahoma font family.

    m.ItemSKU = {
        Text: "",
        TextAttrs: {
            Font: tahomaBold,
            Color: "#FFFF00 ",
            VAlign: "Middle",
            HAlign: "Center"
        },
        TargetRect: {
            x: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.x,
            y: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.y + 5
            w: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.w,
            h: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.h - 5
        }
    }

Thanks in advance for any suggestions…

Scott

2

This seems like an issue, calling two things with the same name.

tahomaFont = reg.Get("Tahoma", 30, false, false)
    tahomaBold = reg.Get("Tahoma", 20, true, false)

External fonts do work. Maybe creating new reg object for each different font would help, not sure, never used more than one.

3

I have come across similar issues with same names. What I did was get a open-source font editor and rename them
For example name one TahomaReg, and the other TahomaBld. Save them as separate files names accordingly.
You can do a lot with those editors. Remove a lot of junk that you don’t use
reducing the size sometimes by 80%. Just save them as separate copies and load them as if you were loading two different fonts. May be a
better way or something we both are missing, but the fact that I significantly reduced the size of the files is a bigger plus for me

4

On a side note, if you’re planning on publishing the channel publicly, you may want to check the licensing for the fonts you’re using to ensure you’re allowed to distribute them with the channel.

5

ok. thanks all.
i’ll try to rename them using one of the font editors.
i think i read somewhere that the font file needs to be less than 50k ? is that true ?

6

Since it consumes memory, it is recommended that you keep it ( I believe ) < 50 or something close to that. But you will find that if you remove a few things from the “font options” and create another font file from the new settings, you can significantly reduce it, depending upon the type of font and what the options are

7

“TheEndless” wrote:
On a side note, if you’re planning on publishing the channel publicly, you may want to check the licensing for the fonts you’re using to ensure you’re allowed to distribute them with the channel.

Hopefully that is already understood. And when I say change options, just deselect options you will not use in a particular channel, without altering the font face

8

i went back and changed some code:

    reg = CreateObject("roFontRegistry")
    reg.Register("pkg:/fonts/BRITANIC.TTF")
       
    BritBold = reg.Get("Britannic Bold", 20, true, false)

...

   m.ItemSKU = {
        Text: "",
        TextAttrs: {
            Font: BritBold,
            Color: "#FFFF00 ",
            VAlign: "Middle",
            HAlign: "Center"
        },
        TargetRect: {
            x: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.x,
            y: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.y + 5
            w: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.w,
            h: m.ItemSKUBackground.TargetRect.h - 5
        }
    }

and verified the font is 40k. its a basic windows font Britannic Bold.
but the font on the Roku device is still the same basic Roku Font.
And i have done a full factory reset, and resent my channel on the local roku.

any suggestions ?

9

“NewManLiving” wrote:
BritBold = reg.Get(“Britannic Bold”, 20, true, false)

Print the returned string. What does it say. Been awhile since I used the string version

10

This is what was returned:

Britannic Bold,20,-1,5,2,0,0,0,0,0

11

The only thing I can suggest is creating a separate
File for the bold and for the regular.
Name them according to their font name if
You want. Eg britannicbld.ttf. Britannicreg.ttf
The font names in each file should be named
Accordingly I use a hyphen britannica-bold

Then you create a registry for each file
And get your font from the bold or regular
Registry. Actually the real key here may be
Creating separate files an separate
Registries

This is pretty much how I get it. But I use the
RoScreen. So I use getFont. Works for me

12

I inherited this Roku project, I’m a junior level developer, so i’m working with what i’ve got.
The text:“”, goes with the field name m.ItemSKU, which is populated on down in the Roku Script from a JSON call. I imagine i could probably delete the line, but i figured whoever developed this before maybe left it in there to put in test data…maybe…