Installing Fonts

[shashivrat]

Hi,
I would like to display Japanese|Chinese
| Korean | etc. text within an application based on user selection of
language.

I'm in search of Asian Fonts for my PocketPC
iPAQ Model ID: hpiPAQ hw6510a,
OS Version 4.21 .
I tried downloading the following fonts:
Microsoft MingLiU true type font
Microsoft MS Song true type font
from the site
http://www.declan-software.com/chinese_ppc/mssong_ppc.htm.
http://www.declan-software.com/chinese_ppc/mingliu_ppc.htm

I got a msg "This software is made for an older version of Windows
Mobile and hence it may not work as desired...".

And so even though the fonts got installed on the PocketPC the fonts
did not have the desired effect on my Chinese| Japanese text files.

The steps that were followed to install the above fonts:
1) Download the font.
2) Copy it on the DEVICE into the folder Windows/Fonts

Where am I going wrong with the font installation?
What are the other steps needed for a successful installation of fonts
on the PocketPC ?
Is there an Asian language pack that comes with WinCE 4.21 (Windows
Mobile 2003) ?

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

Just *having* a font doesn't do anything. You have to use it when
displaying text to have the text appear different.

Paul T.

 

[Markus Humm]

Hello,

I've got a related problem to that as well.
I've some application which also tries to display far east chars, on
chinese PDAs or emulators it works but not on european ones.

I already tried to copy over the fonts from the emulator, but I didn't
find any or the fonts I found and copied over didn't change anything in
the display. Since I copied over all of them I thought one of them must
be used because my european PDA doesn't have more fonts anyway.

Where does it hide fonts? And how to properly display russian e-mails on
WM2003? Russian chars can be displayed and there is also a setting for
the charset to be used, but it always reverts back to ISO885x... but not
russian or any other language anyway. Why is this?

Greetings

Markus

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

Copying fonts does *nothing* to what shows on the display, unless you tell
the displaying application to use the new fonts instead of whatever other
fonts it was using before! You can't copy font files over the top of
existing fonts, either; it should be obvious that they're in use.

Fonts can be found in the \Windows folder or \Windows\Fonts. As with most
files in \Windows, they may be marked hidden. Use the Remote File Viewer,
not the File Explorer on the device, to look for them.

There are several things that you may have to look at if you want
applications you did not write to do the display of language characters for
which they were not designed and what you can do will depend on how the OS
running on the device was built. If it's running MUI, you can look at MUI
Font Linking in the Platform Builder/Windows CE help. If not, you'll
probably have to change the application font to one that includes both the
Western European characters and the characters in your target writing
system. This would be done via the registry. Note that this is not an easy
task and you should expect to spend from a few weeks to a few months trying
to make it work.

If you wrote the application you want to have display the other characters,
simply write it so that it uses a font that contains the right glyphs; no
big deal.

Paul T.

 

[Markus Humm]

Hello,

Copying fonts does *nothing* to what shows on the display, unless you tell
the displaying application to use the new fonts instead of whatever other
fonts it was using before! You can't copy font files over the top of
existing fonts, either; it should be obvious that they're in use.

okay, I simply thought it would use those stored on flash memory after
the next reboot. It didn't say they're in use while copying, but if the
explorer on this device can't properly see them it might explain it.

Fonts can be found in the \Windows folder or \Windows\Fonts. As with most
files in \Windows, they may be marked hidden. Use the Remote File Viewer,
not the File Explorer on the device, to look for them.

There are several things that you may have to look at if you want
applications you did not write to do the display of language characters for
which they were not designed and what you can do will depend on how the OS
running on the device was built. If it's running MUI, you can look at MUI
Font Linking in the Platform Builder/Windows CE help. If not, you'll
probably have to change the application font to one that includes both the
Western European characters and the characters in your target writing
system. This would be done via the registry. Note that this is not an easy
task and you should expect to spend from a few weeks to a few months trying
to make it work.

How would this registry change work? This would mean that every .NET
app. would store the font used in the registry, am I right? Otherwise it
would be sheer coincidence that the app. used would do so.

If you wrote the application you want to have display the other characters,
simply write it so that it uses a font that contains the right glyphs; no
big deal.

Ok.

Greetings

Markus

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

It may, but it doesn't go looking around for what font to use. Think about
Word on the desktop. It has a default font that new documents use,
initially. It doesn't randomly change the font when you install a new one!
The user is in charge of that.

If you want the system font to change, that is accomplished via the
registry. Font mapping can also be used and is, again, set via the
registry.

Paul T.

 

[Markus Humm]

It may, but it doesn't go looking around for what font to use. Think about
Word on the desktop. It has a default font that new documents use,
initially. It doesn't randomly change the font when you install a new one!
The user is in charge of that.

Normally yes, but your talking about the registry seemed to indicate
some thing different.

If you want the system font to change, that is accomplished via the
registry. Font mapping can also be used and is, again, set via the
registry.

So you're talking about the system font which is normaly used to draw
menus etc.? This indeed could be in the registry. Do you by accidend
happen to have the registry hive ready?

Greetings

Markus

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

Yes, you can change the system and/or application font. That's the only
global font setting. The best reference you'd have would be the Platform
Builder help. There's a topic in there called System Font Registry Settings
which gives the settings. You can also look at the page titled Replacing
Windows CE Default Fonts.

Note that, no matter what you do, if the application wants to use a specific
font, no change to the registry is going to result in some other font being
used.

Do you have the locale set right on this system?

Paul T.

 

[Markus Humm]

Hello,

Yes, you can change the system and/or application font. That's the only
global font setting. The best reference you'd have would be the Platform
Builder help. There's a topic in there called System Font Registry Settings
which gives the settings. You can also look at the page titled Replacing
Windows CE Default Fonts.

Where would I get the plattform builder? Is it free?

Note that, no matter what you do, if the application wants to use a specific
font, no change to the registry is going to result in some other font being
used.

Do you have the locale set right on this system?

Depends on what is right. So I had to go to
start/settings/system/international settings or whatever it's called in
english and change that there?

I fear this gets a bit complex for something I'd like to do "just from
curiosity".

Greetings

Markus

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

You can download an evaluation copy from www.microsoft.com/downloads.
You're looking for "windows ce", the operating system. Platform Builder
comes with it to actually build the OS... You can check and see if the help
is available in any other ways than downloading the whole OS, too.

If this is a curiousity thing, we've both already put too much time into
it...

Paul T.