Xion Community

A way to implement custom fonts like cPro/Winamp. Since we have to include a TTF or OTF if we have a custom font, why not have Xion read a PNG the same way as winamp, it might even save space?

1.) Provide Xion with dimensions of char width and height on text layer name (in photoshop) and have a png that has each letter/number in the spaces designated.

Say you provide a layer "time fn(name) charw(x) charh(x)", Xion will look for and load the file "name.png" and render the letters/numbers based on the dimensions given from the png, which is how Winamp would do it if the png route was taken.

OR

2.) Have a layer that indicates it is the layer to read when needing a rendered font.

Say you provide a layer "time fn(layername) charw(x) charh(x)", Xion will look for a layer name and render the font accordingly, just like the png setup (could have both). This way will require that Xion needs to read the layer 'hidden'. also this requires more space to be utilized in the skin area as opposed to a separate png.

If you implement both ways this enables far more options to customization.

Even if you could do this just for the time I would be happy, or have seperate params for letters/numbers but that's just hassling you...we'll take it one step at a time.

What do you think?

Jikaru Wrote:A way to implement custom fonts like cPro/Winamp. Since we have to include a TTF or OTF if we have a custom font, why not have Xion read a PNG the same way as winamp, it might even save space?

1.) Provide Xion with dimensions of char width and height on text layer name (in photoshop) and have a png that has each letter/number in the spaces designated.

Say you provide a layer "time fn(name) charw(x) charh(x)", Xion will look for and load the file "name.png" and render the letters/numbers based on the dimensions given from the png, which is how Winamp would do it if the png route was taken.

OR

2.) Have a layer that indicates it is the layer to read when needing a rendered font.

Say you provide a layer "time fn(layername) charw(x) charh(x)", Xion will look for a layer name and render the font accordingly, just like the png setup (could have both). This way will require that Xion needs to read the layer 'hidden'. also this requires more space to be utilized in the skin area as opposed to a separate png.

If you implement both ways this enables far more options to customization.

Even if you could do this just for the time I would be happy, or have seperate params for letters/numbers but that's just hassling you...we'll take it one step at a time.

What do you think?

Hi Jikaru

This would become very difficult to implement in a skin, and it would take a lot of time. It is a good idea as some fonts do not display correctly in Xion.

As well as that - it would look a little clumsy when every character is spaced equally (monospace).

Regards
Michael

This has already been asked before, doesn't anyone bother to read the past posts?
I think as far back as 2006 this was requested for a bitmap font similar to how Winamp does it.

Main problem with that is it will not support Unicode so it was never really implemented in Xion.
Even a fixed width command for non ttfs would be great and again already asked for ages ago.

Think we just have to face it, it's not going to happen!

SLoB Wrote:Think we just have to face it, it's not going to happen!

Haha there's no reason it can't happen. It might have limitations. I only have so much time though SLoB. I've been working on the Skinnable playlist and other features for ages now.

I've been concetrating on the large features and recently I've added the feedback button so that I can do features that you guys want, not what I think might be good.

Perhaps this is another one to add to that list. People have voted on existing requests, but haven't added too many of their own. There's no reason you can't. You'll get this feature eventually

Cliff

Oh yea I always understood it was a question of lack of time on it Cliff, just that it was already requested years ago. It's ok to bump old threads when it's relevant.

I think the new voting system is a better way to determine new functionality, possibly need to pimp it again on the next release so people are aware of upcoming functionality and to vote.

I think it would be interesting to see how it would work. People could make fonts with shadows and other special effects.

@SLoB: I mostly agree with the Feedback panel. Maybe you should create an announcement at the top of the Feature Requests forum stating that users should have a look at the Feedback panel before using the forum (if at all).

Cliff will have to create a sticky in this section, I've not got access to that bit in this forum section.
We've been using bitmap fonts with Winamp for years though and they can look pretty cool, however they do interfere with unicode/special chars so there is the trade off.