FontHack123 V4.0c

FontHack 123 is a font substitution program similar to FontHack Plus. (C) 1998-2001 Sergey Menshikov http://www.sergem.net. Although FontHack is copyrighted, it is absolutely free.

FontHack 123 4.0c is an alpha version designed specifically to support PalmOS 4.1 high resolution font extensions, although it should work anywhere with any OS except Handera.

Please deactivate and remove previous version of FontHack 123 before installing new version!!!

Delete old FontHack and AppFontData.pdb from your palm\user\backup directory as well before installing a new version!!!

Note on Sony High Resolution Extensions

There are currently two apparoaches to support of resolution higher than 160x160 - Sony's and TRG's (Handera). They are completely different. FontHack does not support Handera high-res, at least for now because, well, I have Sony Clie ;-)

Sony High Resolution assist makes non-HR-native applications draw using HR fonts by simply substituting HR fonts in text drawing functions. Here is the problem: it does not make similar substitutions for font size functions - so the application still measures letters by sizes of low-res font that happens to be active at the moment.

Example: replace HrStandard with Standard. In Memo pad you will see small letters written on large lines with the rest of space filled with garbage. Now to "fix" the problem, select Antz from Mr. Zenz excellent font collection as Standard. Now it will look a bit better.

I considered fixing it, but this would require FontHack123 to become full featured resident program - without using HackMaster - because of imminent performance issues. If you consider this a bug, let Sony fix it.

International Fonts

Interpilot - Fonts, Keyboard and Graffiti for Greek, Turkish, Czech, Polski, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Russian and Ukrainian in multiple encodings.

Editing Fonts

Pilot Font Editor - the original PalmOS Font Editor for Windows.

Requirements

FontHack 123 works on PalmOS devices up to and including version 4.1 (If the system version is unknown to FontHack, it will complain and refuse to operate).

You need HackMaster, X-Master, EVPlugBase or TealMaster for this hack to operate. Please download and register them if you did not yet. I would recommend agains HackMaster as it has a "fifteen visits" bug - it will die on the fifteenth time you start it with some hack being active all the time.

• Hackmaster http://www.daggerware.com
• X-Master http://www.linkesoft.com
• TealMaster http://www.tealpoint.com
• EVPlugBase http://www.palmgear.com (as the above three)

If you have some other Hack platform, you have to tell me to enable FontHack123 for it.

Operation

Visit Hack configuration screen in HackMaster, select specific app or "All" and specify fonts to substitute.

Press Save button

Activate the hack in HackMaster by checking the checkbox.

Fonts can be downloaded on http://www.palmgear.com (search fonts) or visit links on FontHack123 page.

Contact

FontHack 123 (C) 1998-2001 Sergey Menshikov

http://www.sergem.net

Release History

FontHack123 V4.0c Changes

• Sony high resolution support (710C not supported - please upgrade OS to 4.1)
• DB deletion check removed - it did not work properly and was causing problems in 4.1
• Lots of stuff rewritten to accomodate numfonts > 8

FontHack123 V3.2 Changes

• TealMaster compatibility
• Improved check if font database was deleted (I'd upgrade if I were you)
• Reversed change below - all apps now applies to everything startable, not only apps in the list

FontHack123 V3.1 Changes

• Popup favorites and Preferences bug fixed
• "All apps" now does not apply to apps not displayed in list

FontHack123 V3.0 Changes

• Does not allow deleting itself or font databases while active
• Checks consistency of Application-Fonts database on activation
• Fixes inconsistencies if Application-Fonts database on each visit of FontHack's setup screen
• Now accounts for X-Master (did not work on that before)
• Supports PalmOS 4.0
• Shows samples of actual fonts in font selection list
• Sorts applications and fonts in respective selection lists
• Allows to explicitly specify system font (so you can say: all apps to use font X but Address Book that is to use standard)

FontHack123 V2.2 Changes

• Now accounts for EVPlugBase (crashed on that before)
• Will refuse to operate on OS above 3.5 (insurance)
• Warns users about potential crashes because of different font size unknown to some apps.
• Now it account for possible .prc file of type Font. It skips them now. (crashed on that before)

FontHack123 V2 Changes

• A complete rewrite.
• The original 123 was an example of _how_one_should_not_ write programs =-)
• The list of PalmOS versions and hardware is expanded to include V, Vx, IIIx, IIIe, VII and HandSpring =-)
• After reset, FontHack123-2 can now be reactivated automatically (answer yes to "reinstall all hacks" question after reset)
• "All apps" still has priority over a particular app setting if the setting is "none".Otherwise, app setting has a priority.
• No silly "100 apps" or "200 apps" limitations.
• The code is actially simpler to understand (to those wo cared to have a look at the source).
• New source code is now available at http://www.sergem.net
• Tall Fonts - see what you were missing because Palm guys (no blame intended) left extra bit row for accented characters. Bigger fonts on the same piece of real estate!
• TallFontsNew.pdb - Palm V, IIIx, VII, IIIe system characters fixed and zero is not crossed now.

Source Code Note

4cut is a silly program that cuts 4 leading bytes from any file. You do not really need it.