[Kindle Touch] Font Hack

[NiLuJe]

@ixtab: In case that might help, there are a number of people experiencing 'blank fonts' issues with the K3 fonts hack. I've never been able to reproduce this on my device, even with the exact same font files, but the *only* thing that seemed to help was using a custom freetype library. Never figured out what caused this/how to fix it in a less intrusive way, but, AFAICT, that never happened on FW 2.x.

[ixtab]

@NiLuJe:

thanks for jumping in, I was actually silently hoping for your expertise

The weird thing is that the issue seems to appear undeterministically (geek term for "not reproducible"). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Could you give some more information about that custom freetype library thing? Am I right that replacing some .so file could fix this once and for all? If so, I'd be grateful for some pointers -- maybe I could simply include a working .so file with the installer (?)

[NiLuJe]

Well, on the K3, that was pretty much either it works or it doesn't, the whole family, at every size, was blank (which lead to mighty fun breakages if it happened to be sans regular, because then most of the UI was blank ).

The weird thing was that it only happened on some Kindles, I've never been able to reproduce this on mine, even with the exact same set of fonts file.

What does seem to 'fix' it for everyone is indeed to use a custom build of a recent freetype release. It was pretty easy on the K3 because it didn't rely on fontconfig/gtk/cairo/pango at all (except the browser), so I just had to build it, bind mount it, and enjoy working fonts after a framework restart, but you might have to jump through a lot more hoops on the Touch to avoid ABI mismatches... (If I let the K3 browser see/use my custom freetype lib, it'll make pango throw a fit, and it won't render fonts at all. I've never tried to pinpoint where exactly the issue lies, but it's most likely an ABI mismatch somewhere).

[ixtab]

Hmm... yeah, I'm still willing to give it a try.

Here's the result of a very quick grep:

~/kindle-touch/fs$ find . -name "*.so"|grep font
./usr/lib/libXfont.so
./usr/lib/libfontenc.so
./usr/lib/libfontconfig.so
~/kindle-touch/fs$ find . -name "*.so"|grep type
./usr/lib/iptables/libipt_addrtype.so
./usr/lib/iptables/libipt_pkttype.so
./usr/lib/libfreetype.so
./usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgsttypefindfunctions.so

So I suppose that either libfontconfig.so, or libfreetype.so, could be the culprit. (probably the latter, according to what you said). I'm pretty confident (though not absolutely sure) that the kernel versions and binary compatibility didn't change between KT releases [5.0.0|5.0.1|5.0.3|5.0.4].

Given that all executables compiled for older kindles are working smoothly on the KT as well, I'm relatively confident that we could do without reinventing the wheel (or recompiling).

So, could you please provide some more info about the solutions for older kindles (a few links, or even relevant search terms, will do). Thanks!

[ixtab]

Alright, I think I found the cause of the "blank font" issues (at least on the KT, and for this application, that is).
Simply looking at the output of "showlog -f" revealed this:

[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: failed to create cairo scaled font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Helvetica Medium 32'
[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: font_face status is: <unknown error status>
[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: scaled_font status is: out of memory
[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: failed to create cairo scaled font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Caecilia Regular, 36'
[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: font_face status is: out of memory
[!]120302:202704 root: (process:6129): Pango-WARNING **: scaled_font status is: out of memory

This coincides exactly with the fonts/sizes that are displayed "blank". I'm thinking about how this could be solved, but if anyone has a clue... *please* post here.

[NiLuJe]

@ixtab: You're welcome to try (one of) the freetype build I use in the fonts hack, but like I said, there may be some weird ABI mismatch issues between ft/fc/cairo/pango... . (And if it works, it's far from the best we can do, performance wise, since they're targetted at the K2/K3 crappy CPU, not the shiny A8 of the Touch ^^)

[aditya3098]

Originally Posted by ixtab

you should at least be willing to do some research and learn how to use the "tools of the trade" (e.g., Linux command-line usage).

To make it easy, just backup all your data, put firecrackers on your windows bootdisk and light them, and install debian with no x server.

[SMR]

@ixtab:

Very cool It works fine !

But ... is it possible to change the fontsize to another value than you installed?

F.e. Times New Roman in 25 is a bit small for me and 31 to big.
In comparison with a printed book 28 might be perfect


And: I tried to install Garamond as you described
Folder "Garamond", in folder "Garamond Regular.ttf" etc.

But it says: "Garamond is not a valid font directory"

Thanks, your word ist great !!!

Stefan

[yiming]

@ixtab: i assigned VeraMo to Serif and the "Condensed" button disappeared. see screenshot:

[JustAMan]

Looks like there wasn't enough space to fit the button... I think that line in the bottom is the upper edge of missing button.

[diba]

Same on my KT, looks as on your screenshot in post 30 ixtab. BTW, where doe I get the Fertigo Font ;-)

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by SMR

@ixtab:

Very cool It works fine !

But ... is it possible to change the fontsize to another value than you installed?

F.e. Times New Roman in 25 is a bit small for me and 31 to big.
In comparison with a printed book 28 might be perfect


And: I tried to install Garamond as you described
Folder "Garamond", in folder "Garamond Regular.ttf" etc.

But it says: "Garamond is not a valid font directory"

Thanks, your word ist great !!!

Stefan

The font sizes are not set by me. It's the opposite actually: the font sizes that are selectable on the details screen have been taken from the .mobi reader (i.e., they correspond to the sizes that are selectable in the reader).

As to the "invalid font directory", double-check file and directory names. Also note that upper/lowercase matters! (e.g. "Garamond regular.ttf" would NOT be considered).

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by yiming

@ixtab: i assigned VeraMo to Serif and the "Condensed" button disappeared. see screenshot:

Thanks. Yes, the button is in the line below... I'll see what I can do to fix this with the next version.

[SMR]

Originally Posted by ixtab

The font sizes are not set by me. It's the opposite actually: the font sizes that are selectable on the details screen have been taken from the .mobi reader (i.e., they correspond to the sizes that are selectable in the reader).

As to the "invalid font directory", double-check file and directory names. Also note that upper/lowercase matters! (e.g. "Garamond regular.ttf" would NOT be considered).

Okay,

it works I was blind! I used other spelling in the names of the fonts than the folder name.

Perhaps, on your next release you can explain in the readme file:

"The name of the font has to be named exactly like the folder spelling, e.g.
Folder: Palatino Linotype
Fonts: Palatino Linotype Regular.ttf - Palatino Linotype Bold.ttf - Palatino Linotype Italic.ttf - Palatino Linotype Bold Italic.ttf"


You are great !

[jglerner]

@ixtab,

Better late than never, thanks for your "hack", Georgia2, I had previously on K3, is now working happily on my KT.
And I´m happy too!
One font a day keeps the doctor away, actually I like Georgia so I just applied your installer for that font.
Can you, or other one, confirm that the upgrade to firmware 5.0.4 is installable without uninstalling all that wreck?
Just like to be on the safer side...
I don´t like to be on Schettino´s ship or driving reckless...
;D