Nicest Fonts to use with iSilo 4.x

[TadW]

Originally posted by Maceo
Four free fonts that work very well even at small font sizes on the TT were created by Microsoft exactly for low res displays: Verdana, Georgia, Trebuchet and Tahoma. These have custom-tweaks for low resolutions. Creating them for the Palm via iSiloX is easy, so give it a try. They are not really exciting, but they work.

Thanks for the tip!!

Another font that works well with low-res is the Lucida family. You can get it in Truetype in the Microsoft Truetype Font Pack, or in Type 1 from Adobe, Monotype, Y&Y or Blue Sky Research.

[iSilo]

iSilo uses a scaling factor of 1.2 from one size to the next size. With medium at 1.0, large is 1.2, and largest is 1.44. So if a span of text has a point size of 12, setting the size to largest gives a point size of 17.28 for that span.

Originally posted by Alexander
PS: I am still not sure why for some documents, when I change the relative size e.g. from medium to larger, nothing happens to the actual document font size. Maybe the gap between 12pt and 18pt is too big? Any help here? [/B]

[Colin Dunstan]

From the iSilo 4.0b manual:

A FontHack font database contains only one font of one size and style, so using a FontHack font for display always results in all text being of the same size.

Is that really so? I have been using Lubak's OS5 font for quite some time, and it comes in various sizes using only one database. In FontHack, this is shown by OS5 (0), OS5 (1), OS5 (2), OS5 (3).

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally posted by iSilo
iSilo uses a scaling factor of 1.2 from one size to the next size. With medium at 1.0, large is 1.2, and largest is 1.44. So if a span of text has a point size of 12, setting the size to largest gives a point size of 17.28 for that span.

With standard HTML like this:

FONT SIZE=n  Point Size  Heading Hn
0                 6
1                 8             H6
2                 10            H5
3 (default)       12            H4
4                 14            H3
5                 18            H2
6                 24            H1
7                 36

...am I assuming correctly that if a html document doesn't use any font size (nor css) tags, that its text has a point size of 12? And if a html document uses a font size of -2 (which is quite often used by mobile content providers), it has a point size of 8, which would lead iSilo to scale the font sizes as the following: smallest 5.6 .... largest 11,52? Sorry to be such a pain, but I am still trying to figure out which fontsizes and how many different sizes to include in a iSilo font database.

[iSilo]

Originally posted by Morpheus
Is that really so? I have been using Lubak's OS5 font for quite some time, and it comes in various sizes using only one database. In FontHack, this is shown by OS5 (0), OS5 (1), OS5 (2), OS5 (3).

Doh! Wasn't aware of that. Looks like I'll have to go back to the drawing board.

Originally posted by Alexander
...am I assuming correctly that if a html document doesn't use any font size (nor css) tags, that its text has a point size of 12? And if a html document uses a font size of -2 (which is quite often used by mobile content providers), it has a point size of 8, which would lead iSilo to scale the font sizes as the following: smallest 5.6 .... largest 11,52? Sorry to be such a pain, but I am still trying to figure out which fontsizes and how many different sizes to include in a iSilo font database.

Yes, those assumptions are correct, but the table should look like this instead:

FONT SIZE=n  Point Size  Heading Hn
1                 6
2                 8             H6
3                10             H5
4 (default)      12             H4
5                14             H3
6                18             H2
7                24             H1

The absolute range for # in font size="#" is 1 to 7, so zero becomes 1. The relative range for # in font size="+/-#" is -6 to 6. Anything outside that range becomes +0.

[Gunther]

Originally posted by iSilo

FONT SIZE=n  Point Size  Heading Hn
1                 6
2                 8             H6
3                10             H5
4 (default)      12             H4
5                14             H3
6                18             H2
7                24             H1

The absolute range for # in font size="#" is 1 to 7, so zero becomes 1. The relative range for # in font size="+/-#" is -6 to 6. Anything outside that range becomes +0. [/B]

Hi!

The table is very helpful, but I'm still trying to find out which sizes and styles need to be included in an iSilo font file so that it matches most of the documents. Of course I could include all sizes e g from 6 to 18 (including bold, italic, and bold italic) but this would result in about 350..400 kB per font.

Gunther

[iSilo]

Originally posted by Gunther
Hi!

The table is very helpful, but I'm still trying to find out which sizes and styles need to be included in an iSilo font file so that it matches most of the documents. Of course I could include all sizes e g from 6 to 18 (including bold, italic, and bold italic) but this would result in about 350..400 kB per font.

Gunther

As you imply, it's a tradeoff between point size granularity/fidelity and font file size, so it really depends on what you want. 8/10/12/14, which are the defaults when you create a font with iSiloX, give a good range that does not include fonts sizes that are either too small or that are too large and take too much screen space. As for style, iSilo synthesizes bold and italic effects if versions of the font in those styles are not present. So if iSilo's synthesis is acceptable, then there is no need to include those styles. But if you want truer styles, then you can include those styles at the expense of a larger font file.

[madmaxmedia]

Sub-pixel rendering would be a great next step!!! Hopefully that would make the fonts much more versatile, I also agree that the standard PDA fonts are more useful right now (if not nearly as attractive).

[p_starpower]

when it comes to fonts on hires devices, nothing beats the swiz fonts from Erich Kupferschmid in regard of readability IMHO. i use the second from the top in the screenshot here

http://www.freewarepalm.com/fonts/sw...liefonts.shtml

and read a lot of ebooks meanwhile without the slightest headache. just great..

PAT

[Maceo]

Just tried to use that on a Tungsten T - does not work with iSilo.

Seems to be a Clie only thing.

[p_starpower]

this is the authors email adress: erich.kupferschmid@gmx.ch, maybe he can help, he's very helpful!

PAT

[jasondv]

Just registered and stumbled across this great thread. I still have to digest most of the information, but FWIW, this is my set-up:
- I use Fonts4TT, with the Times New Roman font enabled. This becomes the default font for iSilo, and I find it great for reading ordinary text.
- I use Quickoffice, and have Arial Narrow installed, which I use mainly for Quicksheet. For some documents (especially those with tables) I just set the font to this one.

I agree that sub-pixel rendering (this is anti-aliasing, right?) would be the next logical step for the fonts.

[Maceo]

I think sub-pixel rendering is quite different from anti-aliasing. Unfortunately, you cannot show the effects on a CRT screen, where both techniques look similar (yes, I find this kinda confusing, too

With sub-pixel rendering, the red, green and blue sub-pixels of every LCD pixel are addressed separately to triple the resolution fonts are rendered at.
I find this hard to explain, please take a look at the "m"s on this page here, and it will become clearer, I hope:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/...ame=%20&fsize=

On a CRT, sub-pixel rendering will just make the fonts fuzzier. On an LCD, readability is improved - if the LCD is suitable for the technique. My knowledge ends right there: is the TTs screen suitable? And the TT2s? Has anyone run a test with Wordsmith? I think it sucks on the Palm Reader, though...

Some time ago, I used to be an anti-aliasing fan due to aesthetic reasons, nowadays, I prefer non-anti-aliased fonts that were constructed with screen resolution in mind, like Verdana, Georgia, Tahoma, and Trebuchet.

[jasondv]

Thanks for the explanation, Maceo, and the link. I'm kinda hoping that Palm OS 6 includes improvements in font rendering system-wide. I'm pretty much sold on the T3 (assuming all the specs that have come out recently are true) but at the same time I'm thinking of waiting for an OS 6 unit before getting a new one in the hope that most of the stuff on my wish list (better font rendering, some formatting allowed in the built-in apps, native file recognition, etc.) will be part of the upgraded OS.

[St0rmD]

The reason sans-serif fonts tend to look better on a computer screen than serif fonts is refresh rate on CRT monitors. on my palm screen, there is no flicker at all in the refresh, and therefore I prefer the advantages of reading in a serif font (Serif fonts read a bit faster and cleaner in long passages, especially novels).

I have gotten very good display results with the following method (my preferred font: Times New Roman)

Encode TNR in iSiloX at the default sizes, but include TNR bold and TNR italic, also at the default sizes. Upload to palm. In iSilo set Default, Serif AND Sans-Serif font to TNR, and set size to "Smaller" and "Relative" (thus getting the 10pt. size)

The result is a very nicely rendered, 1 pixel heavy font which is pleasureable to read for extended periods of time, and gets quite a lot of text on the screen. I have better eyes than most, and some may find my preferred size to be a little small, but I like it.

Maceo: I have tried WordSmith on my TT2, and I think the sub-pixel rendering on the fonts there looks quite nice. There is a tiny bit of color distortion on some letters in some fonts, especially at smaller sizes, but for the most part they're quite smooth. The improvement to italic letters is truly shocking though. It's like night and day.