Globalize app with Asian characters. Where is the font?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Miguel Hau
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Miguel Hau

Hello,

I am writing an app using c# for win ce.net and I want it to support
japanese characters. I notice that the fonts that had these characters were
Arial Unicode and MS Mincho but both of them were 8megs or greater in size.

How does windows ce.net support japanese characters? and what fonts does it
use?

Thanks in advance,

Miguel
 
Windows CE.NET 4.2 comes with a number of fonts, some of which are just
special variations with the right local characters in them. So, while Arial
on a US device might not have the characters, Arial on a Japanese device
would. However, as you probably know, you can just copy any TTF font to the
\Windows\Fonts directory and use it in your code...

Paul T.
 
Miguel,

As Paul mentioned, a localized device may already have the font glyphs you
need. What kind of CE .NET device are you targeting? If it's not PocketPC
and it has a non-volatile storage area (flash memory), an alternative to
copying the font to the \Windows\Fonts directory (the contents of this
directory are lost on a cold boot on many devices), is to copy the font you
want onto the flash memory and p/Invoke to AddFontResource(fileName) to load
the font. You can then use a Font object the way you would expect.

Bill
 
Hello Paul and Bill, thanks for the help. I am currently using windows
ce.net 4.1 not pocket pcs. I do have a non-volatile storage area with a
directory that will automatically register the fonts that finds in it.

I don't make the image for this system therefore I don't have the fonts that
I need and these fonts are not supplied by the manufacturer. So how can i
get this arial font use in the japanese systems? I also tried copying the
fonts with japanese characters from my windows xp system but were too large.

Thanks again,
Miguel
 
To get the specific font, you'd have to ask the device manufacturer to
create a new OS image for you. I'd have to reread the license agreement
again, but the manufacturer is generally not permitted to distribute
portions of the OS separately.

Paul T.
 
Paul,

Interesting point you raise about licensing. I would be interested to hear
what you conclude after re-reading the agreement. I'll dig into it from my
end too. I think one way to ask this question is: "if I have a licensed copy
of a CE .NET platform, can I copy a font onto that device that ships with
the Platform Builder version that created this image, even though that font
were not an integral part of the image?" And of course, is the licensee of
that Platform Builder product allowed to give it to me for my licensed copy
of the resulting image?

In this case, the intellectual property (the font) is clearly distributable
as part of the image built with Platform Builder. But it would be
advantageous to omit large fonts from an image to keep the NK.BIN file size
down and allow those customers who need the larger fonts to put it onto
their device. On the surface it seems as though this should be allowed. Of
course, we would not expect desktop fonts to be distributable with a CE
image since the licensing fees are dramatically different.

Any MS input?

Thanks,
Bill

PS - this discussion probably belongs in the Platform Builder group (?)
 
Miguel,

"Assuming" you do not have a licensing problem with copying a font onto the
device, you simply need a non-volatile storage area to put it - not one that
automatically registers the font. You would load the font yourself,
presumably at startup of your app. I tested that the theory works, but
before going with any solution that involves adding fonts to the device get
a definitive answer on the licensing question.

Bill
 
Sorry, Bill, I'm not planning to dig into the license right now.

Yes, you can copy files *to* a platform, assuming you are licensed to do so
(don't steal those fonts, for example). The sticking point is whether you,
as a PB license holder, are allowed to redistribute the font file in a form
separate from the OS image itself. My initial thought is, no, you aren't.
If there's an exception for non-executable files in the license, that's
where I'd expect it to allow fonts to be distributed. It's a mess, either
way...

Paul T.
 
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