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Love the skin, props to teh work.. a few things that I have noticed and some many be hidden or I overlooked on how to configure. If not then these would be awesome additions to be added if possible..

1. There is no kiosk mode, lock the configure menus in TV/Movies menus.. I always end up opening them, would like a option to lock it so it never shows.
2. I can't search my Movies/TV show by YEARS or other types, such as actors, decades, etc.
3. How can I add my own menu to launch a outside program, or a submenu, or a icon in the programs area.
4. Can this skin display the TV show Network icons? Nowhere in any view could I find, even in the TV show Information window telling me the Network the show is from.
5. Can I disable certain submenu items somewhere?

Thanks!

Quick question
For some reason the raspbmc is saying that amber is broken so I'm in the middle of a reinstall and wondered if I should use the master from git or the frodo?
The raspbmc version I'm using is frodo based so it would make sense to use that one but just checking.
Also the skin is missing images and text in its current install so maybe something is up? Once New install is done II'll follow up on that if needed

(2013-12-04, 11:45)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-11-27, 16:40)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I've just tested 1.2.5 and vertical alignment looks good now but I've still had to revert back to 1.0.9 because the Arial No Caps font is still a lot narrower than the Arial font used in 1.0.9. One of our XBMC systems is running on a 24" screen in a bedroom and the Arial font (as well as the default all caps font) is just too narrow to be comfortably read from a distance, while the 1.0.9 Arial font is easy to read at the same distance.

Here's an offer - you edit Arial no caps to your liking and I will include it in the skin.

Edit Font.xml from skin.amber/1080i - section <fontset id="Arial nocaps" unicode="true" idloc="31391"> ONLY

Put a keymap.xml file in ../userdata/ folder with the following content:

PHP Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> 
<keymap> 
    <global> 
        <keyboard>  
            <f5>XBMC.ReloadSkin()</f5>
         </keyboard> 
    </global> 
</keymap> 


and you will be able to refresh skin with F5 key so you can test your changes on-the-fly : Increase font size in Arial no caps section, save changes, hit F5 to see the change in the skin.

Hi Pecinko,

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last week tweaking the fonts for the Arial No Caps mode, I hope you like the results and will consider including them in the next release. I used the latest snapshot of Amber for Frodo from Github on the 21st of December as my base version to work from, so these files are relative to that version.

The fonts are quite a bit larger than the default font and easy to read at a distance but have been carefully tweaked to fit within the style and layout of the skin. While testing larger fonts I discovered a couple of problems with overlapping scroll areas for labels and scroll areas for labels that were too large for the image beneath them which required minor tweaks to Includes.xml and DialogSeekBar.xml, which I hope you will also consider including.

Specifically, the labels for the time and date field in the top right of the home screen and library stats field in the bottom right corner were both much longer than the displayed length of TimePanel.png, this can be seen below when using a deliberately oversized font:



(Note, the font size in my final version is not this large - I used oversized fonts to see and detect problems with label sizes)

I made changes to Includes.xml to lengthen the TimePanel image bar for bottom right and top right from 540 to 590 pixels (to match the rss bar which is 590 pixels) and at the same time reduced the scroll area width from 500 to 490 so that it correctly fits, and scrolls correctly if required. (The font is small enough that it shouldn't normally need to scroll but can if needed)

The other place I noticed a problem was the end time in the top left of the full screen video progress bar - the two label fields for end time and current time overlapped each other so with larger fonts the two labels overlapped - this problem was present with old versions of the theme like 1.0.9 as well.

I've tweaked the position and width of both labels slightly in DialogSeekBar.xml so that they do not overlap, yet are large enough for both the larger arial no caps font, but also display correctly on the default font. Here is how it now looks with the Arial No Caps font - even with AM/PM fields it comfortably fits:



With the default font there is no visible change from before as the font is much narrower anyway and fits easily within the label widths.

One minor problem that I could not solve is with my larger fonts the vertical alignment of the rss feed is not optimal - because its top aligned the font is slightly too low with the larger arial no caps fonts:



I tried to use an aligny tag so the font is vertically centred in the image regardless of size but this does not seem to work with an rss feed label - I'm only a complete beginner with xbmc skins so perhaps you know a way to fix it ? It's not a big deal if there isn't a way.

Below are the three xml files I edited:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7826...s/Font.xml
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7826...eekBar.xml
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7826...cludes.xml

Font.xml has only been edited in the arial no caps section. For clarity here are unified diffs of the changes I made to DialogSeekBar.xml and Includes.xml in case other changes have been made to those since Dec 21st:



I hope you like my suggested changes, its the first time I have delved into xbmc skins so it was a bit of a learning experience.

Edit: I noticed a slight mistake in Font.xml after posting - I have re-uploaded the correct version of Font.xml and edited the link in the post.

I'd like to try this but where do I find the folder the original files are in and then I assume I replace them with the drop box versions?

(2013-12-31, 15:36)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I hope you like my suggested changes, its the first time I have delved into xbmc skins so it was a bit of a learning experience.

Edit: I noticed a slight mistake in Font.xml after posting - I have re-uploaded the correct version of Font.xml and edited the link in the post.

Do you know how to make pull request on Git? If not I'll take a look at code when I find some time and merge it manually.

---

(2013-12-31, 12:14)Atinkler Wrote: [ -> ]Quick question
For some reason the raspbmc is saying that amber is broken so I'm in the middle of a reinstall and wondered if I should use the master from git or the frodo?
The raspbmc version I'm using is frodo based so it would make sense to use that one but just checking.
Also the skin is missing images and text in its current install so maybe something is up? Once New install is done II'll follow up on that if needed

Install from XBMC repository if you can - you will have packed textures and better performance. Or try installing Frodo version from ZIP: http://mirrors.xbmc.org/addons/frodo/skin.amber/

Managed to sort that one out with a fresh install. . Sorry what I meant was try out the changes in font etc for a smaller screen.

(2014-01-01, 20:11)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-12-31, 15:36)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I hope you like my suggested changes, its the first time I have delved into xbmc skins so it was a bit of a learning experience.

Edit: I noticed a slight mistake in Font.xml after posting - I have re-uploaded the correct version of Font.xml and edited the link in the post.

Do you know how to make pull request on Git? If not I'll take a look at code when I find some time and merge it manually.

I have no experience with Git other than downloading snapshots, but I will have a look tomorrow and see if I can figure out how.

(2014-01-01, 16:23)Atinkler Wrote: [ -> ]I'd like to try this but where do I find the folder the original files are in and then I assume I replace them with the drop box versions?

Make sure you have the latest version of amber installed, (1.3.0) copy the three xml files over top of the existing ones, quit and restart xbmc, then choose "Fonts (3/3) Arial (no caps)" as the font under Skin in Settings.

The font sizes are optimised for readability on a small screen so are much wider/bigger than the default fonts while still fitting the same layouts neatly. I can comfortably read these fonts at 2.5 metres on a 22" screen while the default fonts are unreadably small at the same distance.

The files are in userdata/addons/skin.amber/1080i

The location of userdata depends on your platform / OS as described here:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Userdata

I test on both Mac OS and Raspbmc on a Raspberry Pi, so in my case they are:

/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/XBMC/addons/skin.amber/1080i/ (Mac OS)

/home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.amber/1080i/ (Raspbmc)

Note if you install amber manually from a zip downloaded from github the folder name may be different - for example skin.amber-frodo instead of skin.amber.

Great thank you

Works much better on my bedroom TV but as it's only about a 18 - 20" the plot font could be bigger but not sure where to mess about with this or if it's a whole can of worms that doesn't need opening ?

(2014-01-02, 12:00)Atinkler Wrote: [ -> ]Works much better on my bedroom TV but as it's only about a 18 - 20" the plot font could be bigger but not sure where to mess about with this or if it's a whole can of worms that doesn't need opening ?

If you mean the plot description on the movies/tv shows list that's easy to customize. Edit font.xml, search for the following line:


Then below this line search for:


Adjust the size, aspect and linespacing here. (It will take effect after choosing reload skin or restarting xbmc) The InfoPlot font is used on the plot description in the movie/tv listings, in the full screen plot description (pressing info from a movie listing) and also in the full screen video info display. (pressing info from a playing video) From memory it is not used anywhere else.

If you're only editing it for yourself you can't get into much trouble - just keep a backup of Font.xml. It took me quite a while to figure out what all of the various fonts tags are used for (and I may have missed one or two locations) so when changing fonts in one location in the skin you have to be wary of the same tag affecting a font elsewhere in another layout in such a way that text no longer fits or spills beyond the boundaries. Sometimes a font tag size is a compromise between two different locations in the skin.

I could have gone a little bit bigger with the plot font but I was trying to keep it looking readable yet proportionate on both a 22" bedroom TV and a 32" living room TV.

(2014-01-02, 12:21)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I could have gone a little bit bigger with the plot font but I was trying to keep it looking readable yet proportionate on both a 22" bedroom TV and a 32" living room TV.

Yup. It's a bit hard to explain to someone who never tried to tune up fonts but there's a BIG difference between 50" from 3 meters (my setup) and 20" from 3 meters (Atinkler's). (just an explanation to others who are wondering why fonts are small on 20" TV or why they are so big on their 80" TV)

(2014-01-02, 13:45)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]

(2014-01-02, 12:21)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I could have gone a little bit bigger with the plot font but I was trying to keep it looking readable yet proportionate on both a 22" bedroom TV and a 32" living room TV.

Yup. It's a bit hard to explain to someone who never tried to tune up fonts but there's a BIG difference between 50" from 3 meters (my setup) and 20" from 3 meters (Atinkler's). (just an explanation to others who are wondering why fonts are small on 20" TV or why they are so big on their 80" TV)

I also noticed that xbmc doesn't maintain aspect ratio of the user interface - the 32" screen is a 16:9 TV but my 22" screen is a 16:10 computer monitor (1680x1050) - although video plays at the correct aspect ratio (with small black bars top and bottom on 16:9 content) the 16:9 UI is simply stretched vertically to 16:10 full screen which causes fonts and UI elements to look noticeably narrower than they are on 16:9.

I did my initial font tweaking on this 22" 16:10 screen but after testing it on the 32" 16:9 screen I "backed off" some of my changes slightly to give a better compromise between the two.

(2014-01-01, 20:11)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-12-31, 15:36)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]I hope you like my suggested changes, its the first time I have delved into xbmc skins so it was a bit of a learning experience.

Edit: I noticed a slight mistake in Font.xml after posting - I have re-uploaded the correct version of Font.xml and edited the link in the post.

Do you know how to make pull request on Git? If not I'll take a look at code when I find some time and merge it manually.

After a quick crash course in Git I think I've successfully issued a pull request for my changes ? Let me know if not.

(2014-01-02, 19:42)DBMandrake Wrote: [ -> ]After a quick crash course in Git I think I've successfully issued a pull request for my changes ? Let me know if not.

Indeed. Thanks.

I'm already looking at it and wondering why would you want to reduce label length when increasing font size :-)