[scott967]

IIRC there is a replacement Font.xml file for MQ4 that adds a new option for arial and substitutes the arialuni font for the ones in MQ4. Doesn't look quite as nice though. alternatively you could merge the Thai characters from some other font into the the default ones MQ4 uses. Due to the huge number of fonts in MQ4 I don't recommend trying this unless you have some patience and want to learn a font creation program like FontForge. Personally I have not had good success merging from airaluni so try some other font with Thai character support. Also for MQ4, because there are so many different fonts if you add every possible unicode range the files are very large and might pose a performance problem on some systems. Doing a little searching I found one named Loma.ttf that I'm guessing is freely usable that might work.

I might add whichever way you go, make sure you back up any edited skin files, as if a skin update gets pushed out it will overwrite your mod files.

scott s.
.

[cw-kid]

IIRC there is a replacement Font.xml file for MQ4 that adds a new option for arial and substitutes the arialuni font for the ones in MQ4. Doesn't look quite as nice though. alternatively you could merge the Thai characters from some other font into the the default ones MQ4 uses. Due to the huge number of fonts in MQ4 I don't recommend trying this unless you have some patience and want to learn a font creation program like FontForge. Personally I have not had good success merging from airaluni so try some other font with Thai character support. Also for MQ4, because there are so many different fonts if you add every possible unicode range the files are very large and might pose a performance problem on some systems. Doing a little searching I found one named Loma.ttf that I'm guessing is freely usable that might work.

I might add whichever way you go, make sure you back up any edited skin files, as if a skin update gets pushed out it will overwrite your mod files.

scott s.
.

Hi thanks for the explanation.

Doesn't sound so easy to do then. The first option with the Font.xml sounds like the easiest but I guess I need to see what it ends up looking like? Is this Font.xml file something I can download from somewhere or do I need to create or modify it myself?

Cheers

[oldpoem]

Those skins that use specific fonts won't work. You need to substitute those font with arialuni.ttf . Skins that can use arial based would work ok. For Aeon Nox just change fonts to Korean it will work since it won't find korean fonts needed and load arial instead.

[scott967]

To try it out you can open the MQ4 font.xml file in a text editor (from your userdata addons\skin.aeonmq.4\720p) You see the entire file is in "fonts wrapper"

Code:

<fonts> ... </fonts>

Inside that find the first "fontset wrapper" (id default) and copy the entire set of lines to the end of the file

Code:

<fontset id="Default" unicode="true"> ...</fontset>

Change the id in this copied section to something else like id="Arial based". Now in this new wrapper, for each *.ttf entry, change the font to arial.ttf, eg,

Code:

    <font>
    <name>Font_ListSmall2</name>
    <filename>aeon_multiplex.ttf</filename>
    <size>12</size>
    </font>

change to

Code:

    <font>
    <name>Font_ListSmall2</name>
    <filename>arial.ttf</filename>
    <size>12</size>
    </font>

After editing all the entries save the file. When you start XBMC you should have an option in the skin appearance font settings for MQ4 of "Arial based". Select that and see how it looks.

scott s.
.

[cw-kid]

Hi Scott

Thanks for your reply, I tried editing the font.xml file as you described to add a new Arial based section and I can confirm it does work!

I can now see the Thai text on those music albums and on Thai YouTube videos.

I wonder if it might be better rather than changing all the font entries to be arial, but instead just change some of them?

Like:

<name>Font_ListTrack</name>
<filename>aeon_settings.ttf</filename>
<size>42</size>
</font>

List Track would this only then affect the music track list and make that use arial.ttf to display Thai text, not sure which one I would have to change for the video list in the YouTube add-on. But I will have a play around with the font.xml file and try a few different things.

Thanks

[cw-kid]

OK so I created a new Arial based section in the font.xml file using the default fonts for Aeon MQ4, I then tried just changing one font to be arial and that was for: <name>Font_ListTrack</name>

Re-opened XBMC but I had no Thai text on the music album track list. I then edited the font.xml file again and changed: <name>Font_List</name> to use arial.ttf, re-opened XBMC again and this time the track list is showing the Thai text OK. Also works for the video list in the YouTube add-on I see Thai text OK there as well.

But the rest of Aeon MQ4 UI looks the same, i.e. the fonts used on the menus and other areas are still using the Aeon MQ4 default fonts not arial, so perhaps this is the best way to do it. In fact I could just edit the <name>Font_List</name> to use arial.ttf in the Default section of the font.xml file and not bother creating an entirely new Arial based section.

Cheers

[scott967]

I wonder if it might be better rather than changing all the font entries to be arial, but instead just change some of them?

That is what I did with my merged fonts (in my case I just merged east-Asian CJK characters so that doesn't help your problem). The problem is it's kind of hard to determine which of the many fonts that are used in MQ4 are important or needed for titles / artists (and I also need it for the text in the music artist slideshow). If you feel like it try experimenting.

FWIW Ace is much easier in this regard. Just 2 fonts.

scott s.
.

[herds]

cw-kid - hi, did you ever get any luck with this?

I've been fudging and still not got anywhere.

Would be happy with thai fonts showing just for file listings etc.

kob koon krab.

[cw-kid]

Yes I got Thai text working, I will try and find the thread.

---

Oh it was this thread lol. Everything I did is covered in this thread you need to read back a few pages.

[raymw]

Well I can get the correct Thai characters showing with my Windows XBMC installation as I have put the arialuni.ttf font in my ... \.xbmc\media\fonts folder and selecting Thai character set in the system subtitles setting screen within XBMC screens. Great so thanks for all the great tips here BUT I just cannot do this with my Linux XBMC install (Geeksquad 8 image with Frodo 12) on my Sumvision Cyclone Nano Slim+ M3 media box and I really need it for my Thai family here.

I know what I need to do but just cannot write the arialuni.ttf font file to the necessary folder, which I have discovered is at /usr/share/xbmc/media/fonts and in there are the two only available subtitle fonts of arial.ttf (small non unicode file I gather) and teletext.ttf file. If I could add the arialuni.ttf file (larger file at over 20 MB) to this folder then I am certain I could get the Thai Sanscript characters working rather than the lines of rectangular boxes it now displays. Obviously that /usr area is write protected and I can see no way to be able to write or edit anything in there and can only read the file lists in XBMC. BTW I can put the Confluence skin fully into Thai fonts (which I do not want to do actually) so I know the arialuni.ttf installed in my \.xbmc\media\fonts folder (had to manually create the fonts subfolder in the media folder) is okay but still no good with the subtitles

Would i need some SSH access?? I have never used that SSH method yet although read a little about it but decided I did not need it with the current excellent installation and editing software within XBMC. So I have no idea how to do that as yet although I have installed this Putty program but never used it as yet as seen no need so far.

Please can somebody help me with this as I really would like to use the Thai language subtitles (where available) and would greatly appreciate any help given.

[raymw]

Update.

Managed to work out and read up on SSH commands and using Putty got into my Nano Slim+ box but still no way in any of the /usr folder tree can I get anything other than read only permissions so still cannot copy across form my /root/.xbmc/media/fonts the arialuni.ttf file. Just cannot write to the .usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts folder. Maybe need to log in as usr instead of root but I have tried but needs a password I do not know ??

Can anyone help please, as it would be good if I can find a way to get full unicode support in subtitles especially for the difficult Thai character set.and could be useful for many here unless I am missing something and it has already been cracked for Thai character subtitles.

Is there maybe an .XML file somewhere for the subtitle configurations that can point the XBMC Subtitle addon to a TTF file (arialuni) on another location in the /root folder tree where I can write to? That maybe a workaround.

[oldpoem]

Update.

Managed to work out and read up on SSH commands and using Putty got into my Nano Slim+ box but still no way in any of the /usr folder tree can I get anything other than read only permissions so still cannot copy across form my /root/.xbmc/media/fonts the arialuni.ttf file. Just cannot write to the .usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts folder. Maybe need to log in as usr instead of root but I have tried but needs a password I do not know ??

Can anyone help please, as it would be good if I can find a way to get full unicode support in subtitles especially for the difficult Thai character set.and could be useful for many here unless I am missing something and it has already been cracked for Thai character subtitles.

Is there maybe an .XML file somewhere for the subtitle configurations that can point the XBMC Subtitle addon to a TTF file (arialuni) on another location in the /root folder tree where I can write to? That maybe a workaround.

If you can't do anything with system fonts and willing to mess with sub. You can convert sub to ASS format which allow embedded font or Graphic Sub like VobSub or PGS.

[raymw]

Thanks oldpoem for response. Not sure how to do that but anyhow I want it so Thai family can just select the XBMC Subtitles box and it finds one if available and correctly shows it with Thai characters rahter than rectangular boxes. Does anyone know if there is any way to get that arialuni.ttf file into that read only correct subtitle folder I mentioned.

Whoops sorry I realise it is my newbie error as I see I have posted this in the Windows section so maybe I should repeat it in the Linux section to more likely find the help I need.

[cw-kid]

Hi

Anyone figured out how to display Thai font in Aeon MQ5 yet? The method I used for Aeon MQ4 doesn't seem to be possible any more, as in MQ5 the font.xml file contents are different and there is no longer a section called <name>Font_List</name> where I can change just that to the arial.ttf file.

More details here

Thanks

[linesma]

I just wanted to say thank you for this thread. I added the arialuni.tff font to my C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\media\Fonts and to C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\addons\skin.confluence\fonts and it worked! Thank you again for helping me solve a problem that has vexed me for a while!