ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!

[ZincAlloy]

Ipod Video port comes with Unifont version now.

[psycho_maniac]

I added the unifont version to all the to-do lists tables. If you dont think that a unifont version will work for a certin screen you can just remove it.

[yapper]

A quick update on the 160x128 greyscale wps:
Unifont won't work (it's too big) - DejaVuSans does work (and looks better than Helv to me). Is DejaVuSans considered to be significantly better than Helv in terms of usefullness?

8 step volume is possible

I'm thinking of dropping the logo and using the extra width to make the icons larger (and making the shuffle/repeat icons more like the 'standard' Cabbie - currently they don't match due to the limited number of pixels). Any changes probably won't be done before the weekend though.

[lenny]

Just another quick note on the font issue. It's important to choose not just a Unicode font, but I personally think East Asian language support is desirable, so the Unicode font needs to support CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) characters.

As an example, even though DejaVu is a Unicode font family, it does not support CJK.

Extract from the language coverage file for DejaVu:

ja     Japanese                                      (0/6538)           (0/6538)           (0/6538)    
ko     Korean                                        (0/2443)           (0/2443)           (0/2443)    
zh-cn  Chinese (simplified)                       0% (2/6765)        0% (2/6765)        0% (2/6765)    
zh-hk  Chinese Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set      (0/2213)           (0/2213)           (0/2213)    
zh-mo  Chinese in Macau                              (0/13063)          (0/13063)          (0/13063)    
zh-sg  Chinese in Singapore                       0% (2/6765)        0% (2/6765)        0% (2/6765)    
zh-tw  Chinese (traditional)                         (0/13063)          (0/13063)          (0/13063)    

So out of curiosity, would it be possible to use a font like DejaVuSans and then "fill in the gaps" (CJK) with a font like Unifont (assuming they were the same size), thereby making a new, complete font with good looking latin characters?

This whole business about making two versions of each wps seems like a lot of work and a bit of a messy solution. Especially because if a complete, good-looking font showed up, it would negate the need for two versions. But who am I to say that, it's not like I'm porting any wps's.

[lazka]

here is a preview version of dejavu with chinese simple/trad and japanese support. korean needs to be done.

thank python for the merging magic

The merged font is the "firefly" bitmap version, which is GPL (http://www.study-area.org/apt/firefly-font/). There is also a better version of it available but is now under "ARPHIC PUBLIC LICENSE" which isn't  GPL compatible. (with 10% more characters... so.. not a big deal) http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/CJKUnifonts

http://lazka.maturaball06.com/public/

[ZincAlloy]

Awesome!
I wonder if it might be even better to extend the helvR fonts with additional characters, though. DejaVu sure is beautiful, but the characters are a fair bit wider than helvR's, which improves readability, but means more scrolling, especially on targets with small screens.

[lazka]

no prob... i will try to find as many good looking fonts as possible and we can merge them like we want to.

so.. unifont, dejavu+extra, helvR+extra.. that should cover all ports, right?

[ZincAlloy]

excellent.
Yes, I think that would cover all ports.
is it a problem that we're using several sizes of helvR?

[lazka]

which ones?

[ZincAlloy]

10 and 12. The Gigabeat port might even be using 14.

[Llorean]

I don't see it as a problem if different players use a different size of the same font. I don't even see it as a problem if they use entirely different fonts in some cases, if it's necessary.

But at the very least, different sizes of the same font certainly preserves a look, and trying to make all the players use the same size font is silly. Because of different pixel densities, the same size font won't look the same size on each player anyway.

[ZincAlloy]

A quick update on the 160x128 greyscale wps:
Unifont won't work (it's too big) - DejaVuSans does work (and looks better than Helv to me). Is DejaVuSans considered to be significantly better than Helv in terms of usefullness?

8 step volume is possible

I'm thinking of dropping the logo and using the extra width to make the icons larger (and making the shuffle/repeat icons more like the 'standard' Cabbie - currently they don't match due to the limited number of pixels). Any changes probably won't be done before the weekend though.

yapper, I think you wouldn't gain much by dropping the logo. You can't scale up the icons much more. Make them any bigger and they will mess with the text.
As for the redesigned icons: I think they look good. no need to change them. They work well on a greyscale screen.
Is there absolutely no way to make a unifont version possible? You could drop some unimportant lines (like the one that says "next song/track:". a simple "next:" at the beginning of the next line will do) for the unifont version and nudge the text and graphics around a bit. It might fit. Needn't look perfect as long as it's working.

before you do any more work on this one we need to decide about the final greyscale bar design.
Opinions, please!

[perfectdrug]

hi
I just want to say that the unifont version for the h300 theme doesn't work. The bitmaps aren't shown.
I have made themes myself before, and in my understanding this is because the wpsname has to be the same as the corresponding bitmap folder. so in this case you can't just use the existing cabbie default folder but have to create a cabbie unifont one.
when i change this everything works as expected.
So now I don't know if the developers can fix this restriction because you have already specified the folderpath.
have you actually tested the unifont version on device?
just a heads up
your work is appreciated.

(and one more tiny nitpick make sure to not include thumb.db files in the zip)

[ZincAlloy]

too bad. it worked on the simulator.
just tried absolute paths. won't work either.



I keep deleting the thumbnail files. it's either these or ds_stores

[crzyboyster]

What's with the Cabbie 3.0 theme you just released? I think that the default theme version looks a LOT better than it.