• Re: Android 13 fonts = solved

    From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Bob Henson on Fri Oct 20 09:57:22 2023
    On 10/20/23 09:51, Bob Henson wrote:
    When I set up the phone, one of the display options was to enable high contrast text to
    improve. Having, as I mentioned, poor eyesight, I set it on. It would
    appear that far from helping with contrast, this setting changed some of
    the text (why only some?)

    Maybe by "high contrast" it means that it makes some text unreadable to
    stand out, who knows.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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  • From Bob Henson@21:1/5 to Bob Henson on Fri Oct 20 15:51:31 2023
    On 20.10.23 9:24 am, Bob Henson wrote:
    On 19.10.23 9:12 pm, Wally J wrote:
    Bob Henson <bob.henson@outlook.com> wrote

    I've just changed to a Motorola g84 5G phone running Android 13 and I
    use dark mode wherever possible. I use the Microsoft launcher. I carried >>> everything forward from my old phone using Google and Microsoft launcher >>> cloud backups. I've just spent the usual long time setting up the apps
    again and my old eyes are taking a hammering from reading settings,
    particularly trying to find settings which will enable changing existing >>> fonts - I can change some of the sizes, but not the font.

    One of the fonts used by the new phone (particularly for popup warnings
    and instructions) has what I can only describe as "double" and/or
    "hollow" letters - the only one I could find to illustrate it is the
    Windows font Colonna MT regular. At the tiny sizes on the phone and
    particularly as it is often used all in upper case, it is all but
    unreadable to me. I didn't see it on my old phone (Android 11 and
    Microsoft launcher) at all.

    Can anyone tell me a) (out of curiosity) what font it is and b) how the
    hell I get rid of it?

    I have no idea how to solve your problem but ignorance can be cured.
    (It's stupidity that can't be cured.)

    Most of my learning on Android is purely empirical though.
    As are most of my solutions to problems that I experience on my phone.

    To that end...
    Can you tell us the steps to run that will pop up that specific font?
    If we can see the problem for ourselves, we can help you more that way.


    It appears in different places, not apparently connected. When it next happens I'll get a screen grab and post it somewhere.

    Without reproducing the problem, I can only shotgun potential solutions.

    In my one-tap-shortcuts folder, I have a screen zoom you might try.
    Package Name = com.android.settings
    Activity Name = com.android.settings.Settings$SecScreenZoomActivity

    Here is a screenshot I made for you showing how 1-tap screenzoom works.
    <https://i.postimg.cc/Xv6LbXDH/screenzoom.jpg>


    I may find that useful, but I'd like to solve the basic problem.


    As for fonts, I know nothing about them so I ran a quick search for you.
    https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=add+remove+android+font>

    The first hit was a shill for this adware program that you might try.
    <https://www.androidauthority.com/install-fonts-android-279698/>
    The adware font switcher that article spoke about is apparently ZFont.
    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htetznaing.zfont2>
    Although that app doesn't specifically mention Motorola phones (AFAIK).

    Other hits confirm font-change procedures can be manufacturer specific.
    <https://www.howtogeek.com/443808/how-to-change-fonts-in-android/>
    Where they suggest the launcher that I use, "Nova launcher" for this.
    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher> >> And they suggested the Action Launcher (but I wouldn't go that far).
    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionlauncher.playstore>


    I've read quite a few of these results already - but they don't explain
    what I need to know - where the font comes from and what makes Android
    use it. When I find that out, I can then use the information in those
    results to change the font (hopefully) - but I need to know what to change.

    This hit says some launchers add the ability to change the fonts too.
    <https://www.guidingtech.com/change-android-fonts-without-rooting/>
    Where they suggest the "Go Launcher" but it has ads so who wants that.
    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gau.go.launcherex>

    As far a my previous research goes, it says that launchers only change
    the fonts used within the launcher, not any general Android fonts.


    This also suggests "iFont" for isntalling new fonts onto Android.
    <https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-install-fonts-on-android/>
    But it too has ads, so I'd only use it if the changes are persistent.
    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kapp.ifont>

    While this explains the difference in terms of font changing for rooted
    versus non-rooted Android systems (where most of our phones are unrooted). >> <https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-new-fonts-on-the-android-platform/>

    This one covers an app called "Font Installer" but I can't find it.
    <https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-new-fonts-on-the-android-platform/>

    In summary, I'd be able to help you more if I could empirically reproduce
    your issue - but until then - above are some things for you to consider.

    Thanks for all your efforts. I was hoping someone would recognise my description of the font so I could then apply the sort of information
    you have posted.



    Having carried on searching myself, I have accidentally stumbled on the
    answer to the problem. It was not a separate font. When I set up the
    phone, one of the display options was to enable high contrast text to
    improve. Having, as I mentioned, poor eyesight, I set it on. It would
    appear that far from helping with contrast, this setting changed some of
    the text (why only some?) to the double letters that caused the problem
    - making readability much worse, not much better. My guess is that it
    might have worked has I not been using dark mode. Either way round, the
    Android devs got it horribly wrong. I've unticked the setting and the
    horrible text has gone away. Some checking showed that the items
    previously "doubled" were quite low contrast items, but they are now at
    least readable. It's fairly typical these days - they make a half
    hearted attempt to change something, only to not check out all the
    options and make it worse.

    --
    Tetbury, Gloucestershire , UK https://visittetbury.co.uk/

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  • From Wally J@21:1/5 to no@thanks.net on Fri Oct 20 13:54:17 2023
    candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote

    On 10/20/23 09:51, Bob Henson wrote:
    When I set up the phone, one of the display options was to enable high contrast text to
    improve. Having, as I mentioned, poor eyesight, I set it on. It would
    appear that far from helping with contrast, this setting changed some of
    the text (why only some?)

    Maybe by "high contrast" it means that it makes some text unreadable to
    stand out, who knows.

    Since I was completely ignorant of how to resolve Bob Henson's problem,
    I did some digging (as ignorance can be cured - stupidity can't)...

    I looked for where my phone would set "high contrast" fonts which found
    High contrast fonts
    High contrast themes
    High contrast keyboards
    High contrast fonts shortcuts

    But I couldn't find a _direct_ way to get to those settings.
    It found them _only_ when I run a search from within settings.

    That's strange (if it's true there are no _direct_ steps).
    Settings > Display > Search for "Visibility enhancements"

    Of course, since you can do almost anything you want to do in Android,
    I created a one-tap shortcut so that I can get there efficiently in a
    single tap - but it is strange there's no step-by-step in settings.
    Package Name = com.samsung.accessibility
    Class = com.samsung.accessibility.Activities$AccessibilityViewClearActivity

    Notice the package name is NOT "com.android.settings", so this is a Samsung-specific activity - which may be different on Bob's phone.

    Note: You start in "Settings" (com.android.settings) but at some point you
    are moved to Samsung settings (com.samsung.assessibility); so that's
    perhaps why there isn't a _direct_ way to get there from settings???
    --
    The whole point of Usenet is to find people who know more than you do.
    And to contribute to the overall tribal knowledge value of the newsgroup.

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  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Wally J on Sat Oct 21 11:42:54 2023
    On 10/20/23 12:54, Wally J wrote:
    Notice the package name is NOT "com.android.settings", so this is a Samsung-specific activity - which may be different on Bob's phone.

    Note: You start in "Settings" (com.android.settings) but at some point you are moved to Samsung settings (com.samsung.assessibility); so that's
    perhaps why there isn't a _direct_ way to get there from settings???

    Bit strange it's not a native feature.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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  • From Wally J@21:1/5 to no@thanks.net on Sat Oct 21 17:30:17 2023
    candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote

    On 10/20/23 12:54, Wally J wrote:
    Notice the package name is NOT "com.android.settings", so this is a
    Samsung-specific activity - which may be different on Bob's phone.

    Note: You start in "Settings" (com.android.settings) but at some point you >> are moved to Samsung settings (com.samsung.assessibility); so that's
    perhaps why there isn't a _direct_ way to get there from settings???

    Bit strange it's not a native feature.

    The only way to know what's native is for us to ask the Pixel owners.

    Even then, very few people have the necessary skills to determine
    Package Name = ?
    Activity Name = ?

    It's not that it's hard to do (as it's trivial to do in most cases).
    It's just that 999,999 out of a million people don't know how to do it.

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  • From Wally J@21:1/5 to Bob Henson on Sun Oct 29 17:45:45 2023
    Bob Henson <bob.henson@outlook.com> wrote

    Having carried on searching myself, I have accidentally stumbled on the answer to the problem. It was not a separate font. When I set up the
    phone, one of the display options was to enable high contrast text to improve. Having, as I mentioned, poor eyesight, I set it on.

    I just noticed that there is a setting to create a shortcut in my "high contrast fonts" GUI which I hadn't noticed being there before I helped you.
    <https://i.postimg.cc/Dzys8fTr/contrast01.jpg>

    Maybe "something" I did created this "high contrast font shortcut" option?
    <https://i.postimg.cc/BZRZ8Ftc/contrast02.jpg>

    Bob... can you check your Samsung (or anyone else with a Samsung) to see if
    you also have this "high-contrast-font shortcut" option? Or is it just me?

    1. Go to Samsung Android 13 "Settings"
    2. Tap "Display" & scroll to the very bottom of the activity
    3. Under "Looking for something else?" tap on "Visibility enhancements"
    4. Longpress on the "High contrasts fonts=On/Off" description line

    When you do that, does another activity pop up which allows you to create
    and remove a "High contrast fonts shortcut" with an "on/off" switch?
    <https://i.postimg.cc/BZRZ8Ftc/contrast02.jpg>

    I don't remember seeing that option to create the font before.
    Was it always there?

    Or did I add it accidentally (by creating that shortcut on my own)?

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