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TheMotoGuides
- Font Creation for V3x.
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How to make V3x fonts
How to make fonts for your V3x
For R252211LD firmware only
by nevarDeath
There are other guides for this (how do you think I learned?) but they require hex editing and assume you know how to recompile the CG4 with correct checksums. So this guide is the simplest way (I have found, please do post if you have a simpler way) to make a V3x font. In this guide I explain everything in as much detail as possible, so anybody can do it.
What you need:
Flash & Backup 3.0.053
SHXCoDec 2.66
SBF Recalc
3G Font Tool
Font Creator 5.5
Getting Started
I know this is a lot of software to install, but once you get it, installed, it's not hard to do. The main thing about this is keeping everything organized. I made a folder inside my fonts folder called "creating" and I kept eveything there and in its proper folder. Believe me, this will save you hours of frustration! So let's get started!
Step 1:
First we need the font from your phone. So connect your phone and fire up Flash & Backup. You should get a screen like this(minus the red arrows and numbers):
Don't get intimidated by all the arrows and numbers. Just go over this checklist. These number are associated with their respective arrows in the picture
1)Click "Read Data" so you're on the right screen to pull the firmware information off your phone
2)Click the checkbox next to "CG4 (Langpack)" This ensures you're only downloading the part of the firmware that deals with the languages and their fonts
3)Ensure that your phone is actually being seen by F&B3
4)Make sure that you have the correct phone profile selected or you'll get a corrupt file
5)Make sure to select "SHX (S-Records file)" from the dropdown so it's in the correct format for these instructions
Step 2:
Now hit the "Read Data" button. It'll pop a window like this (minus the red circle):
Then it'll say "Reading code group: CG4" this will take about 2 minutes or so. Don't turn off your computer or disconnect the phone while this is going on. Just let it run until it says "Operation Done". Pay attention to what's circled there, that's where this file is being saved to on your computer
Step 3:
Now navigate to where your backup was made. It should be something like "C:\Program Files\Random's Developments\Backup\[dateandtimeofbackup]". Once you're in that folder, before you do anything else rename it to "currentfilename_CG4.shx", that way you know what it is. Now copy it to your font creating folder. I suggest you make a folder within your font creating folder called "Originals" and put it there. This way you won't have do grab the CG4 off your phone everytime you make a new font.
Step 4:
Now we have to split the .SHX file open. The .shx file contains the language pack and font info, but also has bootloader info that we just don't need (till we recompile the font! Don't delete it!) so open SHXCoDec and click the Open button:
Once you've found the file you want, double click it and it's ready to be split. Just hit the "Split Source SHX file" button:
This only takes a second, it'll display two rows in the big white box, once it says "100%" in at the bottom in the middle of the window, you can close SHXCoDec.
Step 5:
If you look in your originals folder, you'll see some new files:
The red arrow is pointing at the file that we will be editing next! So fire up 3G Font Tool to extract the fonts from this CG4.smg file:
First click the "Open CG4" button. Open the CG4.smg file that the arrow in the above screenshot is pointing to. (Should be the only file available in the open window) Then hit the "Save Font" button. This will create 3 more files in your originals directory:
As you can see these are valid TrueType fonts. This makes our job much easier! You can delete "CG4.smg_Font2" we don't need it. Now don't edit any of the files in your "Originals" directory! If you leave them as is, you'll never have to do the above steps again. Now pick the font you want and make a folder in your "creating" directory the same name as your font. (In my case it'll be Quake_v2). Then copy all the files from your "Originals" folder into your new font directory. This way you can edit them to your hearts content, and if something gets screwed up, you can just copy over the originals again.
Step 6:
Ok now that you've got all the originals copied into your new font directory ("fonts/creating/Quake_v2" on mine) it's finally time to edit the font! This is the most tedious part. It involves lots of copying and pasting. So open up Font Creator. Now I like to have my windows tiled vertically, with the font I'm making on the left-hand side, the Font3 from the phone in the middle, and the font1 from the phone on the far right. I have discovered that if I open them up in this order 1)Font1 2)Font3 3)Font I'm making, then when I hit "Window > Tile Vertically" it will tile them in the order I like. Like this:
I know all three of these look the same but the one on the far left is 25% bigger than the ones on the right. All I am doing for this example is adding lowercase letters to my Quake font. I tried all uppercase and all lowercase, now I'm going to see how it looks with both mixed. So now all you do is copy the appropriate symbol and paste it where it goes in the phone font files. I find it's faster to select the glyph to copy and hit ctrl C on your keyboard rather than to right click the glyph, hit copy, then right click where you're pasting it and hit paste. Also remember to save often! This task is too time consuming not to save every five to ten minutes!
A short note on Using Font Creator:
if you notice, above the glyph is an abbreviation of a keyword describing the glyph:
to view the entire keyword, right click on the glyph and hit properties, it will tell you the full keyword. Also if you can't find a paticular glyph, go to "Edit > Search" or hit ctrl f on your keyword and type in the abbreviation of the glyph you're looking for. If it's in the file, it'll find it. Some fonts I've downloaded off the net don't have these keywords, but most do
Step 7:
Ok, so now you've got your font inserted into the phone font files? Before you close Font Creator, look in your folder and make sure Font1 is no bigger than 98kb and Font3 is no bigger than 11kb, otherwise you will get a "Font too big" warning. If they aren't, just delete characters you won't miss, like the arabic ones to cut it down to size (Sorry Arab motomodders! You guys can delete the English ones!) If they are, then launch 3G Font Tool, click "Open CG4" and choose the same CG4.smg that we split earlier (the one in your new font directory, not in the original directory!), then click on font1 on the right:
then click "Replace" and select your edited font1. Then do the same with font3. Once you've replaced them, click "Save CG4". It'll ask you what you want the filename to be. I make the filename exactly the same as the original except I add "_fontname" to the end of it. Now you're done with that!
Step 8:
Now go into your new font directory and delete the original CG4.smg file. Rename the one you compiled to match the old one exactly (remove the "_fontname") and make sure the file extension on it is still .smg . Once you've done that you're ready to compile it back to a flash file!! Almost done!
Step 9:
Open up SBF Recalc. You will get a screen like this Minus the red arrows and numbers of course):
1) Click this and select your new font folder. This is why I suggest you make a new folder for each new font is because if you only have one split CG4 in a folder, this program will automatically find all the files it needs to compile them
2) Click this to recalculate the checksums. If you don't do this, the file will not flash correctly.
3) Click this to compile your font into a flashable .sbf file!
Step 10:
Go to your new font directory and there should be a new folder in it called "SBF Flash file". Open this and inside will be a .sbf file with the same name as the .shx we downloaded from the phone. You may name it whatever you like, but make sure it has the .sbf extension! I name mine "firmwareversion_languagepack_fontname_by_nevarDeath" that way you know exactly what it is and what phone it's for, and who made it of course ;). So now just open up RSD lite, connect your phone, Open the file and hit "Start". It'll flash and reboot your phone automatically and you will have your nice new font! After that, zip up the .sbf file and pm me for my e-mail address, e-mail it and I'll post it on ModMyMoto, as long as it doesn't look completely crappy!
Things I have noticed about fonts on the V3x:
If the font is slanted very much, they overlap on the phone and look crappy. If there is a font where some letter extends over the top or bottom of other letters (like the coca cola font) it'll white out everything underneath it or above it and look horrible. Also if you want your flash file to be a .shx file, just flash it to your phone, then read it off your phone with Flash & Backup per Steps 1 & 2 of this guide.
Big thanks to:
cash7c3 for locating the guide that got me started, answering questions, and listening to my excited jabbering about this new skill
Miener Einer for making the 3G Font Tool. That tool is why we no longer have to hex edit the font out of the language pack, THANK YOU!
chick1440 for converting the 3G Font Tool to English!
The Cor3 for writing the original guide that got me started
DX Factor for helping me sort out the compilation problems
Thanks to all the authors of the programs used in this project and anyone else that helped me that I forgot about. (I think I got everybody though!)
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