Simple chinese characters on Bangle.js2

[nravanelli]

As per the subject, as anyone been successful in implementing a Chinese symbol font into the Bangle.js2? I did see the (Fonts (+150) and the Font Korean apps in the App Loader, but how can we actually use them or am I missing something?

[gfwilliams]

Yes, Chinese language fonts are implemented and work fine. You just need to install the "All Fonts" app: https://banglejs.com/apps/?id=fontall

Realistically it didn't make sense to have a Chinese-only font file as it'd only be about 80% of the size of the 'All Fonts' one.

Some info at https://github.com/espruino/BangleApps/blob/master/README.md#api-reference

But basically:

• you can check if the fonts are there by seeing if: Graphics.prototype.setFontIntl exists
• Do g.setFont("Intl") to set the font (or g.getFont will suggest the international font if it's available and your text contains international chars)
• Then just do g.drawString with a UTF8 string. Dealing with UTF8 in source code can be a bit difficult, so I'd suggest just escaping it with \u1234 in strings you use, but once that is done it works great.

eg:

g.clear(1);
g.setFont("Intl"); // or Intl:2 for a pixel-doubled font
g.drawString("你好，这是一段中文文字。",0,0); // works when uploaded from IDE code pane - but not from the REPL.
// or you could convert to UTF8 escapes in your browser with:
// console.log("你好，这是一段中文文字。".split("").map(s=>(s.charCodeAt()<128)?s:"\\u"+s.charCodeAt().toString(16).padStart(4,0)).join(""))
g.drawString("\u4f60\u597d\uff0c\u8fd9\u662f\u4e00\u6bb5\u4e2d\u6587\u6587\u5b57\u3002",0,0); // works from anywhere

[nravanelli]

Fantastic - thanks for the starting point @gfwilliams

[enaon]

g.drawString("你好，这是一段中文文字。",0,0); // works when uploaded from IDE code pane - but not from the REPL.

can you please explain this?

I did a test, placed this
global.test=function(){g.clear(1).setFont("Intl",2).drawString("Τέστ στα Ελληνικά")}
on a file, then uploaded to the bangle, and when I run test() it displays fine o the screen. Is there a catch I do not get?

you mean we cannot enter the text in the left hand side of the editor? It works if copy pasted, but is this what you mean?

[gfwilliams]

you mean we cannot enter the text in the left hand side of the editor

I mean UTF8 doesn't always get sent across right when it's pasted in the terminal. It's something that maybe could be fixed, but effectively when code is sent from the right-hand side it goes through some transforms (like ensuring strings are UTF8 encoded) whereas if you just paste it into the REPL, because it's handled char-by-char, it's not always sent right.

For instance if I paste g.drawString("你好，这是一段中文文字。",0,0); into the REPL I get this:

Which is not correct.

If I write the UTF8 to a file and then run the command from the REPL, that's fine though.