How to Change XGuide Font

[LewE]

I am using XGuide with the Community3 skin. I've attached a screen print of the current appearance.

I would like to make a couple changes to its appearance.

1) I would like to make the font of the Program Names in the Guide larger. The current font is small and OK for viewing on my PC but I use XGuide over a MediaMVP and they are too small for viewing at a distance on a television.

2) I would like to make the Episode Title (at the bottom of the screen) appear in Yellow.

There are several skin.xml files and it is not clear which parameters in which files should be changed to make the changes I desire. Please identify the files and entries to be changed. Thanks for any help.

I've tried making hit or miss changes but each change must be followed by closing PVRX2 and then restarting it, a process that is quite slow and, even then, I can't be sure what unintended effects there might be because of the changes I just made.

[Kevl]

Xguide is in the skin directory under guide2j. There are a number of skin files in the directory. I think 3 or so are for each of the 3 types of guide. At the top of each skin file there is a block of definitions for the fonts used. You change the font there.

I think the fonts are courier by default (could be wrong).

But from your picture above I think you are suffering from the dreaded blocky fonts issue.

Kev

[Fatman_do]

To change the title to be yellow at the bottom of the screen, change this line in the skin-horiz.xml file..


<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeTitle" color="Header" size="12" />

Make this be..

<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeTitle" color="Yellow" size="12" />

I do not know how to control the text in the guide, I couldn't seem to control it.
I thought it was because I didn't include this textstyle in the communityskin...

<TextStyle name="ProgrammeTitle" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>

I tried it with this and there was no change..
<TextStyle name="ProgrammeTitle" color="Yellow" typeFace="Tahoma" size="16" style="bold"/>

[LewE]

Thanks for the help with changing the program "title". What had me confused before is that the "SelectedProgrammeTitle" is being used to display the Episode Title; not the Program's Title. In any event, I tried what you said and it made the change I wanted.

I do not know how to control the text in the guide, I couldn't seem to control it.>

It was nice to see that it wasn't just me and that someone who understands skinning wasn't able to make the font of the program grid bigger.

From my investigation, I found that XGuide only uses three different sized fonts for everything (based on my measuring the size of the letters) on the program grid. The programs in the grid are in a very much smaller font than the other information displayed. In the skin-horiz.xml file though there are only two sizes defined (12 and 14).

This makes me wonder whether XGuide displays the grid graphically and then resizes it. I haven't been able to determine what original size font it uses and where it is defined though, if this is the case.

On another topic, I really appreciate the Skinning Tutorial you are creating in the Documentation forum. It is very educational.

[Fatman_do]

Cheers,

I am sure once Fla reads this, he will reply with how to fix it in the skin, or mention he needs to do that in the code of the plugin.

[fla]

In skin-horiz.xml there is a TextStyle named "Guide" used to draw the show names in the grid so you can try increasing the size on it.

Are the blocky fonts caused by the fact that XSuite is a legacy plugin using skins in the skin directory instead of the skin2 directory? How much work is required (skinning and coding) to port an old plugin to the new pvrx2 standard? If it's relatively easy and would fix the fonts then it might be worth it to move XSuite to pvrx2.

[LewE]

In skin-horiz.xml there is a TextStyle named "Guide" used to draw the show names in the grid so you can try increasing the size on it.

My (Community3 version of) Skin-Horiz.xml file doesn't have a TextStyle with that name. This is the relevant section of the file.

<TextStyles>
<TextStyle name="CurrentTime" color="Header" size="14" />
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeDesc" color="General" size="12" />
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeTitle" color="Yellow" size="12" />
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeChannel" color="General" size="12" />
<TextStyle name="ChannelNames" color="General" size="12" />
<TextStyle name="TimesPeriods" color="General" size="12" />
</TextStyles>

I've attached the whole COmmunity3 version of the file.

I went into the BLUE version of the plugin skin and found that it had quite a few more TextStyles defined.
<TextStyles>
<TextStyle name="ScreenName" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="17" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="ProgrammeTitle" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedGeneralText" color="Yellow" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeDesc" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="12" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeTitle" color="Yellow" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeChannel" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="13" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="Guide" color="LightGray" typeFace="Courier" size="12" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="ChannelNames" color="White" typeFace="Courier" size="12" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="TimesPeriods" color="White" typeFace="Courier" size="13" style="regular"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeTitle" color="Yellow" typeFace="Tahoma" size="12" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="SelectedProgrammeDesc" color="White" typeFace="Tahoma" size="12" style="bold"/>
<TextStyle name="CurrentTime" color="LightGray" typeFace="Tahoma" size="12" style="bold"/>
</TextStyles>

I don't remember where I got this Community3 version of the skin from. I chose it because it gave me channel icons and 7 channels and 3 hours of listings at a time.

Do I just have a bad version of the skin-horiz.xml file?

[Fatman_do]

You can add that textstyle (I am adding it as well, must have missed it).

Add the line..
<TextStyle name="Guide" color="General" size="12" style="bold"/>

[LewE]

You can add that textstyle (I am adding it as well, must have missed it).

Add the line..
<TextStyle name="Guide" color="General" size="12" style="bold"/>

I added the line and it made the effects I wanted. Thanks.

What about all those other TextStyle definitions that are in BLUE but not Community3? Can I add those too?

[LewE]

But from your picture above I think you are suffering from the dreaded blocky fonts issue. Kev

Now that I'm getting a handle on the questions I raised, can you tell me what the fix is for the "blocky fonts" or point me to a discussion about it.