Working around the lack of an XTINY font on the Fenix 5

When I ported my Peter's (Race) Pacer across the different devices I had more issues with the different width*height dimensions than I had with the fonts.

but i agree with your sentiment that it would be nice to have proportionally the same font sizes accross devices.

I assume that when you port a watchface the extratiny font is more important than for data fields (as in there it's too small to see while running)

I just replied on your other thread before seeing this one. Yes, I have had the same problem. I downloaded Roboto Condensed from google fonts and created my own smaller matching font since I needed something smaller.

I just replied on your other thread before seeing this one. Yes, I have had the same problem. I downloaded Roboto Condensed from google fonts and created my own smaller matching font since I needed something smaller.

Did you include all alphanumeric characters or just numbers?Any idea how much extra memory is eaten up by doing that? I am already really tight on memory for my METAR/TAF widget and am further constrained by the fact that Fenix Chronos, 5 and 5S only have 58 kB available. I have no idea how the next generation watch has LESS memory available than the previous device.

Cheers,
Douglas

Actually, with some families of devices, small, tiny, and xtiny are all the same, some tiny and xtiny the same, etc. The native fonts are really defined by the platform groups, and are dependant on what they need in the base FW/apps. Number fonts get more interesting as the size/relative size varies by device, along with what characters are supported both by the device, as well as the font size.

for porting to the f5 device, I've had to change the font for "text a" to allow for "text b", and other than a custom font, that's about all you can do.

I am already really tight on memory for my METAR/TAF widget and am further constrained by the fact that Fenix Chronos, 5 and 5S only have 58 kB available.

Actually, it's not just the newer Fenix devices. It's all the CIQ 2.x devices (well the f5x does have much more available, but it's an exception)

I've seen tables that say the max sizes with CIQ 2.x are 64k for widgets and watchfaces, 32k for DFs, and 128k for apps, but the thing is 6k of that is used by the VM/FW is some way, so watchfaces and widgets can really only be 58k, 26k for DFs and 122K for apps.

It's a bit like CIQ apps on the fenix3. While you can do apps that are 64k, as soon as you start doing a .fit recording, 7k is grabbed by the system, so you can only have a recording app under about 57K for the f3.

Did you include all alphanumeric characters or just numbers?Any idea how much extra memory is eaten up by doing that? I am already really tight on memory for my METAR/TAF widget and am further constrained by the fact that Fenix Chronos, 5 and 5S only have 58 kB available. I have no idea how the next generation watch has LESS memory available than the previous device.

Cheers,
Douglas

So far I only included the individual characters I use:

<font id="robotocond" filename="fonts/RobotoCondBold.fnt" antialias="true" filter=" ACFGPTadegiomnrst" />

I was surprised that this did not seem to have a noticeable effect on memory given the statements in the manual (hence including antialias). I was very surprised to see that the fenix 5 has no more memory than the 3, and I use too much memory so my wdiget will only run on the 5x which has a lot more. The Epix and the 5x have more memory than the other watches. I assume this is needed for maps, but I'm still surprised apps only get 64KB in this day and age.

The memory needed for custom is very dependent on the size of the font. With a font that's only 15px high, you can do many more individual characters in the same amount of memory than one that's 150px high, for example.

...and I use too much memory so my wdiget will only run on the 5x which has a lot more.

Actually, an option is to change your widget into a watch-app, as while a widget can only be 58k, a watch app can be 122k. You'll loose the "quick view" nature of a widget. Or do a widget for the 5x and a watch-app for the 5s and 5.

Actually, with some families of devices, small, tiny, and xtiny are all the same, some tiny and xtiny the same, etc. The native fonts are really defined by the platform groups, and are dependant on what they need in the base FW/apps.

Yeah, I don't really have a problem with some fonts being the close to the same size but I do think that the closer in size the fonts are, the less flexibility there is. Or, if they wanted to do what they did with the Fenix 5 series then I would have preferred that they tack on an XLARGE, which became the new "large". As it stands now, the screen size of the Fenix 5 has increased (excluding the 5S) but the actual available real estate using native fonts has been reduced. But as you say, we are stuck with what we have.

As for fonts being defined by the platform group, that seems short sighted in that Garmin should really want to have some UX/style consistency across the devices.

And finally, given that I can put a microSD card measuring 15x11×1 mm with 64 GB on it into my phone I see little reason why you would have available memory limits for apps in the kBs, unless it's a hardware and/or OS issue. And while I'm not a hardware guy, I am having trouble understanding how that could be a limiting factor either.

Cheers,
Douglas

The memory needed for custom is very dependent on the size of the font. With a font that's only 15px high, you can do many more individual characters in the same amount of memory than one that's 150px high, for example.

Yeah, I'm just looking for some ballpark numbers. I don't want to even bother exploring that option if it will eat up, say, 2 kB for the number set when using a small font.

Cheers,
Douglas