Edge 130 TINY font is smaller than XTINY (at least in the simulator)

I was working on the Edge 130 layout of one of my datafields and I noticed that the TINY font size is actually smaller than XTINY.

I tried this simple code with Connect IQ 3.0.10 SDK:

Sys.println("TINY text size for ABC: " + (dc.getTextDimensions("ABC", Gfx.FONT_TINY)).toString());
Sys.println("XTINY text size for ABC: " + (dc.getTextDimensions("ABC", Gfx.FONT_XTINY)).toString());

With the following results:

TINY text size for ABC: [39, 27]
XTINY text size for ABC: [48, 27]

As you can see the XTINY is noticeable wider and the same height even when is not bold as TINY and obviously bigger to the eye.

Is this expected? Does it make sense?

Thanks.

Top Replies

Travis.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago +1

I'm pretty sure this is being caused by a typographical error in our font definition that we compile into the font files used by the simulator. I just happened to stumble upon that error Wednesday and…

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jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

The standard fonts in CIQ (the FONT_* ones) are based on the native fonts used on the device, and at times you can run into stuff like this. But there are aso times that the sim might not match the actual device (the ones I know of have been corrected though), so maybe someone with an E130 can check this for you.

FCS7 over 6 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Maybe Travis.ConnectIQ has more insights and can comment on/confirm this as he was helping on another thread about fonts and text positioning in the past: https://forums.garmin.com/forum/developers/connect-iq/1275046-drawtext-positioning-differences-between-edge520-device-and-simulator

Thanks.

Travis.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago

I'm pretty sure this is being caused by a typographical error in our font definition that we compile into the font files used by the simulator. I just happened to stumble upon that error Wednesday and have already made a fix, but I still need to verify it is correct.

FCS7 over 6 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

Great news.

I will be looking forward the fix. Thanks!

Travis.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

I've verified. Before the fix, the dimensions of the string "ABC" for the XTINY and TINY fonts were

[48, 27]
[39, 27]

After the fix, they are..

[38, 27]
[39, 27]

Travis

FCS7 over 6 years ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

Thanks for looking into this an fixing it Travis.ConnectIQ.

I guess this fix will be included in the next release of the SDK, can you confirm?

Also I wanted to ask why even after the fix the text size will be so similar. Only one pixel wide difference and exact same height makes me wonder if the difference will be noticeable enough to the eye to make any sense. Shouldn't XTINY be really smaller than TINY like in other models.

For example in the Edge 520 the difference is really noticeable and it makes much more sense both, in width and height:

TINY text size for ABC: [24, 17]
XTINY text size for ABC: [17, 12]

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Travis.ConnectIQ over 6 years ago in reply to FCS7

I *think* this will make it in to the 3.0.11 SDK, but I can't guarantee it.

Up until very recently, device teams have typically decided what fonts were available on the device and what sizes were exposed to ConnectIQ. On the edge130, the XTINY font is something like BEBAS_NEUE_17 and TINY is BEBAS_NEUE_BOLD_17. The actual font size is the same, but the 'larger' one is bold.

jim_m_58 over 6 years ago in reply to FCS7

It's similar on the f5/f5+ devices where tiny and xtiny are the same height but tiny is bold, so this isn't unique to the e130

FCS7 over 6 years ago

Thanks everyone for your answers.

Kind regards.