Yathosho
17th July 2003 15:46 UTC

font name from its file name
is there a possibility to query a font file for the fonts name?

example: comic.ttf is called 'comic sans ms' and registered as such.

i know one can specify that when one uses font installation functions for nsis, but it would be useful (for my script) to get around that.

Afrow UK
17th July 2003 15:54 UTC

Try opening a font into Notepad and see the layout of the file.
You can then probably read from this file and get hold of the chunk you need.

-Stu

Joost Verburg
17th July 2003 15:58 UTC

Do you want to get the name of a registered or unregistered font?

Do you want to get the file from a name or the name from a file?

Yathosho
17th July 2003 17:35 UTC

i want to read the font name (to register it under that name) from the ttf file. so, unregistered font and name from file.

Joost Verburg
17th July 2003 18:15 UTC

You can write a plug-in using this code:

http://www.codeproject.com/gdi/fontnamefromfile.asp

Vytautas
8th November 2003 21:56 UTC

So has anyone writen a plug-in fot this?

Vytautas

Joost Verburg
8th November 2003 21:59 UTC

There is no such plug-in available in the archive, but you can easily write one using the code above.

Vytautas
8th November 2003 22:30 UTC

Only problem is that my C/C++ skills are almost non existent and I do not have access to MS VC copmiler. I think that it would be quite difficult to convert that code into delphi.

Vytautas

Vytautas
8th November 2003 23:24 UTC

I tried to create this plugin with C++ Builder 6 but I get "Undefined Symbol: 'CFile'" and "Undefined Symbol: 'CString'" errors did I miss a really obvious include or do I need VC for this to work?

Vytautas

rsegal
9th November 2003 03:22 UTC

CFile and CString are MFC classes. Are you building the project with MFC included? I think visual c++ includes this automatically when you use any MFC data type. Sounds like you need to do something different for C++ builder.

Vytautas
9th November 2003 11:04 UTC

OK, in that case are there any equivalents that dont use MFC or is there a way do accomplish this task with just the ANSI C/C++. Cos after a quick look on the net I discovered that getting MFC to work with Borlan C++ Builder is next to impossible, good old Microsoft.

Vytautas

kichik
9th November 2003 11:20 UTC

http://www.codeproject.com/gdi/xfont.asp#xx651625xx

GetFontProperties is what you're looking for.

Vytautas
9th November 2003 11:36 UTC

Thanks kichik I will try to make the plugin tomorrow.

I just noticed one thing. The name of the font from the file is used for the display name in the registry, thats the reason I need this plugin, however the name in the registry has (TrueType) appended to the end of the name if its a TTF file however if tis a FON file it has either (All res) or (VGA res).

Is this always the case with TTF files and is there a way to find out which type is the FON font?

Vytautas

kichik
9th November 2003 12:24 UTC

Well, TTF stands for TrueType Font, so unless the file name is wrong, it should be TrueType. There is another page in CodeProject, in the same category that shows how to get the font type from the file. Maybe that would help.

Joost Verburg
9th November 2003 12:28 UTC

That application above gets the name from both registry and file.

Vytautas
9th November 2003 22:05 UTC

Yes joost but I need to get the name of the font so that I can add it to the registry when installing the font. Kichik I will check out that page.

Vytautas

Vytautas
10th November 2003 05:35 UTC

Attached is a plugin to get the name of a TTF Font from the file. Considering that this plugin only works with TTF files the previous post about registry name change can be disregarded.

Vytautas

PS. Attached file contains the source code with the project files for DEV-C++

PPS. I will create an archive page about this plugin later tonight including usage examples.

PPPS. You should call this plugin using this command:

FontName::Name 'Location of TTF font file'

Vytautas
10th November 2003 13:32 UTC

kickik, or someone else, could you please upload this plugin to the archive. For a more detailed example of the plugins usage check out my font registration page in the archive as it utilizes this plugin.

Vytautas

kichik
10th November 2003 20:43 UTC

Uploaded.

Yathosho
18th November 2003 21:47 UTC

thats a very nice plugin, but i want suggest adding the fontstyle to the output.

try the plugin on all ttf files of the arial family. the plugin will always display

Arial (TrueType)

not

Arial Bold (TrueType)
Arial Italics (TrueType)
etc.

without fontstyle, fonts of the same family aren't distinguishable.

Vytautas
18th November 2003 22:24 UTC

Thanks, I will try to find out how to add that support.

Vytautas

Vytautas
18th November 2003 23:35 UTC

OK found where the problem was, the original code replaces the name with the family name of the font if the font name was '' and for some reason the code is not reading the name. Will post when a fix is found.

Vytautas

Vytautas
19th November 2003 03:07 UTC

Fixed, also removed unused info from the plugin, made it slightly smaller. :) Could someone please update the archive file with this.

Vytautas

Vytautas
19th November 2003 12:12 UTC

Optimized the plugin size a little more.

Vytautas :D

kichik
19th November 2003 14:09 UTC

Updated.

Vytautas
21st November 2003 09:03 UTC

I have struck a problem with my plugin. It seems to generate a BSOD in Win98SE. Could anyone help me test this, e.g. try with different versions of windows to see which platforms have this problem.

Also what is the best way to debug a NSIS Plugin. I used Dev-C++ to create it, source code is included in the plugin.

Any help is greatly appreaciated.

Vytautas :cry:

kichik
21st November 2003 17:54 UTC

According to Dev-C++'s changelog, they have added an option to debug DLLs in version 4.9.8.2 so it should be there somewhere if you're using this version. I suggest you first get more information about the crash, the exact text to start with.

Vytautas
24th November 2003 01:02 UTC

The error I get is this:

A fatal exception OE has occured at 0028:C02A3531 in VXD VWIN32(05) + 00002059. The current application will be terminated.

kichik
24th November 2003 01:10 UTC

You simply put it in the Plugins directory and use it like every other plug-in. For NSIS it's just another DLL.

.

Vytautas
24th November 2003 01:17 UTC

I'm not so good with C++ so I don't know if I'm on the right path here or not, but I thought that if you wanted to let's say step through the execution of a dll you had to link it the the application that used that dll.

Vytautas

kichik
24th November 2003 11:25 UTC

That's true, you need to tell your debugger to run an installer that will use the debug version of the DLL. Once you do that you can set breakpoints and whatnot wherever you want in the DLL.

Vytautas
24th November 2003 12:56 UTC

So I do not need to modify the script in any way for it to work, e.g. I do net have to tell it to use the debug plugin dll instead of the one it got built with.

Vytautas

kichik
24th November 2003 13:06 UTC

If they are the same name, you don't have to change a thing. If you have named the debug build MyPluginDebug, then you'll have to change every MyPlugin::func to MyPluginDebug::func. NSIS only cares about the name of the DLL and its exports. If both are the same, you don't have to change anything in the script.

Vytautas
25th November 2003 22:31 UTC

kickik that didn't quite work as expected but I found and fixed the problem with 'creative' debugging. I used lots of message boxes in the plugin to see where it died and then played around with the code.

Here is the fixed plugin. Could someone upload it to the archive.

Vytautas

Vytautas
25th November 2003 22:44 UTC

kickik as an afterthought the bug involved me using a 'char *sFileName' which caused an error in Win9x when I changed it to 'char sFileName[4096]' it worked ok. Is 4096 going to be large enough to hold any path?

Vytautas

Joost Verburg
26th November 2003 07:34 UTC

The maximum length is MAX_PATH (260).

kichik
26th November 2003 12:51 UTC

And you can always add a check just to make sure.

Do you want to upload a new version or is the one you just uploaded good to go?

Vytautas
26th November 2003 22:44 UTC

I'll upload a new version a little later. Just about to finish an implementation of error checking/reporting.

Vytautas

kichik
26th November 2003 23:37 UTC

You should use this to get the fonts folder:

System::Call "Shell32::SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(i $HWNDPARENT, i ${CSIDL_...}|${CSIDL_FLAG_CREATE}, *i .r0)"
System::Call "Shell32::SHGetPathFromIDList(i r0, t .r0)"

The code you currently have on the Archive corrupts the stack because of wrong quotes ('System... b 'false' ...) and doesn't work without Internet Explorer 3 or 4 (I don't remember the exact version).

This code is missing the free line for the PIDL though. I can't figure out how to do that in the moment but it is possible thanks to COM support in the latest System.dll. Maybe it'll just be easier to add that to your plug-in, since you already have one...

brainsucker
26th November 2003 23:59 UTC

System::Call "Shell32::SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(i $HWNDPARENT, i ${CSIDL_...}|${CSIDL_FLAG_CREATE}, *i .r0)"
System::Call "Shell32::SHGetPathFromIDList(i r0, t .r1)"

System::Call 'shell32::SHGetMalloc(*i . r2)' ; IMalloc
System::Call '$2->5(i r0)' ; ->Free
System::Call '$2->2()' ; ->Release

Ugly, i know. :)
don't forget to change shgetpathfromidlist output from t.r0 to t.rANOTHER.