[ROOT][5.0+] Font Picker for Android [07.10.2017]

IgorEisberg · Apr 27, 2016

ROM COOKERS: You can embed this package into your custom ROM, you don't need my permission. A credit would be appreciated, though.

As some of you probably know, the SomcFontSelector.apk in the Japanese firmware for the latest devices is pretty useless to us. It has only 4 built-in fonts with no options for other languages and no possibility to create font packs, or anything similar. So... I coded one of my own.

I present you my own Font Picker (formerly, Font Selector). Completely remade in Android Studio. Supports specialized and very flexible font packs that are specifically made for this selector.
I also include some ready-to-use font packs and there are more to come, as well as a quick guide for creating your own font packs for this selector.

REQUIREMENTS:

Any device running Android 5.0 or newer. (May not work properly on devices with MediaTek SoC)
Rooted + Custom Recovery
Deodexed
Disabled Signature Verification (Patched compareSignatures in 'services.jar')
(Android 7.0+) SELinux on Permissive Mode

Screenshots from my Xperia Z1 customized stock-based ROM, showing off the Biko font pack:

There are 2 variants with only one difference: a Universal one with a launcher icon, the other is for Xperia devices, and it doesn't have a launcher icon. Instead, a "Font" shortcut will automatically appear in your Settings->Display. And that's the reason why I kept the package name "com.sonymobile.fontselector" for this variant, because Xperia's Settings app checks if it's installed.
If the shortcut doesn't appear, flash the Universal variant. That will place a "Font" launcher icon instead.

Downloads:

Xperia: Font Picker (with a Settings->Display shortcut)

Newer device than the ones below: Any firmware.
Xperia Z3+/Z4: Any 32.x.X.x.x (Android 5.1.1+) firmware.
Xperia Z2/Z2a/Z3: Any 23.5.X.x.x (Android 6.0.1+) firmware.

Universal: Font Picker (with a Launcher icon)

Any device running Android 5.0+

Font Packs (by Dr. Death):
http://xdaforums.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/root-fonts-xperia-t3525492

Font Packs (by Igor Eisberg & Metallijim): [Not maintained]

Alex

Anna

Arial

Biko
The font used in the screenshots, my personal favorite.

Cocon

Comic Neue

Exo

Expletus Sans

FreeMono

Helvetica Neue (by @ryandxter)

Inconsolata

New Circle

Overpass

Rosemary

SF New Republic

SF Orson Casual

Sony Sketch

Times New Roman

Ubuntu

Your Own Font Packs:

Download and extract this compilation: AdvancedApkTool-FontPicker.zip (Huge thanks to the creators of Advanced ApkTool and Apktool, makes life much easier)
Browse to "AdvancedApkTool/3-Out/MyFont.apk".
assets/fonts: Copy-paste here variants of a single kind of fonts (i.e. MyFont-Regular, MyFont-Bold, MyFont-Italic, etc)
AndroidManifest.xml: Change the "package" from "com.mysite.myfont" to any package name you want (it has to be unique)
res/values/strings.xml: Change the "font_name" from "My Font" to anything you want.
res/xml/fonts.xml: Change all of the file names to the file names of your fonts (i.e. "MyFont-Regular.ttf" to "Rosemary-Regular.ttf")
Go back to "AdvancedApkTool" folder and run "Advanced ApkTool.exe".
Select "3 - Recompile Files", and then ENTER.
Select "1 - MyFont.apk", and then ENTER.
Select "4 - Recompile, Sign And Then Zipalign", and then ENTER.
Press the Y key, and the ENTER.
When the recompilation is complete, go to "4-Done" folder, rename "MyFont.apk" to anything you want and copy it to your phone.
Install as any other APK.

.

Beetle84 · Apr 28, 2016

Dows this use .ttf files for the font?

amey2606 · Apr 28, 2016

Great work man.
Just one question, i use iFont for changing my fonts.
Will flashing this conflict with iFont.?
And will this work on a normal Odexed rom.?

Thanks. ?

whalesplaho · Apr 28, 2016

Great job here... Im using ifont but doesnt change all system fonts, would like to use dis buh can i use ttf font with dis or make it compatible with ttf font. Thanks

IgorEisberg · Apr 28, 2016

amey2606 said:
Great work man.
Just one question, i use iFont for changing my fonts.
Will flashing this conflict with iFont.?
And will this work on a normal Odexed rom.?

Thanks.

Yes, once you flash this ZIP it will replace stuff in system partition, but after that no other changes are made to the system partition by the app itself. iFont, however, physically replaces fonts in order to install them, which means my selector takes priority as soon as you select a font pack. There shouldn't be any crashes, if that's what you ask.
The even better thing is that the font selector uses only the characters that are avaiable in the fonts pack, and for the missing characters it falls back to Roboto. Installing fonts with iFonts does not, they will fall back to some ugly fallback font instead.
It will work on an odexed ROM up to the point you wipe the dalvik-cache. Once you wiped the dalvik-cache, you'll be stuck in a bootloop (signature checking will fail, thus has to be patched). This is actually true for any other modified/third-party APK that you attempt to flash on an odex ROM

whalesplaho said:
Great job here... Im using ifont but doesnt change all system fonts, would like to use dis buh can i use ttf font with dis or make it compatible with ttf font. Thanks

Beetle84 said:
Dows this use .ttf files for the font?

Unlike what iFont made you believe, a font in Android is not a single TTF file, it has variants like Light, Bold, Italic, BoldItalic, etc. And these variants have to be mapped to the corresponding font families they should replace. You can decompile one of my font packs to see how a font pack actually works. The key file is the "/res/xml/fonts.xml".
Here's how this XML file should look like (I setup the Biko font to only replace Sans Serif, Sans Serif Condensed, SST and SST Condensed fonts, but you can actually replace even more less-used fonts):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<familyset>
    <family name="sans-serif">
        <font weight="100" style="normal">Biko-Light.ttf</font>
        <font weight="100" style="italic">Biko-LightItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="300" style="normal">Biko-Light.ttf</font>
        <font weight="300" style="italic">Biko-LightItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="400" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="400" style="italic">Biko-Italic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="500" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="500" style="italic">Biko-Italic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="900" style="normal">Biko-Black.ttf</font>
        <font weight="900" style="italic">Biko-BlackItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="normal">Biko-Bold.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="italic">Biko-BoldItalic.ttf</font>
    </family>
    <family name="sans-serif-condensed">
        <font weight="300" style="normal">Biko-Light.ttf</font>
        <font weight="300" style="italic">Biko-LightItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="400" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="400" style="italic">Biko-Italic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="normal">Biko-Bold.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="italic">Biko-BoldItalic.ttf</font>
    </family>
    <family name="x-sst">
        <font weight="100" style="normal">Biko-Light.ttf</font>
        <font weight="100" style="italic">Biko-LightItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="300" style="normal">Biko-Light.ttf</font>
        <font weight="300" style="italic">Biko-LightItalic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="400" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="normal">Biko-Bold.ttf</font>
        <font weight="500" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="500" style="italic">Biko-Italic.ttf</font>
        <font weight="900" style="normal">Biko-Bold.ttf</font>
        <font weight="900" style="italic">Biko-BoldItalic.ttf</font>
    </family>
    <family name="x-sst-condensed">
        <font weight="400" style="normal">Biko-Regular.ttf</font>
        <font weight="700" style="normal">Biko-Bold.ttf</font>
    </family>
</familyset>

whalesplaho · Apr 28, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
Yes, once you flash this ZIP it will replace stuff in system partition, but after that no other changes are made to the system partition by the app itself. iFont, however, physically replaces fonts in order to install them, which means my selector takes priority as soon as you select a font pack. There shouldn't be any crashes, if that's what you ask.
The even better thing is that the font selector uses only the characters that are avaiable in the fonts pack, and for the missing characters it falls back to Roboto. Installing fonts with iFonts does not, they will fall back to some ugly fallback font instead.
It will work on an odexed ROM up to the point you wipe the dalvik-cache. Once you wiped the dalvik-cache, you'll be stuck in a bootloop (signature checking will fail, thus has to be patched). This is actually true for any other modified/third-party APK that you attempt to flash on an odex ROM

Unlike what iFont made you believe, a font in Android is not a single TTF file, it has variants like Light, Bold, Italic, BoldItalic, etc. And these variants have to be mapped to the corresponding font families they should replace. You can decompile one of my font packs to see how a font pack actually works. The key file is the "/res/xml/fonts.xml".
Here's how this XML file should look like (I setup the Biko font to only replace Sans Serif, Sans Serif Condensed, SST and SST Condensed fonts, but you can actually replace even more less-used fonts):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <familyset> <family name="sans-serif"> Biko-Light.ttf Biko-LightItalic.ttf Biko-Light.ttf Biko-LightItalic.ttf Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Italic.ttf Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Italic.ttf Biko-Black.ttf Biko-BlackItalic.ttf Biko-Bold.ttf Biko-BoldItalic.ttf </family> <family name="sans-serif-condensed"> Biko-Light.ttf Biko-LightItalic.ttf Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Italic.ttf Biko-Bold.ttf Biko-BoldItalic.ttf </family> <family name="x-sst"> Biko-Light.ttf Biko-LightItalic.ttf Biko-Light.ttf Biko-LightItalic.ttf Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Bold.ttf Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Italic.ttf Biko-Bold.ttf Biko-BoldItalic.ttf </family> <family name="x-sst-condensed"> Biko-Regular.ttf Biko-Bold.ttf </family> </familyset>

Nicely said. I do noticed more dan one font in Android font folder too... Dnt know if its possible if we upload our ttf fonts and maybe yhu make dem compatible with yur font changer please or a tut on how we can make ours. Thanks

IgorEisberg · Apr 28, 2016

whalesplaho said:
Nicely said. I do noticed more dan one font in Android font folder too... Dnt know if its possible if we upload our ttf fonts and maybe yhu make dem compatible with yur font changer please or a tut on how we can make ours. Thanks

If you have some readable fonts, that also have at least Regular, Italic, Bold and BoldItalic variants, I'll make you a font pack. It takes no effort anyway.
EDIT: I can also generate all of these variants myself if you at least have the Regular variant. Just make sure it's readable font, not a decorative one.

Metallijim · Apr 28, 2016

Nice work, feel free to use some of my font zips however you wish.

Sent from my D6603 using XDA-Developers mobile app

IgorEisberg · Apr 28, 2016

Metallijim said:
Nice work, feel free to use some of my font zips however you wish.

Sent from my D6603 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Thanks mate. My time is quite limited, hope you can make some font packs as well, I think it's time to move to this font selector in place of flashing ZIPs.

Those who have downloaded the Font Selector already, please redownload and reflash. I fixed the font packs not sorting alphabetically.

Metallijim · Apr 28, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
Thanks mate. My time is quite limited, hope you can make some font packs as well, I think it's time to move to this font selector in place of flashing ZIPs.

Those who have downloaded the Font Selector already, please redownload and reflash. I fixed the font packs not sorting alphabetically.

Makes it feel more like a part of the software (like Samsung do) I'll see what I can do in my spare time.

Sent from my D6603 using XDA-Developers mobile app

whalesplaho · Apr 28, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
If you have some readable fonts, that also have at least Regular, Italic, Bold and BoldItalic variants, I'll make you a font pack. It takes no effort anyway.
EDIT: I can also generate all of these variants myself if you at least have the Regular variant. Just make sure it's readable font, not a decorative one.

here is a zip file of my fonts.... i still have some in apk format, dnt know how dah ll work for yhu!
thanks a ton.
https://tusfiles.net/j5sa7j19vs2m

Pandemic · Apr 29, 2016

Howto add more fonts manually ?
Sorry if i missed it

IgorEisberg · Apr 29, 2016

Pandemic said:
Howto add more fonts manually ?
Sorry if i missed it

I just added a quick guide on the main post under "Your Own Font Packs", enjoy!

ladalgigi · Apr 29, 2016

No reboot

@IgorEisberg

Hi,

I've flashed your icon version, and when I try to change font, when I tap reboot, nothing happens !?

My phone is xperia m2 rooted, with M5style v4.5mu1 (deodexed), xposed installed and disabled signature verification checked in xperia xposed module by serajr.

Any idea of the problem ?

Thanks for your work, and your help :good:
ladalgigi

IgorEisberg · Apr 29, 2016

ladalgigi said:
@IgorEisberg

Hi,

I've flashed your icon version, and when I try to change font, when I tap reboot, nothing happens !?

My phone is xperia m2 rooted, with M5style v4.5mu1 (deodexed), xposed installed and disabled signature verification checked in xperia xposed module by serajr.

Any idea of the problem ?

Thanks for your work, and your help :good:
ladalgigi

Sounds like a highly modified ROM with a lot of possibilities of conflicts. I don't know what happened there but if nothing happens when you click Restart, there's something off about that ROM. Please keep in mind that stock ROM (just deodexed) was being in mind when making this mod, and I don't use Xposed, I create my mods myself.

whalesplaho · Apr 29, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
I just added a quick guide on the main post under "Your Own Font Packs", enjoy!

dnt know wah im doing wrong.... tha fonts aint showing up in font manager.
i have a zip file of a modified font... please help @IgorEisberg

IgorEisberg · Apr 30, 2016

whalesplaho said:
dnt know wah im doing wrong.... tha fonts aint showing up in font manager.
i have a zip file of a modified font... please help @IgorEisberg

That's quite obvious. Your font pack is being rejected because you defined font files that don't exist in res/xml/fonts.xml. You only have Braket-Regular.ttf in the assets folder, while you define many others like Bracket-Light.ttf, that don't exist in your assets folder. Either set them all to link to Bracket-Regular.ttf, or make the missing fonts manually, like I do, with a professional software like FontCreator. It has a very useful Glyph Transformer.

whalesplaho · Apr 30, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
That's quite obvious. Your font pack is being rejected because you defined font files that don't exist in res/xml/fonts.xml. You only have Braket-Regular.ttf in the assets folder, while you define many others like Bracket-Light.ttf, that don't exist in your assets folder. Either set them all to link to Bracket-Regular.ttf, or make the missing fonts manually, like I do, with a professional software like FontCreator. It has a very useful Glyph Transformer.

I didnt know brov... I just use yur base work!
I once used font creator but aint really good at it. will font creator convert a regular font to italics, bold and so on?
thanks for yur response!

IgorEisberg · Apr 30, 2016

whalesplaho said:
I didnt know brov... I just use yur base work!
I once used font creator but aint really good at it. will font creator convert a regular font to italics, bold and so on?
thanks for yur response!

Yep, it has automatic transformations.

whalesplaho · Apr 30, 2016

IgorEisberg said:
Yep, it has automatic transformations.

please sorry for bugging yhu.... can yhu make me a lil note on how to go bout it and font creator link please!
thanks

[ROOT][5.0+] Font Picker for Android [07.10.2017]

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