ngui label: fallback to "default font" if character is not available.

[Lotti]

Hello Aaren!
I noticed that there is some sort of fallback on uilabel's font. Let me explain with an example.

If I use a font that has only the ascii charset on a uilabel that contains utf-8 character (chinese), the uilabel will show chinese text with a font that is different from mine ("fallback font"). Can you confirm this?

Plus, there is a way to force the fallback font with some method/hack? we need this to bypass our custom font only for certain languages. Thanks.

[ArenMook]

Assuming you are talking about dynamic fonts here, this is all Unity. NGUI merely requests characters from Unity. I'm not sure what happens inside and what "fallback" functionality is provided.

[Lotti]

yes, it's dynamic font. thank you for your reply, i will investigate.

substantially, it prints characters in ARIAL instead of our setted font, when the character is not available.

[Lotti]

Ok! i think i'm done.

Could you check if this is the "best place" to overwrite the setted font (on editor) on each UILabel? Thank you.

1.        
2. public Font trueTypeFont
3.         {
4.                 get
5.                 {
6.                         if (mTrueTypeFont != null) return mTrueTypeFont;
7.                         return (mFont != null ? mFont.dynamicFont : null);
8.                 }
9.                 set
10.                 {
11.                         if (mTrueTypeFont != value)
12.                         {
13. #if DYNAMIC_FONT
14.                                 //FIX per cambiare font per le lingue non supportate - VALERIO
15.                                 #if !UNITY_EDITOR
16.                                 if (Translate.defaultFontLanguages.Contains(Localization.language)) {
17.                                         value = Translate.defaultFont;
18.                                 }
19.                                 #endif
20. ........
21.  

[Lotti]

the previous snipper will not work on devices..

this one works.
UILabel.cs

1.         public Font trueTypeFont
2.         {
3.                 get
4.                 {
5.                         //FIX set an alternative font for each languages that require it - Lotti
6.                         #if !UNITY_EDITOR
7.                         if (Translate.alternativeFontLanguages.Contains(Localization.language)
8.                         && mTrueTypeFont != Translate.alternativeFont) {
9.                                 trueTypeFont = Translate.alternativeFont;
10.                         }
11.                         #endif
12.                         //ENDFIX
13.  
14.                         if (mTrueTypeFont != null) return mTrueTypeFont;
15.                         return (mFont != null ? mFont.dynamicFont : null);
16.                 }
17.                 set
18.                 {
19.  

[ArenMook]

I wouldn't do it like this. NGUI's fonts can be set up as "reference fonts", where your labels use a dummy font that points to a real one. Then when you switch languages you can also switch the font your reference font is pointing to.

[Lotti]

how to create a reference font? i don't find this option inside font maker

[ArenMook]

Create a game object, attach UIFont to it, save it as a prefab.