Quality of fonts

Quality of fonts

The native font rendering on my LG GC900 (Viewty Smart) phone is truly excellent, especially as the phone has an 800x480 screen. Yet when I run Opera Mini 4.2, the fonts are chunky to say the least. Is this because Java apps in general don't have access to native font rendering functions? Or is it that OM uses its own fonts to make it easier to program for multiple phone types? Or is it for some other reason?

I don't think OM uses it's own fonts because different phones that I've used it with and on other phones that I've seen it display different fonts. It usually displays the system font (Nokia). Maybe your phone is engineered differently to use specific fonts for MIDlets.
Try comparing other MIDlet display font with that of OM and see which one renders excellently.

Some offtopic, but try Bolt. It has its OWN fonts.

Originally posted by garryknight:

The native font rendering on my LG GC900 (Viewty Smart) phone is truly excellent, especially as the phone has an 800x480 screen. Yet when I run Opera Mini 4.2, the fonts are chunky to say the least. Is this because Java apps in general don't have access to native font rendering functions? Or is it that OM uses its own fonts to make it easier to program for multiple phone types? Or is it for some other reason?

What you're seeing is most likely a common issue on all high-res LG handsets -- the buffer is upscaled from QVGA instead of running in 'true' WVGA resolution. Try running any MIDlet on your phone and you're likely to see the same effect. I've seen it myself on at least LG GD900 and LG KM900.

BTW, have you tried Opera Mini 5 on your phone yet? I'd be curious to know how well it performs.

Ah, thanks for that. That's the obvious reason that I should have thought of myself, having been a software developer myself in the past. When I heard about OM5 I went to the download page but got the message that it isn't available for my phone yet. Fingers crossed that I won't have to wait too long. Though, of course, I'm not expecting to see better fonts.

Thanks also to Slyphax and siealex for your responses.

Originally posted by garryknight:

Ah, thanks for that. That's the obvious reason that I should have thought of myself, having been a software developer myself in the past. When I heard about OM5 I went to the download page but got the message that it isn't available for my phone yet. Fingers crossed that I won't have to wait too long. Though, of course, I'm not expecting to see better fonts.

Thanks also to Slyphax and siealex for your responses.

That message you see on our download doesn't necessarily mean that Opera Mini 5 won't work on your phone. It works decently well on similar LG handsets. You can always install Opera Mini 5 by following the 'Other download options' link and then locate 'Opera Mini 5' halfway down the next page.

Don't forget to backup any data you cannot afford losing in your current installation of Opera Mini 4.2 before attempting this.

Originally posted by dmarks:

Originally posted by garryknight:

The native font rendering on my LG GC900 (Viewty Smart) phone is truly excellent, especially as the phone has an 800x480 screen. Yet when I run Opera Mini 4.2, the fonts are chunky to say the least. Is this because Java apps in general don't have access to native font rendering functions? Or is it that OM uses its own fonts to make it easier to program for multiple phone types? Or is it for some other reason?

What you're seeing is most likely a common issue on all high-res LG handsets -- the buffer is upscaled from QVGA instead of running in 'true' WVGA resolution. Try running any MIDlet on your phone and you're likely to see the same effect. I've seen it myself on at least LG GD900 and LG KM900.

BTW, have you tried Opera Mini 5 on your phone yet? I'd be curious to know how well it performs.

Is that true? Because I used to own a Samsung Jet, and even after reporting to the relevant people that what was downloaded didn't make use of the higher resolution, nothing was done to make the changes to the jar/jad so that it took into account of handsets that had higher resolutions. In the end, I had to edit the jar file myself to make it use the proper resolution.

I bet it's the same case on LG phones. It's being forced to use the lowest denominator even though they have higher resolutions. It's not because of "the buffer is upscaled from QVGA instead of running in 'true' WVGA resolution", but more a case of Opera not doing the proper jad/jar settings for the individual models.

Originally posted by p9719756:

Originally posted by dmarks:

Originally posted by garryknight:

The native font rendering on my LG GC900 (Viewty Smart) phone is truly excellent, especially as the phone has an 800x480 screen. Yet when I run Opera Mini 4.2, the fonts are chunky to say the least. Is this because Java apps in general don't have access to native font rendering functions? Or is it that OM uses its own fonts to make it easier to program for multiple phone types? Or is it for some other reason?

What you're seeing is most likely a common issue on all high-res LG handsets -- the buffer is upscaled from QVGA instead of running in 'true' WVGA resolution. Try running any MIDlet on your phone and you're likely to see the same effect. I've seen it myself on at least LG GD900 and LG KM900.

BTW, have you tried Opera Mini 5 on your phone yet? I'd be curious to know how well it performs.

Is that true? Because I used to own a Samsung Jet, and even after reporting to the relevant people that what was downloaded didn't make use of the higher resolution, nothing was done to make the changes to the jar/jad so that it took into account of handsets that had higher resolutions. In the end, I had to edit the jar file myself to make it use the proper resolution.

I bet it's the same case on LG phones. It's being forced to use the lowest denominator even though they have higher resolutions. It's not because of "the buffer is upscaled from QVGA instead of running in 'true' WVGA resolution", but more a case of Opera not doing the proper jad/jar settings for the individual models.

Believe me, I've tried countless jad configuration options with several WVGA LG devices. None of them solved the JVM buffer upscaling. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Samsung devices are a completely different story.

Originally posted by dmarks:

Believe me, I've tried countless jad configuration options with several WVGA LG devices. None of them solved the JVM buffer upscaling. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Samsung devices are a completely different story.

Ah....then it must be a wrong assumption of mine. Thanks for the clarification. Even editing the manifest file in the jar also doesn't work?

Originally posted by dmarks:

That message you see on our download doesn't necessarily mean that Opera Mini 5 won't work on your phone. It works decently well on similar LG handsets. You can always install Opera Mini 5 by following the 'Other download options' link and then locate 'Opera Mini 5' halfway down the next page.

Thanks. I've already downloaded it, following that same line of thought. It's just that I haven't...

Don't forget to backup any data you cannot afford losing in your current installation of Opera Mini 4.2 before attempting this.

...got around to backing up my data and syncing my bookmarks yet. Busy trying to fix someone else's computer malfunction currently but I'll try installing it soon and get back to you on how it goes, whether it works, and if there are any problems.

Originally posted by dmarks:

You can always install Opera Mini 5

Oh, yes, and I forgot to say: I also downloaded 4.2 so I can revert if I get problems with 5...