Web Development Strategy @ Microsoft : ASP.NET / PHP / Silverlight / Java / UX : Chinese

Silverlight: Font Embedding

lmoroney@microsoft.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:32:12 GMT

There's some great stuff been put together by Slyi on his blog around subsetting and embedding fonts. You've all been asking me lots of questions about it, but he answers it better than I ever could! Check it out at: http://wpf-e.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2B248D261D0E0035!122.entry...(read more)

Silverlight: Convert Text to Path

lmoroney@microsoft.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:07:22 GMT

The WPF APIs provide a FormattedText object that allows you to export its contents as a Geometry, which in turn allows you to generate its contents in the XAML Path Mini Language.

Here's an example of a Web service that takes in the text, typeface, size and other parameters, loads them into a FormattedText, and uses this to generate a Path as a result.

You can then take the returned value from this Web service and load it into the Data attribute of a Path to get the desired text rendered in Silverlight. This will allow you to have any text from any font rendered in your Silverlight page.

This will allow you to:

Provide text from unsupported fonts
Provide text from languages other than English

Here's the Source Code for the Web Service:

[WebMethod]
public string Text2Path(String strText, string strCulture, bool LtoR, string strTypeFace, int nSize)
{
    // Set up the Culture
    if (strCulture == "")
        strCulture = "en-us"
    System.Globalization.CultureInfo ci = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(strCulture);

    // Set up the flow direction
    System.Windows.FlowDirection fd;
    if (LtoR)
        fd = FlowDirection.LeftToRight;
    else
        fd = FlowDirection.RightToLeft;

// Set up the font family from the parameter
FontFamily ff = new FontFamily(strTypeFace);

// Create the new typeface
System.Windows.Media.Typeface tf = new System.Windows.Media.Typeface(ff,

FontStyles.Normal, FontWeights.Normal, FontStretches.Normal);

// Create a formatted text object from the text,

// culture, flowdirection, typeface, size and black

FormattedText t = new FormattedText(strText, ci, fd, tf, nSize,

System.Windows.Media.Brushes.Black);

// Build a Geometry out of this
Geometry g = t.BuildGeometry(new Point(0, 0));

// Get the Path info from the geometry
PathGeometry p = g.GetFlattenedPathGeometry();

// Return the path info
return p.ToString();

}

Here's an example of calling this Web service using some Korean Text:

This Web Service returns a String containing the Path Mini Language:

In Silverlight you use the <Path> tag to define a path. It takes a 'Data' attribute which takes a string in the path mini language format, so all you ahve to do is set it to the contents of the value returned from the Web service.

Here's the Korean text from earlier, being rendered in Silverlight using this path.

In the next installment of this blog I'll go into adding a text box to the page, overlaying it on the Silverlight content using windowless mode. It will support text input using an IME, and then use ASP.NET AJAX to call this service, get the response and load it into the path.

Silverlight: Using Text from Unsupported Fonts

lmoroney@microsoft.com — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:00:41 GMT

In Expression Blend you have the facility to convert text from a textblock into a XAML path. This then has no dependency on the original font, and the text will be rendered by Silverlight.

So, for example here's Expression Blend with some text written in Brush Script MT size 48.

With the TextBlock selected, go to the Object menu, select 'Path', and then select 'Convert to Path'. Your text will be converted into a Path with strokes defined by the Path mini-language.

You can see here how it is rendered by Silverlight in IE.

Thus, when using Expression you can create static text using the path mini language, and Expression does the grunt work for you. This also allows for foreign language support also, giving you static text without requiring a font download.

Enjoy!

Silverlight and Beijing 2008 Olympics

lmoroney@microsoft.com — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:35:47 GMT

I've been working on a project involving Silverlight and the Beijing 2008 olympics. We demonstrated this at MIX 07, and the session is online here: http://sessions.visitmix.com/default.asp?event=1011&session=2010,2011&pid=XB005&disc=&id=1557&year=2007&search=XB005

We also had a hilarious video interview with the Channel9 / On10 folks. You can see it here:

Chinese, and other International Text in WPF/E

lmoroney@microsoft.com — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:10:00 GMT

For our friends in the international community, text rendering is possible by means of the Glyph tag.

So, for example this XAML:

<Glyphs x:Name="GlyphDisplay" Fill="Black" FontUri="./simhei.ttf"

FontRenderingEmSize="48" UnicodeString="你好, 你好吗？" />

</Canvas>

Will render Chinese text in WPF/E.

Please note a couple of things:

1: You have to use the FontUri to specify the font, and you must use a font that supports the characters.

2: Make sure that you are licensed to redistribute said font.

I am working on a Whitepaper for MSDN to show how this can be used in conjunction with ASP.NET controls for IME-based text input in far eastern languages.

If you read Chinese, check out my colleague, Hong Chao Wang's blog for more details...

http://blog.joycode.com/joy/archive/2007/04/06/100553.aspx