Sins Rebellion Fonts

I read it just fine but I know others (one or two) have had issues.

Currently I don't think so but maybe one will come soon.

The words are all mashed together it's like they used double bold.

Can you provide a screenshot of what you're seeing?

I fully agree with Jugurtha!

The fonts are horrible so I tried to find a mod. What I found was XiskiosFontMod but unfortunately it is not working with Rebellion... :'(

The font definetly needs a fix! I really hope that this issue will be solved soon. At the moment the game is nearly unplayable!!

undoreal, that mod will not work even with entrenchment or diplomacy as it was for the vanilla sins 1.05 which was back in 2008, and it is from BEFORE my mod updater could update mods and even existed.

harpo

I really hope that someone will fix this. Would be appreciated of course if the developer would do it directly... :/

Again a screenshot would help determine exactly what the issue is.

Indeed, as 99.9 % of all people have absolutly no issues.

I am actually quite fond of the fonts used ingame.

The fonts look pretty, but they are hard on the eyes after a relatively short time.  A screenshot may not help, as it may be an issue of scaling and LCD monitors.  Many of us have cheaper twisted-nether monitors which can make the fonts a bit fuzzy at the edges of the screen (if it's a large monitor, or you're too close to it).

Some fonts exhibit this much more easily than others.

Playing other games, I don't seem to notice this, but on this one I find myself constantly trying to clean my glasses, which likely means the fonts are having an issue with my monitor and/or the resolution (1920x1080).

Being able to change fonts would make it possible to at least try to address this issue.  If I knew more about how to write mods for this game, I'd do it myself.

 [edit]

After playing around with the graphics settings a bit more, I've found that (for my system), the font is more clear with no or 2x anti-aliasing.  If I push it to 4x or 8x, it gets subtly blurred and the edges tend to blend into the background.

Perhaps something about this font tends to get lost more easily than other fonts, when anti-aliasing is used.

In the mods Dir, create a folder that will be the name of the mod.
eg 'My Font Mod'

Inside your new mod folder, create another folder called 'Font' or go the the steam install dir and copy the Font folder to your new mod folder. You should do the later as you may need some files from it.

Find a font you would like to use from windows (using MS word to check them) or download from 1000s of free ones on the web.

Add the font to the mods Font folder.

There are 2 types of files in the font folder
.TTF ---> True Type Font or the .font will call it TypeFaceName
 .font ---> How the curtain ttf is displayed

a typical .font will look like ...

ButtonLabel.font

TXT
    Font
    Height 24
    TypeFaceName "lcars"

lcars.ttf is one i installed for star treks soa2 mod

if you get that far and want more help, post back

I have the same issue on my setup as well.

I should preface this whole discussion by saying that I have very poor eyesight (corrected by glasses), but I am particularly sensitive to these types of things.  Back in the day my eyes would quickly fatigue if my CRT monitor's refresh rate was off by a HZ or two. Whenever possible I run with larger fonts and ones that are as easy to read as possible.  Things like the ClearType tuner in Windows also help.  

I'm running Sins Rebellion @ 1920x1200 - Dell 24" Professional LCD - Radeon 7970 via DVI on my i5 2500k with 16GB of DDR3. I am currently running Windows 8, but had the same issues under Windows 7 when I bought Rebellion this summer.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwgUDd2R4aiQcjlUdlhqZjBHS0U/edit

You can sort of see the issue in the screenshot I have attached, uncompressed PNG file.

If you look at the left edge of the Q in Quit, or O in options etc - there is blurring on the edges.

This is just the most straight forward example I can find - but unfortunately Sins Rebellion causes me almost instantaneous eye fatigue.

I reinstalled it tonight, as there have been recent patches, but it is the same eye fatigue for me now as it was this summer.

I should also say that I have previously tried to replace the in game fonts with other True Type Fonts. This largely addressed the fatigue - as other truetype fonts were sharper - but they weren't sized correctly so text didn't fit in text boxes anymore - which made it difficult to play.

I find this very frustrating, I loved the first Sins game and bought Rebellion as soon as it came out.

Unfortunately, since my purchase this summer (2012) I've only been able to log less than an hour in total play time because of how much discomfort the fonts cause.

It would be nice if this issue could be addressed by the developer, or an alternate font provided that fits within the text / menu boxes that is easier to read could be recommended.

Thanks,

Vay

(Font size for easier reading) 

I am afraid this might be more a problem with your eyesight than the fonts used in the game.

I am wearing glasses of considerable strenght myself and to tell the truth the main menu isnt the most easiest thing to read in the world. But it is also very far away from being difficult to read. I opened the file you saved on googledocs and watched it in high magnification. On the edges of the letters the white becomes gray. Could be Anti Aliasing? Although it is not noticable for the "normal" eye. You should play arround with different modes of Anti Aliasing (box, edge detect... ect...) and find out if it is better. Or disable AA alltogether. 

Aside from the game menus I find the fonts in Sins of excellent readability. Especially the infocards in the game. And I am running an 11 year old CRT operating at 1280 x1024 @ 85Hz.

I would recommend you the following:

1. Buy a very very large screen. And then use it with a lower resolution. That makes everything larger to view. Sadly on modern flatscreens quality suffers a bit if the device is not set to the native resolution, but if you have that much trouble, this is the least of your worries. 

2. Find out what font and what font size is used in Sins. Then write lenghy ingame text in that font and size. Then copy the text 2 lines below and experiment with different fonts until you have found one that doesnt need more space but is easier to read for you.

Thanks for your reply and taking the time to look at my screenshot.

I have tried different anti-aliasing settings, but will double check box/edge detection.  When I was changing the settings it did not seem to make a significant difference.

The original Sins back on my old 19" Monitor at 1280x1024 - no issues, which is the same resolution you are currently running at.  I have wondered if the fonts are optimized for a certain resolution as on my 24" monitor (which is not a small monitor but not as large as a 27 or 30) at 1920x1200 I have issues.

Running the game in windowed mode at lower resolutions is somewhat better.  

However, this isn't just an issue of legibility for me. 

Having the menu open, even for a short period of time - causes me significant eye fatigue. This is the same when I go into the game itself and the result is that my eyes feel so tired after even a few minutes that I have to shut down.

While my eyesight is quite poor, this is the only game I can think of where I have had this issue. I regularly play other games on my PC of various genres, and have not run into the same issue.  The only comparable feeling of fatigue I have encountered has been when the refresh rate of an old CRT was off/significantly below 75 hz. 

I'm not the first person to post about this, and probably won't be the last, and while we are clearly a minority of posters - it would be nice if the developers might have a suggestion or recommendation in this regard.  

If it is in fact an issue of personal visual acuity, other games have made allowances for individuals with visual acuity issues, such as the addition of a colour blind mode to Battlefield 3.   The option to choose a higher contrast / easier to read font or a font size option in game would be a nice touch. 

Vay

Has anyone found a solution to the text readability problem without having to lower the screen resolution of create custom mods? I can't even make it passed the first tutorial because of the font used in game  :'(

THANK YOU for this! I was having the same blurry text issue--this worked like a charm. Using this method I was able to change all the fonts to some actually-readable ones, and can now crank up my AA. Much appreciated!

For those of you wanting to try this yourself, but don't know anything about mods (like me), I thought I'd record exactly what I did:

• You can find the mod folder by launching Sins and going to Options > Mods > Show Mod path
• As myfist0 said, create a new folder there to store the mod. The folder name will show up in the Sins mod interface later.
• Definitely copy the whole Font folder into your new mod folder from the Steam install. On my Win7 box it was in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Font
• There are four default fonts. To change all fonts with a broad brush, search and replace these font names with your chosen font in all files ending in .font. Do this once for each default font. Note you don't need the .ttf extension:
• SinsAgencyBold
• SinsArialBlack
• SinsArialBold
• SinsOfficinaSans
• If you don't have a replace-in-files utility I recommend the free Notepad++. (Search > Find in files) Don't forget to set the filter to *.font
• Launch Sins and go to Options > Mods. You should now see the name of the folder you created in the Available Mods column. Select it and click Enable Mod, then Apply Changes and enjoy soothing crisp text!

If you did have the fonts in the Font folder, you could actually upload the mod and officially become a 'modder'.

 Wincustomize SoaSE Mods Upload section, sign in with same ID as SoaSE forum

edit: ugh forgot about jpg compression. I'll fix this in a bit.

So I've followed the guidelines in this thread and can change the font, but for some reason Sins appears to reference the default weight of the font family I'm referencing (Trade Gothic regular instead of bold compressed for example) or reverting to a default typeface somewhere. Where should I double-check to make sure everything's sorted properly?

Screenshots for reference, 1920x1080. Unmodded Rebellion: Agency looks ace as a headline/title or button label:

http://i.imgur.com/Z0wTF1j.jpg

But things fall apart when it's used as body copy. As a graphic designer, this drives me up a wall:

http://i.imgur.com/OVQA9TB.jpg

Agency is a fine scifi font when it's huge. You'll see it on movie posters, but never ever as body copy (names, titles, etc.) If you do, the designer should be smacked firmly across the face.

With Trade Gothic bold compressed in the mod font folder:

http://i.imgur.com/Fy0cpUf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OkGWRy5.jpg

Not bold compressed but the regular weight instead. Lot less character than Agency but holy balls I can read the body copy. I'll probably put Agency back for titles and junk, but the body copy has to be fixed. Any thoughts on this?

I would say you need to find a font that is bold by default. There is no setting for that in the font file and Sins fonts does include a separate bold ttf.

Well, I have separate OTF files for that font and I picked the bold compressed file for use with the mod. Hm...now that I'm looking at extensions, all the Sins fonts are TTFs. Maybe possibly solved my problem. 

edit: Nope! I'm still poking around to see what the problem could be. What about EnabledMods in the mod folder? Do I have to adjust anything here? Currently says

TXT
Version 0
enabledModNameCount 0

Shot a support ticket to Stardock, but they don't support mods, which I should've known. As a thread bump, here's what I sent them:

Maybe someone will come along and see where I'm getting mixed up. I'd like to get into Rebellion, but seriously -- Agency is killing me. 

If you just want to replace the default font, there is a mod already

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/429281

If you want to continue with experimenting, I would suggest running the dev.exe version of the game.  The game will update the font real time as you change the .font files.  This way you can trial and errors different font name definition without restarting the game every time.  Hope this helps.

The font is horrible. The fact that it's bold is very bad. It feels like some boss at the company had his child do this part.

The color, yellow, to a black background, I feel make the problem even worse. It's indeed difficult to read the text.

Or perhaps, did ironclad games outsource it to india and did not care to test it for themselves?

The font need fixing, I payed for this game, you ought to make the text readable without my eyes bleeding.

To be honest the game comes with an abomination of a font, badly brutalised version of Agency FB font. What I 've done is taken the same font in its original form and withouth any boldness, plus slightly scaled it up 1 or 2 sizes and it looks really nice now.

Anyone who cant read the fonts or is unhappy about them - try this, for Rebellion 1.82:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mv0mvnrohxb8dx/SinsOfASolarREB_182_Fonts.zip

Your post should have gone in the mods section rather than necro a thread.

Yeah, allrighty then.