How to Override Root Font Size to Create a Better User Experience

There are many benefits to rooting your Android. Root provides access to parts of the phone that were otherwise unavailable, meaning that you can increase the speed of the phone and even install the operating system from another device. The main reason I use root, is to customize my phone to have it exactly the way I want. One of the ways of doing this, is by changing the system’s font.

By changing the font on your Android, you change the entire font. Not just on the home screen, but the text throughout the entire operating system. This is why it requires root access.

What you need

The first step is to go to the Google Play Store and download ‘Font Changer (root)‘. It’s a small download that wont work unless you have rooted your phone.

Choose a font

Using your computer as the easiest option, download a font of your choice. There are loads of websites where you can do this, my personal favourite is DaFont. Take time when choosing your font, it changes everything from the home screen to the texts, and even the web content on some browsers. If you choose a thin font, you may need to change it to large on your phone settings.

Download and transfer the font

Once you have chosen your font, connect your phone to your computer and enter mass storage/USB transfer mode. In your SD card, go to ‘.fontchanger’ and drop the .ttf file there. Then you can safely disconnect your phone.

Setting the font

Visit the Font Changer application. If done correctly, the application should wait for a while as it refreshes the fonts. Once it’s done that, it should display you with the name of the fonts you have dropped in the ‘.fontchanger’ folder. Select the font you have just downloaded and reboot your phone.

Done!

When your phone reboots, your system should have a completely new font throughout. As I mentioned, it may be worth expanding the text size to see it better, which can be done in the settings menu of most Android phones.

Back in the day, web developers, front-end engineers, and UI designers had a bit of an easier job. This is because they weren’t expected to rearrange their code and designs to fit so many different screen sizes.

But in today’s world, if you make a decision that doesn’t take responsive design techniques into consideration it can be doomed to failure.

After all, no one wants to visit a web site to stare at weird shapes, distorted images, and illegible text.

This is why every developer should treat their products and websites like gemstones in their portfolio. These are literally a part of your personal brand and you don’t want to ruin it with bad designs.

Illustration by Forty One

This process of creating responsive designs is deeply connected to content architecture.

Those may involve using media queries, CSS Flexbox, or CSS Grid. That being said, this article will primarily consider a method that is popular among experienced web developers.

Why Should You Adjust the Root Font Size?

In a nutshell, this technique targets the root font-size and it also has to do with why you choose ‘rem’ units with this set-up. If you’re already curious about it, let’s dive right into it.

So if we try to convert px values into rem, we’ll need to do some math. Suppose we want to set the font-size of an element to 4px, but we also want it to be as responsive as possible. To turn it into a ‘rem’ value, we need to divide it into 16px and the result will be 0.25rem. An online converter exists for this purpose as well.

Everything would be fine and dandy if we had a way to turn every ‘px’ value into a ‘rem’ figure more easily, now that rem is considered to be more responsive. Here is how our dreams can come true.

In lieu of dealing with such cumbersome calculations, we can set the root (HTML) font-size to 62.5%. In this case, you can make all the other calculations automatically through the system.

Let’s delve into the details to better grasp the situation. When the root font/HTML size is 100%, the font-size is 16px by default. But, if you set it to 62.5%, the new root value will be 10px.

Now we’re able to translate all the values into rem units. The tricky bit here is the root size calculation in the HTML section. Now, whatever size we pick for the body will be re-shaped in accordance with the pre-defined value in the root/HTML. To put it simply, the new percentage value ‘62.5%’ in the root/html section ensures the smooth transformation of ‘px’ into ‘rem’.

Why We Prefer the ‘Percentage’ Expression

At this point, you might be asking yourself why we opt for the percentage expression (62.5%) along with ‘rem’ units. Why bother? Isn’t the ‘px’ version supposed to be the same? Well, not so much.

As some developers on Quora suggest, percentage-based values can scale more smoothly compared to fixed numbers. This means that not only are rem units important, but also the percentage preference in the root/HTML part matters a lot in this particular set-up.

The most effective part regarding the figure ‘62.5%’ in the root is that even if the visitor alters the font size of the browser, they’ll be able to view the page properly thanks to the related CSS set-up.

Also, it poses no threats in terms of accessibility because we also set the font-size of the body as 1.6rem in addition to the 62.5% arrangement in the root/HTML section. This way, we ensure that those two numbers go hand in hand no matter what the screen size is.

It’s important to elaborate on the accessibility issue. I believe it should be of the utmost importance to web developers and designers from all walks of life.

Research shows that the number of visually impaired individuals is gradually on the rise, and there are many reasons for this. But one thing is for sure: in an era of cutting-edge technological advancements, everyone should be able to enjoy the internet and access information through certain accessibility measures. And applying proper responsive design techniques is definitely one of those.

What is Bruce Lawson’s Significant Message?

I remember watching an excellent talk by Bruce Lawson, an expert when it comes to web standards. During a virtual free bootcamp organised by Class Central and freeCodeCamp last year, he was a guest speaker. He explained very clearly why we as web developers are responsible for keeping everyone included and making sure that no one else is left out when coding and/or designing a website.

Shall We Test Our New Set-up?

In other words, with the new arrangement involving the font-size of the HTML and body, everything else will be handled smoothly under the hood without you as the developer having to perform separate calculations for every single element.

Is This Method Bullet-Proof?

For instance, it may lead to some problems when ’em’ values are preferred instead of ‘rem’ values. Plus, this technique only resizes text. So you’ll need to use some other tricks (for example, when dealing with the size of the images).

That said, overriding the root font-size is still a widespread practice preferred by many developers around the world and it can be handy if used carefully.

Wrapping Up

Even if you are not planning to use it at all, one of your teammates might go for it. So it is always a good idea to be aware of the arguments for and against it.

“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon

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Android предоставляет пользователю широкие возможности кастомизации интерфейса, начиная с простых виджетов и настроек, заканчивая сторонними лаунчерами. Однако, в настройке некоторых аспектов оформления могут возникнуть сложности, например, если вам потребовалось поменять шрифт интерфейса и приложений на Android. Тем не менее, сделать это возможно, а для некоторых моделей телефонов и планшетов — очень просто.

В этой инструкции подробно о том, как изменить шрифт на Android смартфонах и планшетах различными способами, в том числе без root-доступа (в некоторых случаях он может потребоваться). В начале руководства — отдельно по смене шрифтов на Samsung Galaxy, а затем — про все остальные смартфоны (в том числе и Samsung, но с версией Android до 8.0 Oreo). См. также: Как изменить шрифт Windows 10.

Изменение шрифта на телефонах Samsung и установка своих шрифтов

Телефоны Samsung, а также некоторые модели LG и HTC имеют опцию изменения шрифта в настройках.

Для простой смены шрифта на Samsung Galaxy вы можете выполнить следующие шаги

Тут же присутствует пункт «Загрузить шрифты», позволяющий произвести установку дополнительных шрифтов, но: все они (кроме Samsung Sans) платные. Тем не менее, это можно обойти и установить собственные шрифты, в том числе из ttf файлов шрифтов.

Если на вашем смартфоне установлена Android 7 или более старая версия, вы всё еще можете использовать эти способы. Если же у вас новый смартфон с Android 8 или 9, придется искать обходные пути для установки своих шрифтов.

Один из них, самый простой и работающий на настоящий момент времени (тестировалось на Galaxy Note 9) — использование приложения ThemeGalaxy, доступного в Play Маркет: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=project.vivid.themesamgalaxy

Сначала о бесплатном варианте использования этого приложения для смены шрифтов:

Это же приложение позволяет выполнить установку собственного шрифта TTF (которые в изобилии доступны для скачивания в Интернете), но функция является платной (минимум 99 центов, единоразово). Путь будет следующим:

Ещё одно приложение, умеющее устанавливать шрифты на Samsung — AFonts. На Oreo также требует перезагрузки, создание своих шрифтов требует покупки функции, а русские шрифты в каталоге отсутствуют.

Дополнительные методы установки шрифтов на Samsung Galaxy с новыми версиями Android доступны здесь: https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=191055 (см. раздел «Шрифты для Samsung на Android 8.0 Oreo). Также есть способ с использованием Substratum/Andromeda, о чем можно почитать (на английском) здесь.

Как поменять шрифт на Android телефонах и планшетах других производителей

Для большинства смартфонов и планшетов Android для изменения шрифта интерфейса требуется наличие root-доступа. Но не для всех: например, приложение iFont успешно добавляет шрифты на старых Samsung и некоторых других марках телефонов и без рут.

IFont

В общих чертах использование приложения выглядит следующим образом:

В моем тесте (телефон Lenovo Moto с root-доступом) всё работало исправно, но с некоторыми багами:

При необходимости вернуть стандартный шрифт, откройте приложение iFont, перейдите на вкладку «Мой» и нажмите «Предустановленный шрифт».

Схожее бесплатное приложение — FontFix. В моем тесте оно также работало, но по какой-то причине изменяло шрифты избирательно (не во всех элементах интерфейса).

Дополнительные методы смены шрифта на Android

Выше описаны не все варианты изменения шрифтов, а лишь те, которые меняют шрифты во всем интерфейсе, а также сравнительно безопасны для начинающего пользователя. Но есть и дополнительные методы:

Если вам известны другие способы смены шрифтов, возможно, применимые на отдельных марках устройств, буду благодарен, если поделитесь ими в комментариях.

Root Fonts

root Font changer is a specifically designed tool to change font style to whichever fancy fonts you need. There are many fancy root texts that I bet you haven’t seen anywhere. This tool has the capacity to combine all these fonts with special characters and symbols and then display the best root fonts. Font change has become a trend nowadays on social media, people use copy and paste root fonts for every caption and comments. If you are wondering where you will find these fancy texts, fancyfonts.top is the tool. Fancy fonts online is the advanced tool that converts your entered text to cool root fonts.

Try this root font generator for your business logo design. Not only do they add a professional look, but the right font can also help draw attention to certain words or phrases.

root Font Changer Copy Paste as the name suggests easily allows you to copy your converted fonts to clipboard. This can be used just by pressing «ctrl+V» on your keyboard. While on mobile these root fonts can be used by just pressing the screen long enough to display an option «paste» and then clicking it.