I am playing with Downloadable fonts api. I downloaded the Google sample application and also incorporated the code into my project. Both run successfully but some fonts consistently fail to download both from my app and from the sample app.
I use FontsContractCompat.requestFont
and gets a callback to onTypefaceRequestFailed(int reason)
with reason 1. The documentation says it means "FAIL_REASON_FONT_NOT_FOUND".
I assume those fonts should exist because: 1) They appear in an xml file that comes with the sample app, 2) They appear in the online list of Google Fonts, and 3) They return from the developer web api (https://www.googleapis.com/webfonts/v1/webfonts?key=
)
Here is the list of failed fonts:
Angkor
Archivo
Asap Condensed
Baloo Bhaijaan
Baloo Tammudu
Battambang
Bayon
Bellefair
BioRhyme Expanded
Bokor
Cabin Condensed
Chau Philomene One
Chenla
Content
Dangrek
Encode Sans
Encode Sans Condensed
Encode Sans Expanded
Encode Sans Semi Condensed
Encode Sans Semi Expanded
Fasthand
Faustina
Freehand
Hanuman
Khmer
Koulen
Libre Barcode 128
Libre Barcode 128 Text
Libre Barcode 39
Libre Barcode 39 Extended
Libre Barcode 39 Extended Text
Libre Barcode 39 Text
Mada
Manuale
Metal
Moul
Moulpali
Mukta
Mukta Mahee
Mukta Malar
Nokora
Open Sans Condensed
Preahvihear
Roboto Condensed
Saira
Saira Condensed
Saira Extra Condensed
Saira Semi Condensed
Sedgwick Ave
Sedgwick Ave Display
Siemreap
Suwannaphum
Taprom
Ubuntu Condensed
Zilla Slab
Zilla Slab Highlight
It's definitely weird. I observed that many (but not all) of those fonts don't have a "latin" or "latin-ext" subset, so that seemed a way to auto-filter them. I threw together a little python2 script that asks the API for the whole font list, then filters them for "latin" and outputs whats left as a new font-families resource file, which you can redirect to family_names.xml
.
Usage: fontlist.py <API_KEY>
#!/usr/bin/python
# fontlist.py by fat-tire
#
# Collects Google provider latin & latin-ext font families and creates a replacement for
# https://github.com/googlesamples/android-DownloadableFonts/blob/master/app/src/main/res/values/family_names.xml
#
# See https://developers.google.com/fonts/docs/developer_api for more info on the Google Fonts API
#
# Usage: fontlist.py <API_KEY> > family_names.xml
import sys, urllib2, json
if len(sys.argv) != 2:
print "Usage:"
print " fontlist.py <API_KEY> > family_names.xml"
print "No Google Fonts API key? Get one at https://developers.google.com/fonts/docs/developer_api#APIKey"
sys.exit(0)
APIKEY=sys.argv[1]
url="https://www.googleapis.com/webfonts/v1/webfonts?key="
opener = urllib2.build_opener()
try:
request = urllib2.Request(url + APIKEY)
conn = opener.open(request)
except Exception, e:
print "Whoopsie. Got a " + str(e.code) + " " + str(e.reason) + " error. You sure that API is legit?"
sys.exit(1)
data = json.loads(conn.read())
count = 0
items = data["items"]
print "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>"
print "<!-- Collected from " + url+APIKEY + " -->"
print """<resources>
<string-array name="family_names">"""
for key in items:
if "latin" in key["subsets"]:
print " "*10 + "<item>" + key["family"] + "</item>"
count = count + 1
print """ <!--Total: """ + str(count) + """-->
</array>
</resources>"""
sys.exit(0)
This script outputs a family_names.xml which is interesting. If you compare it to the one provided by google, it does black-out most of the fonts listed in the question. But it doesn't get all of them, including the "Zilla", "Ubuntu", "Barcode" and "Encode" fonts. Maybe there's something these fonts also have in common that can be used to filter the list further?
Interestingly, the generated list also includes new fonts NOT in the github list, including:
- VolKorn SC
- Spectral
- Spectral SC
- Sedgewick Ave
- Sedgewick Ave Display
...."Barlow", "Bellefair", and a bunch more. And some of these fonts do seem to work with Android.
So I'm guessing that the list in that demo file is just old. Maybe there were licensing issues or technical issues that made it necessary to switch up the list.
Regardless it might be worth submitting a pull request with a newer and more up-to-date list that removes the no-longer provided fonts and adds in the ones that the API does offer that are tested and known to work with the provider.