I've always wanted to change the fonts on my Nokia N82 but have always been too lazy to figure it out. Lately I've been seeing more and more screenshots around the web of Nokia N95 and N82 phones with a completely different set of fonts. You can literally use ANY .ttf font file that you want to give your Nokia N82 a refreshing new look.
After successfully changing the fonts on my phone I am happy to tell you that the steps you must take are very simple and should only take about five minutes the first time.
Follow this guide and let me know if it works out for you.
Keep reading to learn how to change your Nokia S60 fonts.
Step 1. Pick a font that you think you will like seeing everyday and all day. Don't pick one too annoying and chaotic unless you really don't mind squinting at your phone. You can find fonts from your computer under the Windows/Fonts folder. Best thing to do is copy the one you like to your desktop where it's easier to work with. You can also go to www.dafont.com where they have literally thousands of free fonts.
Make sure the file type extension is .ttf, like arial.ttf. That is the standard font type and stands for TrueType Font.
Step 2. Duplicate the same font four (4) times. You will rename the font to the following...
nohindisnr60.ttf
nohindissb60.ttf
nohinditsb60.ttf
S60ZDIGI.ttf
It's extremely important that you have the exact spelling of each of those files. Put those font files into a folder called fonts.
Step 3. Connect your memory card to your computer. It doesn't really matter how you do this, whether it be usb cable, bluetooth, or card reader. Your memory card should be the E: drive, although your memory card might be called something different. Inside the root of the E: drive make a new folder called resource. Do Not mess with the Z: drive.
Now grab the fonts folder you created in Step 2 and transfer it and the four font files into the new resource folder on your memory card.
So now your folder structure should be E:\resource\fonts\those four font files.
Step 4. Disconnect & re-insert your memory card (if needed) and reboot. Power down your phone and power it back up. And voila!
You should now have completely new fonts on your N82.
Check out the screenshots of the changed fonts on my device...
If you follow these steps correctly there really is no way to harm your phone. If you want to get rid of these fonts and go back to the originals you simply delete the resource folder and its contents.
So far I've tried a few fonts but the one above is my favorite. Some fonts won't have all the symbols that your N82 can display, but so far I've only noticed one which is the New Line symbol that is displayed for a few seconds whenever your making a new line in a message. Not a problem at all.
There Is A Catch...
When using custom fonts you won't be able to use your device in Data Storage or Mass Storage mode unless you follow these steps:
1. Turn off your phone.
2. Take out the memory card.
3. Start-up your phone.
4. Re-insert your memory card, you can now make transfers.
5. Reboot phone and you will have your custom fonts back.
Not really that big a deal if you have the time to fiddle around.
Just to give credit, I found these steps here and here.
These steps should also work if you want to change the fonts on your Nokia N95. If you have another S60 device you can find the exact font file names in the Z:\resource\fonts\ folder. Just rename your favorite font to those files and follow the rest of the steps in this guide. Don't delete, overwrite, or modify the files under the Z: drive. Warning: This entire guide worked fine for me, however, I am not responsible if you try this and something bad happens to your phone. Try at your own risk!
Have any of you already changed the fonts on your N82? Maybe you have a better and easier way.
I would also like to know of any good fonts that you guys (and gals) think looks good on the screen. If you need any help or run into problems let me know and I'll do my best to help you. Hopefully I didn't miss any steps.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
How To Change Fonts On Your Nokia N82 & Give Your Device A Facelift
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
An Artistic Painter Finds Creative Ways To Use The N82 To Make Job Easier
I got an email the other day from a N82 user and professional artist Marc Dalessio showing off ways he uses his N82 to help him record his work. I love getting emails like this especially when I see how much the N82 draws in the extra creative people of the world. Using geotagging and time lapse photography (as talked about earlier at this blog), Marc is able to keep track of where he paints and show off his painting process in a short video.
Marc said,As a landscape painter I need to remember where I go painting, and can also pass the locations onto other painters, so I set up a flickr page with the best spots around Tuscany. Find link here.
I've also started doing time lapse movies of my portrait commissions, as before I had to remember to take the picture, now the n82 does it all for me. Here is the first attempt:
I'm extremely impressed at how Marc decided to "think out of the box" and come up with these ideas to enhance his painting experiences. Thanks for sharing Marc!
If you want to learn more about geotagging with the Nokia N82 click here.
If you want to learn more about time-lapse photography, click here.
To see more artwork by Marc Dalessio and check out his blog, click here.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Follow-Up: Time Lapse Photography & Give's Growth Part 2
Remember the time lapse photography video I showed you all a few months ago of the plant growing from just a seed? Well Ming Dao has created a new video showing the next phase of growth of his plant. Just like before, he used the Nokia N82 and took thousands of pictures over 5 days to show how much growth occurred. The music choice this time is Rachmaninoff's same piano concerto (no.2 in C minor) to go with the fast and twirling movement of the baby plant. See below for the video.
Click here to see the article by Ming Dao and check out his blog.
I still haven't got around to making one of these videos but if any of you have please share the link so we can see it.
Monday, June 30, 2008
The Making Of The Nokia N82 Video
I've always wondered about the thought process of the Nokia N82 design and the creators. When I first laid eyes on the N82 silver I'm gonna have to be honest with you I wasn't all that impressed. The pictures on the internet really didn't do it justice, I was just more excited about the xenon flash. Then when I actually bought it and had it in my hands I was amazed at how comfortable the phone was to hold and manipulate. Then the photos of the N82 black came along and just blew me away.
Check out this video that Darla Mack found over at Nokia Conversations. It's a little promo video of what the creators really wanted and were thinking when trying to come up with the design of the N82. I really believe this video nails it on the head.
The part about the camera and night shots are really where this phone shines. Also the GPS in the N82 I've found to be much faster than other Nseries devices allowing for the best Maps experience possible. And finally of course the main theme is Story Telling, which the N82 is best at. Since I've owned the phone I've taken more photos and videos than ever before, simply because they come out great and are worth showing off to friends and family. Hope you enjoy the video!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Time Lapse Photography With The N82: Watch A Plant Grow
This has got to be one of the coolest N82 related emails I've gotten, not to mention one of the most creative things I've seen done with the Nokia N82. Time Lapse Photography is never something I've thought of to try with my N82 or any Nseries device for that matter.
Ming Dao Ting emailed me the other day sharing a video he made of a seed germinating into a plant. He was inspired by an article over at the Finest Fones blog and also Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no.2 in C minor, 2nd movement.
Before I say more, I'm going to hand off the rest of the post to him. If you have any questions for Ming he will be answering them in the comments after the article.
The Creation of Give Growth By Ming Dao Ting
Time lapse videography has always fascinated me; I mean, 3D animation is pretty cool, but messing with the 4th dimension (time) is way cooler. Watching nature at unnatural speeds is like witnessing pure magic. And thanks to the Nokia N82 (and any S60 device with a camera), it’s now completely within our reach. So let’s make some magic.
Inspired by an article by Finest Phones and the 2nd movement of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto in C minor (long story), I decided to put my N82 to the test and create a time lapse video of a seed germinating. This was the result:
Time lapse videos can be made by taking a very long video and speeding it up, or (more commonly) by taking photos at regular intervals and making a video out of them. Here’s how I made mine.
1. Preparing the camera: The key is to set your camera to sequence mode, and pick a defined time interval in between photos. As my video was of a seed germinating over 10 days, I used 10 min intervals, but you might use 10sec or 30 sec intervals if you were filming something ‘quicker’ like a sunset, for example. Because I wasn’t planning to make a crazily high res video, I reduced my image capture quality to 3M (2M is fine too), making sure I had enough memory for tons of photos. Flash was turned off, and I left colour balance at auto.
2. Preparing the set-up: The key here is to make sure your phone doesn’t move over the recording period. You can use any suitable tripod, or be cheap innovative like me and chuck your phone in a crystal case and sticky tape it firmly to a surface. Whatever works, really. I also anchored every other element in the video to prevent any unnecessary moving/shaking. I then positioned the camera in front of the seed, taking into account where it would end up once grown. Because I expected the recording phase to span over a week, I had the phone charger plugged in for the entire duration.
3. Capturing the footage: Hit the capture button on the phone, and be patient (it’s the hardest part). I set the camera’s shutter sound to “on” so that I could hear whenever a photo was taken. If you wanna check on the progress, tapping the capture button lightly will bring up the last picture taken, with a little countdown timer at the bottom of the screen indicating when the next picture will be shot.
4. Creating the video: When I had gathered enough footage, I imported all the photos (1400 of them, over 10 days) into my computer, and inserted them into my video editing software of choice, Adobe Premiere Elements. I then created a 25 frame/sec video with each photo having a 1 frame time length, threw in backing music, and voila, a timelapse video was born! If you’d like a freeware option, MakeAVI is a simple application that converts images into AVI (video) files and will basically do the same job. I prefer Premiere Elements it gives me more options to tweak contrast and speed and stuff like that. And put in fancy titles.
And that’s pretty much all there is to it. The hardest part by far is the waiting, especially because it meant I had to go for 10 days without my N82 :( However the sacrifice was well worth it, and I must say I’ve come to appreciate plants a lot more now. Of course timelapse videography doesn’t always need to span weeks; here are some ideas (off the top of my head) that you could try capturing:
- Weather (sunrise, sunset, clouds rolling, storm brewing)
- Nature (flowers blooming, fruit rotting, fingernails growing - maybe not that last one)
- Traffic (busy intersections, peak hour, attaching the camera to your dashboard on a long trip)
- Events (setting up concert venues, crowds filling in seats, your 21st celebration)
- In general, anything slow that would look cool sped up (like a candle burning, ice melting, your pet snail, painting an artwork, or even cleaning the house)
So what are you waiting for? Grab your N82 and go make magic!
Thanks Ming. Be sure to check out his website at mingdao.blogspot.com
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Getting Creative With Duotone Colors & The Nokia N82
Nokia Creative is one of my favorite Nokia blogs to read, mainly because they do just that. Get creative with Nokia phones. In this post, they show you how to make your 'dull looking photos' look great using duotone colors. They say that "Perhaps the easiest way to describe a duotone photo, is to say that it’s a black and white image underpinned by one other base colour."
Not many pictures come out dull on the N82, but once in awhile a good picture is lacking color and saturation. Who would've thought that pictures this good were shot with a cell phone?
Click here to learn how to use duotone colors on photos shot by the Nokia N82, and also check out some great photo samples.
