This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by:                  Sascha Volkenandt <sascha@akv-soft.de>

Project's homepage:          http://linux.kompiliert.net/index.php?view=text2skin

Latest version available at: http://projects.vdr-developer.org/projects/show/plg-text2skin

See the file COPYING for license information.


Description:
------------

This plugin is designed to load and interpret a set of files describing the
layout of the On Screen Display and to make this "Skin" available to VDR via
Setup -> OSD in the main menu. Of course it is possible to load more than one
text-based skin this way and to choose between them while running VDR. All 
skins may be themeable (you can create your own color-theme) and translatable
as the author of the skin wishes.


Prerequisites:
--------------

For loading images in format other than simple XPM, you will need an image 
library. You can choose between three supported libraries, ImageMagick,
GraphicsMagick or Imlib2, of which the first one is the default. You can
specify which library to use (if any) using the IMAGELIB variable in Makefile.
Here is an overview of the advantages and drawbacks of each alternative:

No library
 - you can only load XPM files
 - XPMs don't support partial transparency / alpha channels

ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick
 + you can load many different image types including animations

Imlib2
 + you can load many different image types
 - CRASHES WHEN USED TOGETHER WITH THE GRAPHTFT-PLUGIN!

HINT: Although the manuals of ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick claim that the
used library Magick++ is part of the source distribution, some binary
distributions may have to install Magick++ separately.

The Makefile uses pkg-config by default to find out the necessary compiler,
preprocessor and linker flags and libraries for the above, so you'll need it
and the *.pc files for the above packages properly installed as well.


Installation:
-------------

Install text2skin like any other plugin. In this example I assume that you have
changed to the folder where the VDR source code is located, and that it is 
version 1.2 of the plugin you wish to install.

root@linux # cd PLUGINS/src
root@linux # wget http://projects.vdr-developer.org/attachments/download/112/vdr-text2skin-1.2.tgz
root@linux # tar -xzf vdr-text2skin-1.2.tgz
root@linux # ln -s text2skin-1.2 text2skin
root@linux # cd ../..
root@linux # make plugins
root@linux # ./vdr -P text2skin


Where to put the skins:
-----------------------

As you might know, VDR has a subfolder "plugins" inside it's configuration 
folder, where all plugin-related files should reside. If you don't know, where
this could be, look into the folder you gave to VDR with the -v parameter 
(or the -c parameter, if that was given). "plugins" should be inside that 
folder.

Inside that "plugins" folder, create a subfolder called "text2skin". Inside
"text2skin", create one folder for each skin. These skin-folders must have the
same names as the skins residing in them.  Each skin must at least have a file
carrying the same name, but ending in ".skin".

Example (the Skin is called myskin):
/video0/plugins/text2skin/
/video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/
/video0/plugins/text2skin/msykin/msykin.skin
/video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/channeldisplay.png

The other files inside the skin-folder are additional description files (for
Themeing and Translation), images, logos and symbols.

If you download a skin, you usually just change to plugins/text2skin and unpack
it there.


Where to put the fonts:
-----------------------

Font files (.ttf) must be installed so that fontconfig can find them, see the
fontconfig documentation for more information (usually copy *.ttf to some dir,
run fc-cache on that dir as root or the vdr user).