Siemens Character Editor (Siemens CE) is designed for searching and modifying fonts built-in Siemens mobile phones.

Disclaimer:

Warning: Siemens CE IS DISTRIBUTED "AS IS". NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.

Siemens CE is e-mailware. Contact author for using in commercial appliances. For uncommercial usage you have to send following information to siemens_ce@kuban.info:

1. Mobile model, firmware version, idb value.
2. Your suggestions.
3. Where and how did you obtain the program.
4. Your name (nick), city and country.

System requirements

Windows operation system (95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP), at least 800x600 display resolution.

Features

• automatic phone model and firmware version identification;
• searching and modifying fonts up to 32x36 pixels;
• automatic character width calculation (optional);
• remove garbage function;
• popular phone models presets;
• ability to roll characters in any direction;
• merging files (loading files at current offset address);
• block mode (loading/saving fonts);
• saving vkp patches;
• comfortable navigation;

SIEMENS mobiles fonts

Siemens mobile is using bitmap proportional fonts in its phones. Contrary to other mobile brands these fonts are stored vertically with width bytes inside. It simplifies and speed up fonts access.

Siemens CE allows you to edit fonts inside fullflash image (also called fubu) or separate binary fonts. You can calculate characters width by hand or automatically.

The program automatically identifies phone model and firmware version by checking it's database (siemens.ini file) and sets up corresponded presets.

Guide

Warning! Do BACKUP before making any changes to your phone! Do NOT forget to turn off or correct checksum if needed!

Open fullflash image. If the program supports your phone, you'll see coloured information about it: SIEMENS ME45, language pack (lg3), firmware version (firmware: 28) and identification block number (idb:00). If the message is not coloured then information about this fullflash is not in the database. If you see no message at all then it means that the file is not Siemens’ fullflash, the phone is too old (older than A-35/36), or it is not developed by Siemens mobile (A40, S40...).

Siemens CE checks file's size, phone type and idb value. If it does not match the criteria, the file would be not identified as fullflash image. Use plugins to work with such files.

The program's database is stored in "siemens.ini" file and can be updated independently.

Now you can choose font type to modify. Just click any font type button in the right down corner. Theese buttons have tooltips describing font type, such as Normal, Big, WAP and so on.

To the left you can see character map (CharMap). Use left mouse buttons to select the desired character and right button to make character the first on CharMap.

To the right is the editor window. If automatic char width calculation (ACW) flag is turned on then you'll see dark grey and red cells in the upper part of the window. Use left mouse button to set, right button to reset and middle button to toggle pixels.

Hex offset input field allows you to enter offset addresses. Click any offset address to advance to the corresponded scanline. This might be useful when searching the fonts.

Navigation controls are used to modify offset address. Click ±1 and ±2 buttons to change address by 1 and 2. Click ±C and ±P buttons to modify offset value by number of bytes in character and number of bytes in page (32 characters). Use hotkeys Ins/Del, Home/End,PgUp/PgDnto do it faster.

Roll char image group is used to roll character any direction you like. Check CharMap flag to roll the whole Character map.

Char width group informs you about current character width values. Read field shows value in memory and the Current field shows the ACW value. Please note that some characters (Space char, for example) must have different values.

Char format group. W(idth) and H(eight) fields determine character width and height values in pixels. Use True Char Image checkbox to turn on character image only reading mode. Hide width bytes checkbox affects only CharMap display. ACW calculation is used to calculate characters width automatically. Otherwise you'll need to set it by hand.

Some words for "character image only" and "garbage" terms. Siemens mobile engineers use imperfect kind of software for fonts editing. As a result multibyte (more than 8 pixels in width) fonts in fullflash images always contain "tails" (garbage) of previous wider characters. It does not affect the fonts displayed by phone as firmware routine read only number of bits determined by character width byte. But you have to turn on True Char Image checkbox (at least for editing characters). If True Char Image is turned off, then ACW would work incorrectly and the character image would contain a kind of garbage.

Use Size templates buttons to change characters size in one click. It is often used for fonts searching.

Block group allows you to determine the block. Block is the part of file. You can easily save it to any storage device. The left input field is used to enter start of the block value in hex, the right – for the end one. Use < button to select the address of the first byte of current character as the start of the block value, and > to select the address of the last byte of current character as the end of the block value.

Tips: there are two flags: Size prefix and Addr prefix that affects the default filename. When Addr prefix is on, the default filename is "block_start of the block address_end of the block address". Size prefix flag adds "character width x character height" to default block filename. The font size is set automatically after opening if Size prefix flag is on.

Test option is made to see the difference of automatically calculated and real widths. It affects only CharMap representation.

Saving patches in V_KLay's format

Open fullflash image file, do all changes you need and click "Save vkp" button. Vkp patch is written only if any changes between original and modified files are found.

V_KLay's integration

You'll need V_KLay version 2.3.5 or higher. Select the path to Siemens CE executable in V_KLay options. Open fullflash image. Enter "0" in "From address:" input field. Start Siemens CE by clicking it's icon on V_KLay’s toolbar button. Do all changes you need. Click "Save vkp" buttons. Close Siemens CE. For more details read V_KLay's user manual.

With Siemens CE 4.5 or newer there are a few parameters for patching mode - SmartMode and Align. When SmartMode is set to 1, the program creates patches the same way as it was in previous versions. If SmartMode=0, then the patch is fulfilled with sequential bytes block. You can use such a patch to recreate binary block. "Align" determines the number of bytes written to one line of patch.

Menu

File
New – creates a file (old file is purged from memory);
Open – opens a file;
Merge – loads a file from address in input field;
Save – saves a file;
Save vkp – saves vkp patch;
Save block – saves the block;
Plugins/Load – loads presets plugin;
Exit – close the program;

Edit
Copy – copies character image to the clip;
Paste – pastes character image from the clip;
Clear – clears character image;
Read – reads character image from memory;
Write – saves character image to memory;

Navigation
- 1 – increase address by 1;
+ 1 – decrease address by 1;
- char – increase address by number of bytes in character;
+ char – decrease address by number of bytes in character;
- page – decrease address by number of bytes in 32 characters;
+ page – increase address by number of bytes in 32 characters;

Operations
True Char Map – removes "garbage" from CharMap;

Options
Autowrite – automatic write to memory switch;
Zoom x2 – zoom characters in CharMap switch;
Size prefix – block's filename character size prefix switch;
Addr prefix – block start filename prefix switch;
Test – test characters width switch;

Help
History – history of changes;
Help – this file.

FAQ

Q01: I see cyrillic characters only. Where are english characters?

A01: First, check that your fubu is detected. Then try to click any format presets button, such as N,N,B,W,W and S. Now you can see numeral and symbol characters. Just click +P button or press Page Down key to find alphabet characters. Press Page Down once again to edit small characters.

Manual ENG/web version 2.22, release date: April 19, 2004

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Copyright 2002-2004, © V!per also known as Vad!m, as well as v3.
Copyright 2004, © mobile software modding