Fonts as downloadable (binary) addons for Kodi

Seen a lot of requests for new fonts for Kodi’s core and its skins so suggest that you create a new binary addon type/category for Fonts and made them downloadable/upgradable just like any other addon for Kodi.

Reaon for this being a good idea is that it might make Kodi’s core and skin installation packages smaller and add the possibility to update or add a new font inbetween major releases.

This way a font can be installed on-demand when you change language in Kodi or install a new skin that request a other font as a dependency. And multiple skins/addons can share the same font files.

I’m sure this idea is not new but I just read about the same concept in Android O new Features and APIs list and stole the idea from there:

https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html

Android O and Android Support Library 26 let you request fonts from a provider application instead of bundling fonts into the APK or letting the APK download fonts. This feature reduces your APK size, increases the app installation success rate, and allows multiple apps to share the same font.

For more information about downloading fonts, refer to Downloadable Fonts.“

https://developer.android.com/preview/fe…fonts.html

Fonts in XML

Android O introduces a new feature, Fonts in XML, which lets you use fonts as resources. This means, there is no need to bundle fonts as assets. Fonts are compiled in R file and are automatically available in the system as a resource. You can then access these fonts with the help of a new resource type, font.

The Support Library 26 provides full support to this feature on devices running API versions 14 and higher.

For more information, about using fonts as resources and retrieving system fonts, see Fonts in XML.

https://developer.android.com/preview/fe…n-xml.html