Android: Russian Ruble currency not displayed on certain phone?

Question

I am getting some JSON data with a formatted string of currency like this

₽35

However, i noticed that on a Nexus 5 (Lollipop) it displays it correctly but other phones such as the HTC one mini and Samsung GT-I9505, it displays a blank character.

I attempted to research the issue, i could not find a solution other than, in the XML layout file, ensure that this line is present

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

But i still have the same issue

Please help

Edit 15 May 2015

Loading custom font NotoSans (Please note I know this would leak memory but its just a quick test)

@Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        TextView ruble = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.ruble);
        Typeface myFont = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf");
        ruble.setTypeface(myFont);
    }

The Russian Ruble symbol defined in strings.xml (note I tried all)

     <string name="rubleSymbolJava">\u20BD</string>
  <string name="rubleSymbolHTML">&#8381;</string>
    <string name="rubleSymbolHTMLHex">&#x20bd;</string>

Same problem, on older phones shown as a square but works on Android 5.0 BUT nothing older.

SOLVED Please see my answer

Answer 1

I fixed this. I just used the new Google Roboto Font which was last updated Jan 2015 and has the Ruble symbol.

https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto#pairings

Research showed that in 2014 Russia changed their currency symbol so old fonts did not have the new Glyph so for others who have a similar issue, see if your font has been updated

Answer 2

The problem-phone's default font might be missing the Russian ruble glyph. Try to hard-code it into a TextView somewhere in your app to make sure that that is indeed the issue rather than some other JSON parsing mistake or so (seems less likely as it works on some phones).

In case the missing glyph is your problem, it's fairly simple to include your own font in your project. That way you can be sure that you can support all glyphs that you need.

Here are the steps to do so programmatically:

• Place the .ttf file of your font into the folder assets/fonts in your project
• Load it as a TypeFace object via                                                                                                     TypeFace myFont = Typeface.createFromAsset(activity.getAssets(), "fonts/font.ttf") (replace myFont and font.ttf as needed)
• Assign it to all your TextViews, Paints, etc. via myTextView.setTypeface(myFont). There also seem to be some tricks that allow you to set it as the default font for your entire app.

I haven't used the graphical designer much, but I'm sure it's not any more difficult there either. Also, these instructions are for the Android Eclipse plugin. While the code will likely be identical in Android Studio, I'm not sure that the folder structure is the same. The docs say something about placing the assets in main/assets instead of just assets, for example...

A couple of things to consider:

• Make sure that your distribution of the font you choose doesn't violate any licenses of that font.
• Your app will now no longer use the device's default font, which will mean that your app will look more similar and predictable across devices, but it might stand out from other apps on specific devices that might use very different default fonts.
• The size of the .ttf file will add to the size of your app. Most fonts are fairly small (~100KB), but some do get large (several MB), especially if they support many different languages, which might then become an issue.
• Make sure your font supports all glyphs in all languages that your project needs.

An added bonus: You can add some of your own custom glyphs into the font to easily include simple single-colored vector graphics into your app just by putting the corresponding "letter" into a TextView (remember Wingdings?).

Answer 3

I found solution in that answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/36338231/1078641 , added &subset=all parameter to Roboto font link.

The original link to Roboto font was like that

<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300italic,300,400italic,500,500italic,700,700italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

After I added &subset=all parameter to the link I can successfully see ruble symbol on my Android device

<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300italic,300,400italic,500,500italic,700,700italic&amp;subset=all' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

Answer 4

You can also check Android version. I think, some phones on API 19 support russian rubles, but on API 21 they all support it. It would be easier to add string resources instead of check and replace programmatically.

After reading Trying to use <!ENTITY in ANDROID resources with error: "The entity was referenced, but not declared." I made a new file strings.xml in res/values-v21.

So, in values/strings.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE resources [
    <!ENTITY rouble "р.">
    ]>
<resources>
    <string name="saaki">Галстук Сааки - %1$s &rouble;</string>
</resources>

In values-v21/strings.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE resources [
    <!ENTITY rouble "₽">
    ]>
<resources>
    <string name="saaki">Галстук Сааки - %1$s &rouble;</string>
</resources>

Answer 5

You can check if the glyph is present using the code from https://stackoverflow.com/a/29938454/755804

If it's not present, you will need to either provide an image and use TextViewWithImages or replace it with a character sequence.