Request for "PortraitMedium"/"PortraitMedium_bright" Plus42 skin

[Daniel Siu]

I am new to the Plus42/Free42/HP-42S community. I primarily use Plus42 on Android.  The display section of the "Short" skin is fine. The key rows in the "Short" skin keyboard section is too close together for my fingers. I therefore wonder if a "Medium" skin can be created, using the display section from the "Short" skin and the keyboard section from the "Tall" skin. I am game to try some graphic and text editing, but I am not sure how to put the resultant gif and layout files into the android file system. Thanks!

[Thomas Okken]

If you can put the skin on a web server, the easiest way to import it into Plus42 is to use the skin loader: Main Menu → Select Skin → Load...; enter the URL of the directory where the gif and layout files are stored, then press Go; then select and load the skin like you would when loading a skin from my web site.

Alternatively, email the skin files to yourself; on the phone, save the files to Downloads; and finally, in Plus42, use Main Menu → File Import & Export → Import Files to import the files into Plus42's private storage.

Note: You could use the SkinMuncher tool to create the skin. This is what I used to create the PortraitShort, LandscapeLeft, and LandscapeRight skins from PortraitTall. The tool is in the free42util repository at SourceHut. It requires a Java JDK to compile and run.

[Daniel Siu]

Thanks for the tip. Getting the files to local storage then importing do the trick.

My goal was to make a version of the skin that will work in the "normal" display style (i.e. with both status line on the top and navigation buttons in the bottom), with 8 lines of display, and using 19.5:9 or 20:9 phone screen. Apple iPhones apparently use 19.5:9 screen aspect ratio since version 11. Recent Samsung phones apparently also use 19.5:9 screen aspect ratio. Google Pixels apparently use 20:9 screen aspect ratio since version 5a (except 6 pro & 7 pro which use 19.5:9). 

Anyway, I borrowed elements from the "PortraitShort_bright" and "PortraitTall_bright" skins and made a "PortraitMedium_bright" skin, shown in the attached Plus42 screenshot on my Pixel 6a phone. I can post the ".gif" and ".layout" files if anyone is interested to try this on other devices.

[Thomas Okken]

If you like, I can add your skin to the collection on my web site. You can email me the files, or post them here.