SIMPLE_FONT package in OptionROM code

[Kostr]

Hello!

Currently I develop an OptionROM for a custom PCI-E device.
In this OptionROM I want to publish a HII form for the device configuration. Therefore I use the HiiAddPackages in the driver's EFI_DRIVER_BINDING_PROTOCOL.Start() function. And everything works fine.

Now I want to use my local language in the OptionROM form. The problem is that my local language is not very often implemented in the UEFI Firmware by default.
For these cases I've decided to publish the SIMPLE_FONT HII package with my language glyphs directly from the OptionROM code.
And it worked fine until I noticed that UEFI firmware on different motherboards has different font saturation.

For example here are pseudo-graphics for the "1" code glyph in AMI and InsydeH2O firmware:

AMI

0x0031
--------
--------
--------
--------
--------
----X---
---XX---
--X-X---
----X---
----X---
----X---
----X---
----X---
----X---
--XXXXX-
--------
--------
--------
--------

Insyde H2O

0x0031
--------
--------
--------
--------
---XX---
-XXXX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
---XX---
--------
--------
--------

This gives me a problem, what font saturation should I use in my SIMPLE_FONT package. In any choice it would look good on some motherboards, but bad on others.
I'm thinking that I should get some glyph bitmap and based on its saturation publish one font version or another. How can I do it?
Or is there any other solution to this problem?

Best regards,
Konstantin Aladyshev

[Kostr]

I was able to solve the problem using the GetGlyph function from the gEfiHiiFontProtocolGuid protocol. This function can return a Blt of the glyph.

Here is the example app that I've used to test how 'T' glyph is displayed on different UEFI firmwares:

EFI_STATUS
EFIAPI
UefiMain (
  IN EFI_HANDLE        ImageHandle,
  IN EFI_SYSTEM_TABLE  *SystemTable
  )
{
  EFI_HII_FONT_PROTOCOL  *gHiiFont = NULL;
  EFI_STATUS Status = gBS->LocateProtocol(&gEfiHiiFontProtocolGuid,
                                          NULL,
                                          (VOID **)&gHiiFont);
  if (EFI_ERROR(Status)) {
    Print(L"Error! Can't get gEfiHiiFontProtocolGuid\n");
    return Status;
  }

  EFI_IMAGE_OUTPUT* Blt = NULL;
  UINTN Baseline;
  Status = gHiiFont->GetGlyph(gHiiFont, L'T', NULL, &Blt, &Baseline);
  if (EFI_ERROR(Status)) {
    Print(L"Error! GetGlyph returned %r\n", Status);
    return Status;
  }

  for (UINT8 i = 0; i < (Blt->Height); i++) {
    for (UINT8 j = 0; j < (Blt->Width); j++) {
      Print(L"%02x", Blt->Image.Bitmap[i*(Blt->Width) + j].Blue);
      Print(L"%02x", Blt->Image.Bitmap[i*(Blt->Width) + j].Green);
      Print(L"%02x", Blt->Image.Bitmap[i*(Blt->Width) + j].Red);
      Print(L" ");
    }
    Print(L"\n");
  }
  return EFI_SUCCESS;
}

This output either something like

000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 989898 989898 989898 989898 989898 989898 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 989898 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 

or

000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 989898 989898 989898 989898 989898 989898 989898 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 989898 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 
000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 

Therefore IsBoldFont function can be written like this:

BOOLEAN IsBoldFont()
{
  EFI_HII_FONT_PROTOCOL  *gHiiFont = NULL;
  EFI_STATUS Status = gBS->LocateProtocol(&gEfiHiiFontProtocolGuid,
                                          NULL,
                                          (VOID **)&gHiiFont);
  if (EFI_ERROR(Status)) {
    return FALSE;
  }

  EFI_IMAGE_OUTPUT* Blt = NULL;
  UINTN Baseline;
  Status = gHiiFont->GetGlyph(gHiiFont, L'T', NULL, &Blt, &Baseline);
  if (EFI_ERROR(Status)) {
    return FALSE;
  }

  UINTN Pixels = 0;
  for (UINT8 i = 0; i < (Blt->Width); i++) {
    if ((Blt->Image.Bitmap[10*(Blt->Width) + i].Blue != 0x00) ||
        (Blt->Image.Bitmap[10*(Blt->Width) + i].Green != 0x00) ||
        (Blt->Image.Bitmap[10*(Blt->Width) + i].Red != 0x00)) {
      Pixels++;
    }
  }
  if (Pixels > 1) {
    return TRUE;
  }

  return FALSE;
}

Based on its output I populate either bold or standard font.

---

Conclusion:
I understand that all of this is probably not an UEFI way. Doing things the right way I just need to supply strings in UNI in english and my local language, and hope for the local language support in the firmware. But what's fun about that?)
Maybe I'll fallback to this, but right now I've tested my solution and it performs well on all available to me motherboards.