Re-branding Omniscope Installations

Making Omniscope your own

Corporations and publishers deploying Omniscope centrally have the option of re-branding Omniscope local appplication installs (not just files produced) to add corporate identity and manage default font choice. This method used to change the Omniscope global default font is the same as that required to support some non-Western character sets.

Installing Custom-Branded Omniscopes

Local installations of Omniscope may include a customised "branding" folder within the deployed application folder (depending on operating system, typicall "C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope\branding" for XP).  This location can optionally contain various custom files which will take precedence over the default Omniscpe branding. Download the sample branding folder containing examples of the optional files. Add your branding to the images as necessary (some images are size sensitive) then edit the config.properties file appropriately as documented in the example file itself.

To add your custom colour scheme and style presets, first create the style presets in an open Omniscope file using the Settings |> Advanced file settings > Edit style presets and export as described here. This will create a portable XML file either in the program folder or in your user profile.

Edit the "config.properties" file to customise other settings such as colours and fonts - these are documented inside the file itself. Please note that further customisations are available other than those specified in this file - contact us for more information.

To preview your results, install Omniscope normally and put the work-in-progress branding folder inside your Omniscope program folder, then start Omniscope. 

Note: on Vista, you will need to work on the branding folder in an editable location such as My Documents, then drag with Vista UAC confirmation into the program folder when you want to see the results.  On XP, you can edit directly in the program folder.

Download Branding Example

Download sample branding folder (ZIP) - requires Omniscope 2.3 or later.

Changing the Omniscope font 

Omniscope uses Tahoma as the font for text in dialogs and controls, and as the default font in Omniscope's font menus. Some non-western languages are not supported by this font (e.g Chinese and Japanese) as Tahoma does not have the full character set for those languages.

You may wish to change this, for personal preference or corporate standards, or to support additional languages.

If you need to support additional Unicode characters, we recommend Arial Unicode MS which comes with Windows, and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. 

Instructions for Windows PCs 

1. Using text editor like Notepad, create a new file with just one line of text as follows:
   AppFontName=[the name of your font]
   Example for non-western languages:
   AppFontName=Arial Unicode MS
2. Save the file to your desktop, calling it "config.properties" (with no ".txt" extension).
3. Explore to the folder "C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope"
4. Create a new subfolder called "branding"
5. Move your newly created "config.properties" file into this subfolder.
6. Restart Omniscope.  

Instructions for Mac OS X 10.5 or later 

1. Using TextEdit, create a new file with just one line of text as follows:
   AppFontName=[the name of your font]
   Example for non-western languages:
   AppFontName=Arial Unicode MS
2. From the Format menu, choose "Make plain text".
3. Save the file as plain text to your desktop, calling it "config.properties" (with no ".txt" extension).  You may have to rename it after saving.
4. Using Finder, browse to your Applications folder.
5. Locate Omniscope, right-click and choose "Show package contents"
6. Browse to Contents > Resources > Java
7. Create a new subfolder called "branding"
8. Move your newly created "config.properties" file into this subfolder.
9. Restart Omniscope.  

Restricting to corporate fonts  

This allows you to create a folder of only certain fonts which will limit the fonts available from the Omniscope font menus. You would use this to ensure all your IOK files have a standard set of fonts, preventing your users from creating IOK files departing from your corporate style guidelines.

These instructions are for a Windows PC:

• Create a folder such as C:\our_fonts somewhere on the PC
• Explore to C:\Windows\Fonts
• Copy (not move) all the fonts you want to make available from Omniscope into the folder you have created. Note that onlyTrue Type Fonts (with .TTF extension) files can be included.
• Edit the installconfig.properties file in the Omniscope program folder using NotePad:
• Uncomment (by removing the space & hash) at the front of the  #ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS line
• Add/change to include -DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts
• Example:  ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts 
• For more information see additional JVM arguments.