[FFmpeg-user] drawtext, suggestion for improvement

[Michael Koch]

Hi,

I have a suggestion for improvement for the drawtext filter.
If the text is read from a file, it must be in UTF-8 format. In Windows, 
many text editors (including Notepad) insert a 3-byte "Byte order mark" 
at the beginning of the file. This is described here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Byte_order_mark

The problem is that drawtext prints these 3 bytes as non-printable 
characters (empty rectangle). You can see an example screenshot here in 
the Zeranoe discussion forum:
https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7813

My suggestion is to let the drawtext filter check the first three bytes 
and if they are EF BB BF, then don't print them.

Michael