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More Than 800 Languages in a Single Typeface: Noto

posted by janrinok on Tuesday October 11 2016, @03:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-more-tofu dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A typeface five years in the making, Google Noto spans more than 100 writing systems, 800 languages, and hundreds of thousands of characters. A collaborative effort between Google and Monotype, the Noto typeface is a truly universal method of communication for billions of people around the world accessing digital content.

http://www.monotype.com/resources/case-studies/more-than-800-languages-in-a-single-typeface-creating-noto-for-google/

Google set Monotype a straightforward brief: "no more tofu" – tofu being the nickname for the blank boxes that are shown when a computer or site lacks font support for a particular character. To meet Google's requirement, Monotype needed to develop one typographic family that could cover the more than 800 languages included in the Unicode Consortium standard.

This mammoth effort required harmonious design and development of an unprecedented number of scripts, including several rare writing systems that had never been digitized before. "It was this really phenomenal, daunting project," says Google internationalization expert Bob Jung. "Looking back at it, I'm even surprised myself how ambitious we were."

"Our goal for Noto has been to create fonts for our devices, but we're also very interested in keeping information alive," he adds. "When it comes to some of the lesser-used languages, or even the purely academic or dead languages, we think it's really important to preserve them."

takyon: Ars Technica article and download page at Google.

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  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday October 11 2016, @08:05AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @08:05AM (#412848) Journal

    Doesn't even cover Marain. Not impressed.

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  • (Score: 2) by Chromium_One on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:25AM

    by Chromium_One (4574) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @09:25AM (#412859)

    I'd actually be a bit surprised if it wasn't. Would be simple for any native speakers to get a request to the nearest GCU to just drop the data over to GOOG. Not like that would be unprecedented.

    --
    When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.

    • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday October 11 2016, @10:09AM

      by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @10:09AM (#412873) Journal

      There's still a part of me convinced that Google is nothing more than a front company for Contact.

      • (Score: 2) by Chromium_One on Tuesday October 11 2016, @10:53AM

        by Chromium_One (4574) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @10:53AM (#412889)

        We should be so lucky.

        --
        When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @03:20PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @03:20PM (#412961)

          Yeah, I think they are more likely a front for Special Circumstances.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @03:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2016, @03:29PM (#412967)

    or Esperanto. au Esperanton.

  • (Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Tuesday October 11 2016, @05:06PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Tuesday October 11 2016, @05:06PM (#413002)
    Personally, I'd been hoping to be able to type in Voynichese.