by jdmitch on 7/16/14, 4:30 AM
I wonder how the decisions for inclusion of languages were made, as there are some very odd decisions. For example, Osmanya is a script created for the Somali language that was hardly ever used (Somali literacy was only widespread after the latin alphabet was adopted - previously Arabic was commonly used). The population of actual users of this script is pretty indisputably 0. 100,000 would be a wildly ambitious estimate of the number of people who had ever actually even seen the script.
On the other hand, Oriya, which has over 33 million native speakers, including 80% of India's Odisha state, does not appear to be supported.
by tokenadult on 7/16/14, 4:55 PM
I like the implementation of CJK fonts in Noto, which was just released this week. I particularly like that I can illustrate that the various Sinitic languages ("Chinese dialects") do NOT all use the same written characters, so that Chinese people who travel to different dialect regions sometimes find written signs that they cannot read, even if they are literate in Modern Standard Chinese. (I have seen this regional illiteracy on the part of native speakers of Chinese in several contexts.)
How you might write the conversation
"Does he know how to speak Mandarin?
"No, he doesn't."
他會說普通話嗎？
他不會。
in Modern Standard Chinese characters contrasts with how you would write
"Does he know how to speak Cantonese?
"No, he doesn't."
佢識唔識講廣東話？
佢唔識。
in the Chinese characters used to write Cantonese. As will readily appear even to readers who don't know Chinese characters (if you have a good Unicode implementation enabled as you read Hacker News), many more words than "Mandarin" and "Cantonese" differ between those sentences in Chinese characters.
by jpatokal on 7/16/14, 5:38 AM
This is brilliant, particularly the newly released Noto CJK:
http://www.google.com/get/noto/cjk.htmlI'm not aware of any other font that does a decent job of handling all of Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean simultaneously, and with light, bold, thin etc variants to boot. Most existing fonts, even expensive commercial ones, are lucky to support two, and even then usually regular text only.
by mirzmaster on 7/16/14, 3:02 AM
by w1ntermute on 7/16/14, 2:43 AM
Hopefully this will be a big step forward in solving the problem of Han unification:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unificationIt's infuriating how many Japanese sites still don't use Unicode, purportedly because of this issue (though I suspect that it's just another example of Japan lagging when it comes to web/computer tech).
by keehun on 7/16/14, 3:13 AM
I think this is amazing. I have never seen Cherokee glyphs that beautifully rendered before. Apparently there are still missing scripts, but this is a great step forward. This couldn't have come cheap, and I'm happy that Google is investing effort into this.
by abrowne on 7/16/14, 12:14 PM
The Google Code page used to have a comment on the origins of the name. Noto is short for 'no tofu', tofu being the rectangles you get when you don't have a font covering that glyph.
by CitizenKane on 7/16/14, 3:49 AM
This is incredible and is going to be very useful for people developing applications for use in Eastern Asia. Nailing typefaces for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean is a huge challenge. Noto and the accompanying Source Han Sans is going to be a huge boon for people in Eastern Asia and hopefully it will have widespread adoption.
Sadly, it's probably still not possible to use as a Webfont. A single font weight is over 8mb, but there is a distinct possibility this could go into mobile devices and operating systems which would be awesome.
by teddyh on 7/16/14, 2:43 AM
In these enlightened Unicode days, why are fonts still “for” a language?
by shared4you on 7/16/14, 6:03 AM
I have been using Noto fonts for a more than 6 months now (mostly Indic fonts) and quite pleased with them. And just saw that they have "Noto Sans Brahmi" in the pipeline. Although Brahmi script (ancient Indian script used around 300 BC) entered Unicode in 2010, there is not a single font available that covers Brahmi.
I also couldn't find any font that covers mathematical symbols from the SMP.
EDIT: Just downloaded the zip archive. Unix permissions for the Bengali and Gurmukhi fonts are different from the rest of them.
by idoco on 7/16/14, 7:29 AM
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights"
I love the fact that they use The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the text for showcasing the fonts, using every opportunity to stand for human rights!
by smrtinsert on 7/16/14, 2:38 PM
I am in love. Why don't they offer a monospace programming version? Noto Sans outdoes my Consolas easily for clarity. No easy feat! Please release a Noto Sans Code Google!
by rurounijones on 7/16/14, 3:59 AM
Is there any reason that these could not be included as standard fonts in windows, linux, mac, android, IOS etc at some point in the near future?
by janlukacs on 7/16/14, 12:03 PM
Might be just me but i don't like the Sans Serif font at all, renders really bad in Safari.
by suyash on 7/16/14, 5:41 AM
Anyone know what license they are released under and if it is ok to use them freely for commercial projects?
by theandrewbailey on 7/16/14, 3:14 AM
I really like Noto Sans. From what I can tell, it's a fork of Open Sans. For the Latin alphabet it's mostly the same, but with a single story lowercase g.
by jzzocc on 7/16/14, 3:50 PM
by zvrba on 7/16/14, 6:39 AM
I looked at sample serif font, and it renders both blurry and jagged. At that size, this is quite an "achievement".
by waitingkuo on 7/16/14, 4:38 AM
Nice, so glad that it support for Chinese!
by greenpresident on 7/16/14, 10:03 AM
Note that this neatly integrates into their plan of digitizing all books ever written. Next: Brahimi Captchas.
by hownottowrite on 7/17/14, 10:58 AM
by deskamess on 7/16/14, 9:40 AM
I find the Canada->Cree glyphs very interesting (geometrical). The art from the area is also very beautiful. If you are ever in Ottawa a trip to the Canadian Museum of History (was Civilization) is well worth it.
Cherokee (US) is one fine looking set of glyphs.
by marcoms on 7/16/14, 8:34 AM
Nice to see Material design in use on their sites for one of the first times!
by mahmoudhossam on 7/16/14, 9:21 PM
I have a question. Why would anyone list Greek under "Egypt"?
by vincentchan on 7/16/14, 3:38 AM
Will Noto be available in Google Web Fonts later? That will be awesome.
by SimeVidas on 7/16/14, 1:14 PM
Largest .ttf in collection: 762KB
Smallest .otf in collection: 4093KB
by insky on 7/16/14, 10:57 AM
Took me a while to work out just how to preview fonts on that page.
by dnqthao on 7/16/14, 3:40 AM
Nice, we look forward in the future for Chu Nom scripts.
by callesgg on 7/16/14, 9:21 PM
My safari on my ipad crashes when I visit that page.
by cihangirsavas on 7/16/14, 11:36 AM
it is like NATO :)
by wahsd on 7/16/14, 3:20 PM
Interesting behavior when you do an in-page search for a language.