Internationalization Part 8 – Fonts
There are two aspects to observe as far as fonts are concerned. They will be covered in the topics below.
a) Font Names Specified in the Code
Remember Unicode? I promised to talk about this subject, but had not done so yet… Be prepared, because the subject is so extensive that it is worth of another series. The advent of Unicode has made it possible to display thousands of distinct characters, rather than sets of ten characters, which is the case of ASCII.
Most fonts do not encompass the complex set of Unicode characters. Therefore, if the name of a font type displays only Latin characters, and no Japanese ideogram is directly inserted into the software (or Web page) programming, all the Japanese localized text will be displayed as question marks, squares or strange characters, inserted for word space adjustment.
As an example, consider the Google homepage in Japanese. The first case is displayed incorrectly, whereas the second one is shown with its correct character set.
Click to enlarge the image
Click to enlarge the image
One reason for not using font names in programming is that the desired font may not be available in the system where the text is being displayed. That is, if your client’s computer does not have the AuntieLucyBold font, the text can be displayed with a substitute font, which may cause visualization problems.
b) Font Sizes Specified in the Code
Some writing forms are more complex than others. The most complex forms need more pixels (or “points”) for correct display.
For instance, most Latin characters may be displayed in a 5×7 grid; Japanese characters, however, need at least a 16×16 grid for clear visualization. Chinese characters need a 24×24 grid!
The chart below illustrates why some characters displayed in small fonts become illegible.
Font Size
As you can see, it is impossible to understand a Japanese ideogram with a font of size 7, while the Latin character “E” is perfectly legible, regardless of its size.
In the next post we will talk about number formats… 1, 2, 3 and… Get ready!
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