Web developers of other languages for input on native fonts
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:28 pm
Short version:
We need contacts of web developers of other languages to help us choose correct fonts for those languages
Long version:
As we continue to expand our offerings in other languages, we find that the basic "Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif" fonts don't look that great in other languages. Default sizes may be too large or too small, glyphs may display poorly (jagged edges) etc. When a new language comes online (or expands) we try to find the best fonts to use for that language. Unfortunately wikipedia doesn't have a section on "best web fonts for X language."
We usually try to go out to existing sites in that language to see what fonts are used. Often times what we find is inconsistant. We don't know if the fonts they are using are good standard ones (like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana), bad standard ones (Comic Sans) or custom embedded fonts. We don't know if the font looks good to a native speaker. We don't know if the font is a serif or sans-serif (if those even exist in the language).
What we need is contacts with web developers that are native or actually work in a given language who can give us a list of good fonts that we can use.
We have a lot of asian languages coming up right now, so that is our immediate need, but any language (that isn't a Roman language) would be helpful.
If you can be of assistance in this area, or know someone who can, please let us know here. I'd have you PM me, but I can see this being a resources for many sites at the church and it would be good to have it as a living list. If you don't want to list your name here, then go ahead and PM me.
We may not use your services immediately or ever. But it would be great to have resources to go to if and when we do need them.
Thanks
We need contacts of web developers of other languages to help us choose correct fonts for those languages
Long version:
As we continue to expand our offerings in other languages, we find that the basic "Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif" fonts don't look that great in other languages. Default sizes may be too large or too small, glyphs may display poorly (jagged edges) etc. When a new language comes online (or expands) we try to find the best fonts to use for that language. Unfortunately wikipedia doesn't have a section on "best web fonts for X language."
We usually try to go out to existing sites in that language to see what fonts are used. Often times what we find is inconsistant. We don't know if the fonts they are using are good standard ones (like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana), bad standard ones (Comic Sans) or custom embedded fonts. We don't know if the font looks good to a native speaker. We don't know if the font is a serif or sans-serif (if those even exist in the language).
What we need is contacts with web developers that are native or actually work in a given language who can give us a list of good fonts that we can use.
We have a lot of asian languages coming up right now, so that is our immediate need, but any language (that isn't a Roman language) would be helpful.
If you can be of assistance in this area, or know someone who can, please let us know here. I'd have you PM me, but I can see this being a resources for many sites at the church and it would be good to have it as a living list. If you don't want to list your name here, then go ahead and PM me.
We may not use your services immediately or ever. But it would be great to have resources to go to if and when we do need them.
Thanks