Explore Noto, the Google font set that supports up to 800 different languages

This set of fonts not only helps the company's products expand its capabilities, but also helps rare-language languages ​​display better on computers.

An interesting thing happens when your computer or phone can't display a certain font: A blank rectangle replaces the handwriting that the computer doesn't have. This little box is called .notdef, or " undefined " in programmers' slang, but people often call it tofu or " tofu ".

Meanwhile, Bob Jung hated tofu. His hatred for it began in the 1980s, when he owned an American computer in Tokyo. "In those days, if you bought an American computer, you wouldn't have the text in any other language ." He said. " So, you will often have to eat tofu."

Now he is leading Google's Internationalization department, to ensure the company's products can work everywhere. His team spent six years working with designers at Monotype to remove tofu pictures from Google devices with a set of typefaces (fonts) interlinked for a variety of languages, called Noto (short for "No more tofu" - no tofu).

Noto, one of the largest large-scale printing families ever created, when it supports up to 800 languages, 100 types of scripts (scripts) in 8 different bold styles, countless characters special, and absolutely no tofu.

Noto solved an important useful problem that most people didn't even know existed. When you write in languages ​​like English, Hindi, Mandarin, or Russian, you rarely have to see pieces of tofu. Such languages ​​are supported by Unicode, which approves emoji (emoticons) and maintains software according to internationalization standards, and so your device will also be supported.

But people read and write in hundreds of different languages. Recently, Unicode approved Tibetan, as well as Armenian language. There are still many other languages ​​waiting for approval. If these less popular languages ​​need a digital typeface, it may not be considered, because " some regions of the world have a tradition of typography (typographic). Richer than other areas, "said Steve Matteson, Monotype's creative director.

Steve Matteson is leading hundreds of researchers, designers, and linguists, to bring each Unicode-compatible script a font (font), and make sure that the characters will look like a part of the same family printed on the machine.

Previously, platforms often licensed text strokes in different scripts, (because a script could be used for some languages ​​- for example, English, Icelandic and Dutch are only 3 among dozens of Latin-based scripting languages). Therefore, they will buy one for Latin scripts such as Spanish and French, another type of Arabic language, and another for Japanese or Chinese.

" You will get a mess of different handwriting ." Jung said. " It is a complaint that we often get - the handwriting does not look good when you combine multiple languages ​​together. " Developing a typeface for 800 languages, even if linked together, but if it does not create respect for the cultural heritage of each of those languages, it will create inherent stress.

And so, making those characters with "unmistakable Google " styles is almost impossible. For example, the lines in Tibetan writing are more traditionally beautiful, while English is more straightforward and geometric.

Tibetan typeface with lines like traditional beautiful writing style.

Arabic typefaces often write bold strokes in the direction from left to right, while French letters often write boldly in vertical strokes in the text. Some other characters, like Runic, have so few people that the typographers in Monotype have to design that typeface from inspired inspiration.

Arabic font with bold from left to right, and French typeface with bold from top to bottom.

The goal is to create a family of characters, at least that can show relationships with each other. " We want to make it so that when people change their language settings, they won't feel like they're using a completely different platform." Matteson said.

He designed the modern yet friendly Noto, with curvaceous strokes, soft tail and strokes like the beautiful writing from the 5th century. He also avoided making Noto too simple, when the part large shapes will not be displayed beautifully when switching to another language."It is not easy to express beautiful written languages ​​like Tibetan under the Futura typeface model, which only includes circles and straight lines, " he said.

You will see some common shapes appear popular among characters in the Noto family. Every font has a similar boldness, creating a continuity between the words. And even though not all languages ​​are based on similar baseline and peak (cap-line) lines (for example, letters in Asian languages ​​tend to be higher than letters similar in Latin language), they stand in rows to form an imaginary line that can split Latin letters.

These carefully revised details are what make Noto's efforts very impressive. This is not the first time that most of these languages ​​have the same typeface, but this is the first time they have been linked together in a visual language.