1/27/2024 0 Comments Language in fontbookIf we're using bold or italic styles for highlights, we need to make sure that our selected fonts support them for our chosen languages. Missing diacritical marks in languages that use them can often change the meaning of words, which is less than desirable. When we do, we should check to see if diacritical marks, like accents, are supported properly in our fonts. Of course, we will have to test our fonts ourselves before using them in our apps and websites. Adobe Fonts offers a language-filtration function similar to that of Google Fonts. If we (or our clients) are paying for a font, we should check to see if our font supplier gives us the ability to determine what languages a given font supports. Google Fonts provides a selector that helps us determine languages support for fonts ![]() Google Fonts provides a Languages dropdown that can filter the visible fonts to ones that only support the selected language. macOS users can use the built-in Font Book app to get an idea of a font's supported languages. How to determine the languages that a font supports will be different depending on our toolset. This seems obvious, yet there is some nuance that can help us when we're selecting our fonts for different locales. ![]() One of the first things we need to determine when selecting fonts for our software is the languages we need to cover. Let's take a look at these practical criteria for selecting fonts across locales. And we could just do away with all of this multi-font stuff and select one font for all our languages. Font styles and height come into play as well. Diacritical marks, like accents, also come into consideration. We have to consider the languages we're supporting, of course. There is a bit of science when deciding on what font to use for the localization of a mobile app. How to Choose Fonts for Localized Products That's all good and well, but we're here to talk specifically about localized products. Fonts solidify brand identity, and good typography can inspire a sense of confidence, professionalism, and trust in our product. Font readability has a direct effect on the usability of our apps and websites.įonts also communicate personality and are a core component of our product branding. Can the font be read at different sizes to support different contexts? Is it readable on screens with different resolutions? The whole point of our products' copy is communication, so the fonts we select for our UIs should read well everywhere our products are used. When considering fonts, the main difference between a good one and a bad one is legibility. Text is still one of the primary forms of communication between a product designer and its user, and we can rarely design good digital products without it. Hover over an icon button in any well-designed piece of software, and you'll get a tooltip that explains what the button is used for. Navigating most software requires jumping from one piece of text to another. Before we identify an app icon with its app, we need to read the app's name underneath it first. While an increasing amount of the digital content we consume today is visual, images and video, text is still crucial in our digital products. But why do top-level designers care so much about text? And how does this influence font selection? Text is Still Tops in UI If you're a digital product designer you owe it to yourself to read Hurff's book: it's a product design goldmine. In it, Scott Hurff, author and ex-Tinder product manager and lead designer, dedicates a whole chapter to the importance of the written word in UI. I read this in the fantastic book, Designing Products People Love: How Great Designers Create Successful Products. In fact, Jef Raskin, pioneer of the Macintosh project at Apple – yes, the first commercial graphical user interface in the world-believes that a designer should start designing with text. Why Fonts Matter for LocalizationĪsk any good graphic designer and she'll tell you that typography is the core of any user interface. And we'll address font selection from a practical perspective, and an aesthetic one that relates to brand personality and feel. Specifically, we'll look at how to choose different fonts that work together. ![]() We'll also explore some of the foundational elements of selecting fonts for international apps and websites. In this article, we'll delve into why typography is so important for our localized products and the people who benefit from them, our users. So it behooves us as software professionals to consider good typography practices as we do the work of localizing apps and websites. And the written word is still a primary element of our products' UIs. As more and more businesses go international, our approach to software is becoming increasingly intertwined with good internationalization and localization practices.
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