One of the challenges in website localization is finding fonts that will support different languages across different operating systems.

The age of information technology has made many language services more efficient, but it has also created new issues of its own. The field of website localization, for example, is technically complex and ever-changing.

Localization goes beyond pure language translation, and takes into account cultural elements such as graphics and colors, as well as technical aspects – for example the choice and use of fonts in various languages.

I would have imagined that font choices were the least of localization engineers’ worries. Apparently, though, finding and choosing appropriate fonts has been a thorny issue.

“For years, web designers have been restricted to a paltry range of fonts,” remarks web globalization expert John Yunker in a September 21^st blog post entitled Fonts in the cloud: Finding the most multilingual solution.

According to Yunker, the problem is finding fonts that work on all versions of all operating systems -- all over the world. This constraint has led to the use of what he calls “’common denominator’ fonts” – or the ones that work the most easily everywhere.

Yunker announces, however, that a solution to this problem has developed in the form of web-based fonts. “With web-based (hosted/cloud-based) fonts, web browsers are freed from relying on whatever fonts are available on the user’s computer or mobile device, “he explains.

He appears impressed by the number of languages available on Fonts.com, but points out that Google is catching up fast – as always, I might add.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.