Re: Character-distinguishing fonts

Hello,

When I said that scripts should use fonts which accentuate the 
differences between the scripts, then I had in mind the Address 
bar, and perhaps other places in the browser - like "tool tips" - 
which can display the current address.

As much I know, there is no browser of today which allows us to 
distinguish, per script, which font/fonts are used to display URLs.

I don't think mixing severael scripts in one URL should look as if 
it all belonged to one, big, uniform alphabet.

There are of course many things that could be done other than 
using fonts which accentuate the differences: differing colors or 
  styles (italic/bold) for differing scripts (each user could use 
the "best" colors for his most frequently used scripts - less used 
scripts would then "cry out" in a different color etc). Or, the 
URL could be shown black-on-white when it was a one script URL, 
but warn, through color, if several scripts are used etc. And as 
for fonts, one could use the "prettiest" font for the "normal" 
scripts (according to the users preferences), and let uncommon 
scripts be shown in a more bold or clumpsy script.

This of course calls for a tighter adaptation to the users 
preferences - on par with the "preferred language" preferences.

Of course, I agree with Frank in that "[t]he price for total 
security is IMO too high". And it is therefore I think that User 
Agents should help users understand what they are seeing so they 
themselves can judge and all these stupid IDN blockers could be 
disabled.

Andrew Cunningham 2008-08-02 13.44:

> Hi Martin
> 
> certain limitations with this approach. It requires a web browser to be
> aware of fonts per script. Firefox had severe limitations on setting
> default fonts for various scripts.
> 
> IE on Windows is limited to scripts supported by mlang.dll. There are also
> bugs in mlang.dll that prevent internet explorer identifying Myanmar and
> Tibetan script fonts. Only way around that is by editing the relevant
> registry settings.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> On Sat, August 2, 2008 7:19 pm, Martin Duerst wrote:
>>
>> I think that in the major browsers and word processers,
>> you can select the actual font per script. For example,
>> in Opera, you can use Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced ->
>> Fonts -> International Fonts...


>> At 08:48 08/08/01, Jonathan Pool wrote:
>>>

>>>> Should not use of fonts which clearly distinguish the
>>>> different letters and scripts be adviced in these
>>>> regards?

>>> 

>>> At least while editing multiscript documents where all 

>>> characters might appear, I would be very happy to use a
>>> set of fonts that visually distinguish all Unicode 
>>> characters. That would include distinguishing 0061 from 0430,

>>> 02BC from 2019, 2130 from 05D0, 00F5 from 006F+0303, etc.
>>> etc.

-- 

leif halvard silli

Received on Saturday, 2 August 2008 16:55:54 UTC