Persian webfonts: BBC, Google Font
Mostafa Hajizadeh
I don't check general news sites very frequently, so I guess I'm the
last one who notices the new Persian web font in the new design of BBC
Persian (http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/). The font is Nassim
(http://www.rosettatype.com/Nassim), and although it kind of reminds
me of some old Persian books, its shape isn't very appealing to
Iranian readers.
Anyways, it's fun to see that a mainstream website starts using a web
font for Persian content.
But what's more interesting is enabling more people and web
writers/producers to use Persian web fonts for their web sites, and I
think adding one or two Persian web font(s) to Google Web Fonts
(http://www.google.com/webfonts) is a good way for achieving this. It
says the fonts have to be "open source, high quality web fonts free
for anyone to use." Do you guys have suggestions for this? The
FarsiWeb fonts are not fully suitable for this purpose legally. Iran
Nastaliq can be a choice. Mr. Mehr's excellent "Iranian" families are
great, but not ready yet, specially for Windows users. Any ideas?
Cheers,
Mostafa
Behdad Esfahbod
> Hi PCers,
Hi Mostafa,
> I don't check general news sites very frequently, so I guess I'm the
> last one who notices the new Persian web font in the new design of BBC
> Persian (http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/). The font is Nassim
> (http://www.rosettatype.com/Nassim), and although it kind of reminds
> me of some old Persian books, its shape isn't very appealing to
> Iranian readers.
Agreed. The proportations are off for Persian.
> Anyways, it's fun to see that a mainstream website starts using a web
> font for Persian content.
>
> But what's more interesting is enabling more people and web
> writers/producers to use Persian web fonts for their web sites, and I
> think adding one or two Persian web font(s) to Google Web Fonts
> (http://www.google.com/webfonts) is a good way for achieving this. It
> says the fonts have to be "open source, high quality web fonts free
> for anyone to use." Do you guys have suggestions for this? The
> FarsiWeb fonts are not fully suitable for this purpose legally. Iran
> Nastaliq can be a choice. Mr. Mehr's excellent "Iranian" families are
> great, but not ready yet, specially for Windows users. Any ideas?
We (Google) have been looking for good Persian fonts to add to the repository
indeed. FarsiWeb fonts where not suitable indeed. I have contacted Hooman to
see if we can work on making his font available, but he has not been able to
find the time to work on finishing it yet. Let this be another ping for him.
Google is typically willing to make a small monetary contribution to Open Font
designers to finish their designs, just in case someone may want to use that.
If you know any good fonts that have a clear designer and may be a good fit,
let me know.
Cheers,
behdad
> Cheers,
> Mostafa
Sourena
@Behdad: The fonts introduced on this page are free and public domain:
http://alefba.us/typography/free-arabic-persian-farsi-urdu-kurdish-fonts/
At least those made by governments of Saudi Arabia and Iran are public domain. They can be used by Google webfonts to cover Arabic-script languages. Nastaliq still is not ready for this purpose though. It is a very complex typeface that no browser can handle as a webfont yet.
Behnam Esfahbod
Didn't get you here. I couldn't find any webfont "service" on those
links. Can you clarify?
-b
> --
> http://groups.google.com/group/persian-computing
--
' بهنام اسفهبد
' Behnam Esfahbod
' http://behnam.esfahbod.info
* .. http://zwnj.org/
* ` * http://persian-computing.ir
* o * 3E7F B4B6 6F4C A8AB 9BB9 7520 5701 CA40 259E 0F8B
Hossein Noorikhah
It leads to Fonts.com web fonts section. Follow this link to see Arabic collection:
http://webfonts.fonts.com/Project/ChooseFonts?Languages=W20
Behdad Esfahbod
>
> @Behdad: The fonts introduced on this page are free and public domain:
> http://alefba.us/typography/free-arabic-persian-farsi-urdu-kurdish-fonts/
> At least those made by governments of Saudi Arabia and Iran are public domain.
Are they? I doubt that.
> They can be used by Google webfonts to cover Arabic-script languages. Nastaliq
> still is not ready for this purpose though. It is a very complex typeface that
> no browser can handle as a webfont yet.
Firefox 4 should do just fine.
behdad
John Hudson
service': they just need a font license that permits serving of a font
with web content, then they can serve the font directly, just as they
would an image or other part of their website's visual appearance. The
primary benefit of webfont services, i.e. third party webfont serving,
is that they look after the various format issues that are required for
backwards-compatible cross-browser webfont support, e.g. WOFF format to
newer browsers, EOT to older versions of Internet Explorer, raw TTF to
some versions of Opera, Safari and Chrome. Since these issues are a
headache to deal with, some publishers may prefer to make use of webfont
services, whether paying cash to companies like Typekit or paying Google
in kind by allowing them to monitor your web traffic through hits on
their font server. Of course, some fonts may only be available on
subscription basis through webfont services, i.e. the font makers may
not make self-serve licenses available.
JH
--
Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Gulf Islands, BC ti...@tiro.com
When arrested, he was found in possession of a ticket
which was perhaps one of the last �covers� for the old L.C.S.:
�Admit for the Season to the School of Eloquence�.
Hossein Noorikhah
Fons.com webfonts does not work for me, and I get "forbidden" message
when I try to access the fonts on this page:
http://webfonts.fonts.com/Project/ChooseFonts?Languages=W20
> paying cash to companies like Typekit or paying Google in kind by allowing them to monitor your web traffic through hits on their font server
Hossein
> which was perhaps one of the last ‘covers’ for the old L.C.S.:
> ‘Admit for the Season to the School of Eloquence’.
>
> --
> http://groups.google.com/group/persian-computing
Mostafa
themes.googleusercontent.com is now censored in Iran and thus Google
Web Fonts won't work here any more.
Mostafa
On May 26, 1:45 pm, Hossein Noorikhah <hossein...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> Fons.com webfonts does not work for me, and I get "forbidden" message
> when I try to access the fonts on this page:http://webfonts.fonts.com/Project/ChooseFonts?Languages=W20> paying cash to companies like Typekit or paying Google in kind by allowing them to monitor your web traffic through hits on their font server
>
> Third party hosted fonts seems to be a bad idea.
>
> Hossein
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > It should be noted that web publishers don't necessarily need a 'webfont
> > service': they just need a font license that permits serving of a font
> > with web content, then they can serve the font directly, just as they
> > would an image or other part of their website's visual appearance. The
> > primary benefit of webfont services, i.e. third party webfont serving,
> > is that they look after the various format issues that are required for
> > backwards-compatible cross-browser webfont support, e.g. WOFF format to
> > newer browsers, EOT to older versions of Internet Explorer, raw TTF to
> > some versions of Opera, Safari and Chrome. Since these issues are a
> > headache to deal with, some publishers may prefer to make use of webfont
> > services, whether paying cash to companies like Typekit or paying Google
> > in kind by allowing them to monitor your web traffic through hits on
> > their font server. Of course, some fonts may only be available on
> > subscription basis through webfont services, i.e. the font makers may
> > not make self-serve licenses available.
>
> > JH
>
> > --
>
> > Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Huji Lee
> > domain.
Copyright law doesn't consider government works in public domain, and
my understanding of Saudi Arabia Copyright Law is they don't consider
it in public domain either.
@Behdad: When you said "I have contacted Hooman to see if we can work
were you talking about this font: http://choxos.net/?p=125 ?
Behdad Esfahbod
> @Behdad: When you said "I have contacted Hooman to see if we can work
> on making his font available, but he has not been able to find the
> time to work on finishing it yet. Let this be another ping for him",
> were you talking about this font: http://choxos.net/?p=125 ?
Yes, IranianSans.
behdad
