By: Callie Budrick
Google and Monotype are making history. The two partnered together to create Noto: a typeface five years in the making. The new face can be used across 100 writing systems and contains 800 languages.
NO MORE TOFU
According to Monotype’s website, “Google [sent] Monotype a straightforward brief: ‘no more tofu’ — tofu being the nickname for the blank boxes that are shown when a computer or site lacks the font support for a particular character.”
The goal for Google Noto is to make communication easier across all devices. Google’s internationalization expert Bob Jung also mentions their goal to keep information alive. “When it comes to some of the lesser-used languages, or even the purely academic or dead languages, we think it’s really important to preserve them.” Latin and Coptic are two of the dead languages included in Google Noto’s huge family. Noto also supports symbols, emoji and musical notation.
“It’s hard for me to grasp how many people will actually be using this, let alone be able to communicate in multiple languages in their mother tongie, or be able to translate and preserve their culture,” saus Steve Matterson of Monotype.
Need to get your hands on this working horse face? Download it here!