Google’s new font family supports Pashto, Punjabi and Balochi text

Noto font family covers more than 800 languages and 110,000 characters

Google recently released an open source font that covers over 800 languages in an effort to provide a digital type for every symbol in the Unicode standard. The languages covered by the Google’s open-source Noto font family also include those native to Pakistan such as Pashto, Punjabi and Balochi amongst several others.



It all started five years ago when Google set out to address the problem of “tofu”, blank boxes that appear in place of text when a website unable to recognise a character. Noto, which literally means "no more tofu", provides a digital type for symbols so that websites can recognise characters from languages that are limited to specific regions of the world.

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB/GOOGLE

The program wasn’t an easy one and required design and testing characters from hundreds of languages with the help of specialists in specific scripts, said Google in its blog, adding, “The key to achieving this milestone has been partnering with experts in the field of type and font design, including Monotype, Adobe, and an amazing network of volunteer reviewers.”

PHOTO: GOOGLE



The Noto program will not only be able to provide a solution to tofu but also provides a platform to preserve history and culture of rare languages in the form of a digital alternative. The system will add new characters as they are introduced into the Unicode standard.

The open source program is freely available to all and can be downloaded here.

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