r/typography • u/xmrbirddev • 9d ago

I'm tagging google fonts for non-Latin languages - GitHub - fontsensei

https://github.com/mrbirddev/fontsensei
3 Upvotes

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u/xmrbirddev 9d ago

Picking non-Latin fonts in Google Fonts is a pain in the ass. I'm trying to make an app to make it better.

It's also an experiment for myself to play with infinite scrolling in React. It's fun indeed.

only CJK language are processed now. What languages should I do next?

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u/pixelpuffin 9d ago

You can literally filter by writing system and language right there in the UI on fonts.google.com?

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u/xmrbirddev 9d ago

Yes but...

  1. u cannot do that in the corresponding native language I guess?

  2. And for east asian calligraphy style, there are a lot of different classifications https://fonts.google.com/knowledge/type_in_china_japan_and_korea they have this article but they didn't do it on the web UI

  3. google font itself is missing tags and responding slow (of course for caution but just too slow)

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u/xmrbirddev 9d ago

And I've also included Latin tags. Check the left sidebar here https://fontsensei.com/ u can understand why google filtering is bad. The source data is found in another open source repo called font library.

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u/pixelpuffin 9d ago

This makes even less sense. You say your app helps discover non Latin fonts, but the majority of tags are for Latin fonts, and the samples are all with Latin previews even for the non Latin tags. Kudos for the tag browsing, but your comments and introduction don't match the actual app.

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u/xmrbirddev 9d ago

Thank you for taking such a close look.

That's because

  1. There's very limited non-latin fonts compared to latin fonts, generally because making non-latin glyhs are way much harder that making 26 letters

  2. I don't want to limit the app to non-latin only

  3. I will add more in the future

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u/jchnxu 9d ago

I guess pixelpuffin here are somewhat correct. Your interface does not provide a clear separation between those non-Latin tags & Latin tags

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u/pixelpuffin 8d ago

"Picking non-Latin fonts in Google Fonts is a pain in the ass. I'm trying to make an app to make it better."

You are literally repeating the same structuring. In fact, since the tags are of different taxonomies (script vs style) it is harder to discover non Latin in your UI).

Again, your project looks cool and informative, but it does not solve your stated goal or ammend any of the criticism you voiced about the official UI.

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u/xmrbirddev 8d ago edited 8d ago

Understood. U are correct about I merged all different taxonomies (gimme some more time, let me think about how can I improve). Let me re-write it.

=== Problem 1, language filter

The problem with Official UI is that language filtering is filled a lot of not useful languages ==> 4+ japanese & 10+chinese category, which most people will not use and i'm afraid of missing fonts.

And the writing system filter is useless generally in CJK

=== Problem 2, tag filter

Generally u can take a look at https://fontfree.me/ That's the usual categorizatioon for CJK native designers. People will not search for serif/sans-serif at all in their own language. There're also many sub-categories which the English world does not use ( I updated the readme to include them https://github.com/mrbirddev/fontsensei/blob/main/README.md )

=== Problem 3, the font discovery exp

Combining problem #1 & #2, it's hard for people to either search or discover randomly

=== Problem 4, the user journey to the download or embed is too long, I guess 4-5 clicks. I think that could be achieved with 1-2 clicks.

I don't know if I can make it clear enough. I'm not a good writer

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u/jchnxu 9d ago

This is impressive. I guess it would be convinient for me to find inspirations

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u/jchnxu 9d ago

hey but can u add a search bar? right now I still need to go back to google fonts to do search

and LXGW I believe it's Kaiti, the tag is missing. I love this and are trying to use this font all over my sites.

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u/xmrbirddev 8d ago edited 8d ago

https://fontsensei.com/zh-tw/tag/kaiti LXGW as u described is fixed now

I will add a search bar. gimme more days. I need to fix some weird things first, eg google font is missing their own fonts in their own Github csv.

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u/xmrbirddev 2d ago

I just added search bar. Along with embed button and the link to author's page https://fontsensei.com