Noto JP/KR versus Noto

Marc Oxborrow

Purely out of curiosity: Does anyone know why the Latin characters in the newly released Korean and Japanese versions of Noto Sans/Serif are different than the Latin/Greek/Cyrillic versions that have been out for awhile?

The KR/JP Latin characters could be display weights of Source Serif -- lighter, greater contrast.

Seems like a different Latin design for KR/JP is at odds with Google's goal that the fonts "be visually harmonious across multiple languages, with compatible heights and stroke thicknesses."

[Apologies if this is posted in the wrong category. "Font Technology" seemed like the closest fit.]

Dave Crossland

Adobe manage the development of the Noto CJK fonts and release them as Source Han. Only the name is different, and the Latin isn't modified. 

It's a fair question if it should be.

However, as you note, the Latin is different to the regular Source Pro fonts, and that's because the Latin is adjusted to be more visually compatible with the cjk characters.

Vasil Stanev

@Dave Crossland
Interesting. Is the adjustment only in the stroke thickness or does it follow larger, more common principles of adjusting Latin to CJK glyphs? I have noted Latin in CJK fonts before that looks sorta weird, if that's the right word...

André G. Isaak

Adobe manage the development of the Noto CJK fonts and release them as Source Han.

Was Adobe also involved in the rest of the Noto project, or just the CJK portion?

Dave Crossland

Vasil, I wasn't involved so can't comment. Curious what you think the general principles are tho.

Andre, just cjk.

Ray Larabie

@Dave Crossland A characteristic of many CJK fonts is that the Latin has truncated ascenders—often to the extreme. The g is sometimes raised to the height of the t. Sometimes the q’s tail is so short, it looks like a. Even in proportionally spaced Latin, MWmw is often squeezed to match the width of MWmw in the monospaced Latin range.