I’d like to collect the names of the styles within a family in a few languages, other than English.
Globalization is Ok, but having labels in one’s own tongue is Ok, too. Yes, I’m thinking about editing fonts in localized versions this way.
Well then, lets do German as a starter:
- Regular – Normal
- Italic – Kursiv
- Bold – Fett
- Small caps – Kapitälchen
- Light – Leicht
- Thin – Mager
- Medium – Kräftig (?), Viertelfett, ›Buch‹
- Semibold – Halbfett
- Demibold (?) – Dreiviertelfett
- Black – Extrafett
- Outline – Licht
- Script – Schreibschrift
What about Spanish, French, Netherlands, Italian, Polish, Portugese, …, …, ?
Comments
What's to stop computers displaying weight names according the the language settings applied.
Spanish: Alejandro Lo Celso's PampaType uses Blanca, Gris, Negra & SuperNegra.
Tunn, Normal, Medium, HalvFet, Fet, ExtraFet, Svart.
Regular ..…………… NormaleItalic ..………………… Italice (some people use "Cursive", but I think that should better describe the Script/Caligraphic typefaces)Bold ..………………… Grase ("the fat ones")Small caps ..……… Capităluțe (diminutive word for Capitals)Light/Thin ..……… Albe ("white ones"), Subțiri ("thin ones")Medium .…………… Mediu (singular), Medii (plural)
Semibold ..………… Semigrase ("half fat ones")Black ………………… Negre ("the black ones")
Outline ……………… I don't know, but should be "Conturate"Script ..……………… Caligrafice, Scripte, CursiveCondensed .……… Înguste ("narrow ones"), Șmale (taken from German "schmal")Monospaced .…… Monoproporționale, NeproporționalePlural form is used throughout.
Throwing local terms with different backgrounds and connotations onto this mess – or literally translating English terms – only adds more confusion and inconsistencies. Not to mention terms like Buch/Book, which relate to the intended application and imply not only a certain (arbitrary) weight, but also a size, and often distinct vertical proportions. Traditionally, German typefaces often came in mager and halbfett, i.e. literally meager and semibold, but actually regular and bold. Licht can denote an outlined style, but the term also includes what is known as open(face) or handtooled.
For weights, a numbering system as in CSS – but maybe with more steps than just 9 – has the advantage to work across languages and to be unambiguous, at least in regard to the order.
is that a hidden part which have not yet discovered in FL?
name
table makes each name entry localisable by design. In fact, there aren’t any ‘default’ entries in the table, storage-wise; the ones that are usually set for you by the font editor are simply indicated as English, since that’s the typical last-resort language for many environments.It’s only the PostScript name entry that should have the same form for each locale, English being the preferred one, and that only because this name is often being used for font identification and lookup, at least on Apple’s platforms. But all the other, user-facing names should be perfectly safe to use in any language available.
For the name entries you want to localise, see what triplets of platform, encoding, and language were provided automatically, and use these to add your own records, simply switching the language choice where appropriate. Note that there will probably be more than one platform-encoding pair for a particular name entry, so you’ll have to localise each such pair separately.
- Regular ..…………..Прямой
- Italic ..……….………Курсивный
- Oblique .................Наклонный
- Bold ..…………….… Жирный
- Small caps ..……… Капитель
- Thin........................ Сверхсветлый
- Light..……...........… Светлый
- Medium .…………… Средний
- Semibold ..………… Полужирный
- Black ………………… Сверхжирный
- Outline ……………… Контурный
- Script ..……………… Рукописный
- Condensed .……….. Сжатый
- Ultra Condensed......Сверхсжатый
- Expanded................Широкий
- Extra Wide...............Сверхширокий
- Monospaced .…….... Моноширинный
Some variations are possible.These are all masculine adjectives. They could also be genderless (like прямое, курсивное, наклонное etc) or in some rare cases feminine (прямая, курсивная, жирная, etc). The only case to use feminine that I can think of — is a feminine font name.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/110VWy7aXXt_gy2o8_ea_7KszH-CFtx_uz2BpKWWAm_4/edit?usp=sharing
thin – extraleicht/extrazart/extrafein
light – leicht/zart/fein
regular – mager
medium – normal (?)
semibold – viertelfett
bold – halbfett
extrabold – dreiviertelfett
black – fett
“Schlanke” (lit. slim, slender) may also imply a light weight – Offenbacher Reform-Latein has a Schmale halbfette (a bold condensed) and a Schlanke (a lighter weight that is equally condensed); S&G’s Egyptienne had a Schmale fette and a relatively lighter Schlanke halbfette – but then, Haas had a Schlanke fette Grotesk. It’s a mess.
Die Schlanke is also the name of a typeface family by Ludwig & Mayer, a narrow serif in several weights.
Light – Leve
Bold – Negrito
Italic – Itálico
Oblique – Oblíquos
Condensed - Condensado
Extended – Extendido
Mono spaced – mono espaçado
Small caps – Versaletes (I like this one)
Script – Caligráfico
(probably there are portuguese versions for everything
on academic books, but they're not usual)