Noto Fonts Update

Google Internationalization team released new update of Noto Fonts this week. The update brings numerous new features enhancements. Please read the project release notes for the full list of changes.

You can preview the fonts and download them at google.com/get/noto.

Testing fonts on Firefox OS device

It is very simple to test the Noto fonts on a Firefox OS device. Just copy the the font files into /system/fonts folder and reboot the device. Don't forget to back-up the existing fonts on device first.

Am writing this blog post in Bangkok, So I am going to use Thai Noto fonts in these instructions. Connect your Firefox OS device to the computer with a USB cable. Make sure to turn on developer settings to enable debugging via USB.

# Backup the existing Thai font
$ adb pull /system/fonts/DroidSansThai.ttf  

# Remount the /system partition as read-write
$ adb remount /system 

# Remove the font on the device
$ adb shell rm  /system/fonts/DroidSansThai

# Unzip the previously downloaded Thai font package
$ unzip NotoSansThai-hinted.zip 

# Push to Firefox OS device 
$ adb push NotoSansThai-Regular.ttf /system/fonts

# Reboot the phone. Test your localization by selecting your language 
#in Language settings menu or navigating to local language webpage with browser app.
$ adb reboot

Wait, All I see is Tofu?

If you see square blocks (lovingly referred as Tofu) instead of characters, that means the font file for your language is missing. Please double check the steps, if everything fails restore the previously copy of your font file.

Happy Hacking!

Firefox OS: Designing Khmer Keyboards and Fonts

Back in Cambodia this week to participate in Barcamp Phnom Penh 2014. It is great to experience the energy and openness of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian youth's insatiable zeal to learn all things tech. Over the past few years, the barcamps helped us build the Mozilla community in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a fast growing economy in the region. One survey notes significant increase in smart phone ownership from last year. And also increase in Khmer supported smart phones and feature phone in the market. At Barcamp Phnom Penh I presented a Firefox OS talk about the on-going Khmer Internationalization (i18n) work and invited the audience to contribute to Firefox OS. Planning to organize hackathons to work on Khmer keyboards with the Mozilla community here.

Photo credit: Faine Greenwood

Firefox OS : Designing Khmer Keyboard and Fonts from Arky

After my talk, Vannak of Mozilla Cambodia community talked briefly about Mozilla community to the audience. And we did a presentation about Mozilla Web Maker tools. I hope we'll organize more web literacy events in future. Keep watching this space for more news from Cambodia, the kingdom of wonder.

Jeffrey Zeldman: 20 years of Web Design and Community (Video Documentary)

Who is Jeffrey Zeldman? The "Miles Davis of web design"? "Godfather of the web"? Or simply "your friend on the Internet"? For people who make websites, Zeldman is all of these and more. He's been a guiding voice in web design since the earliest days of the Internet, leading the charge in the fight for web standards. He's an educator whose businesses—A List Apart, An Event Apart, and A Book Apart—are extensions of his basic instinct to share his best ideas. He's also a community leader that other designers look to for inspiration. This film is an intimate portrait of a man who has helped shape the web but isn't recognized by most of the people who use it everyday. Learn how he evolved his influential mailing list, how he convinced Netscape and Internet Explorer to support HTML and CSS, and what he's doing to pass the torch to the next generation.

Watch more documentaries like this at lynda.com/vimeo.

Jeffrey Zeldman: 20 years of Web Design and Community from lynda.com on Vimeo