1. React
  2. JSHeroes
  3. 2019
  4. Web typography: a non-English perspective

Web typography: a non-English perspective

This talk covers the intricacies of ensuring web fonts display and are laid out correctly regardless of language.

Hui Jing Chen at JSHeroes 2019

Typography was defined by Gerrit Noordzij as writing with prefabricated letters. More than half of the content on the web is in English even though native English speakers make up less than 5% of the world's population. English only has 26 letters, but writing systems across the world use many more letters and characters, many of which are laid out in different directions as well. This talk covers the intricacies of ensuring web fonts display and are laid out correctly regardless of language, and how some of these layouts can translate across writing systems for creative art direction on the web.