New Typeface for Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English Material
After much research and consideration, I have decided to change the default typeface for the Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material from Helvetica Neue/Arial to Gentium Basic. (Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, and “sans-serif” will be set as the fallback typefaces.)
Some reasons for this are:
- While Helvetica Neue, Arial, etc. would be rendered using local font files (ones residing on the client device itself), the Gentium Basic font files will be served from a web server. This will help eliminate dependence on certain font files (and certain versions of those font files) being available on users’ devices.
- Most modern web browsers now support this capability, making it workable for web users.
- With the right programming code, EPUB files can also support included font files.
- Gentium Basic’s licence allows for such usage for free, whereas the licences of Helvetica Neue, Arial, etc. do not.
- Increased certainty about what font file will be used to render certain material makes it more certain that that material will be rendered properly on users’ devices—that certain things will line up properly, etc.
- Helvetica Neue, Arial, etc. have a clean, neutral appearance that many like (Interestingly, “Helvetica” means “Swiss” in Latin.), but Gentium Basic should prove to be more readable. For example, it makes it easier to tell similar-looking characters apart from one another, such as “i”, “I”, and “l”.
- The website of Gentium Basic’s designer has information that shows that he has thought and researched deeply about the design of diacritics, which is what Pīnyīn tone marks are. Indeed, the increased size and clarity of Gentium Basic’s Pīnyīn tone marks should especially help to make Pīnyīn text easier to read.
- While Helvetica Neue, Arial, etc. can seem a little sterile, Gentium Basic has a more “artful”, yet friendly style. Hopefully this will make the Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material even more appealing.
Some Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn-English material has already been converted to use the Gentium Basic typeface, and eventually more of it will be so converted.
