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Thread: Accessible Google Fonts
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: England, Kristina
Date: Thu, Apr 12 2018 9:43AM
Subject: Accessible Google Fonts
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Hi everyone,
We have a team working on a new Student Portal here. They were originally planning to use Open Sans<https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans>, but the uppercase I and lowercase L are too similar so I recommended finding another font. We did a search and came up with Raleway<https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Raleway> â the lowercase L has a curve at the bottom â but I figured I'd reach out here and see what folks recommend. I know that Verdana is the most readable but they are hoping to use a Google Font so I was wondering if anyone had additional recommendations or any concerns regarding Raleway?
Thank you!
Kristina England
UMass Office of the President
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
From: chagnon
Date: Thu, Apr 12 2018 10:23AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Google Fonts
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The "font fairy" chiming in...
Here are some good opensource Unicode fonts to consider if you need the little hook on the lower case L in the sans serif versions.
Montserrat is an excellent sans serif font with multiple weights to accommodate a myriad of design and publishing needs. It has a slightly wide, circular design with a large x-height, which makes the letters very legible. However, the downside is that you'll get fewer characters on a page. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM. Possible use Noto Symbols to fill in those STEM symbols.
Montserrat has excellent numbers: very clear, numeral 1 has a little hook at the top, and they produce very legible, readable, clear numbers in tables, formulae, and other STEM material.
Raleway is another excellent choice with multiple weights. Very clean appearance that's just a tad more flourised than Montserrat but still very legible and readable. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM.
However, Raleway has a typographic feature that bugs me: it uses old style figures, a typographic term that refers to how numbers are placed when typeset. In this case, some numbers have their ascenders sticking up above the x-height, others have descenders sticking below the baseline. The end result is that a series of numbers, such as those in a table or STEM textbook, will have a very cluttered appearance.
I don't recommend it for academia where a significant number of people have reading disabilities and dyslexias. I personally wouldn't want to read a math textbook in Raleway.
You can find more opensource Unicode fonts at https://fonts.google.com/ (note that there isn't a www preceding the URL address).
You're wise to choose opensource fonts because they are 1) Unicode by default, so they meet accessibility requirements, and 2) usually free to use in any type of published material, including PDFs, EPUBs, and websites.
But do check the end user license agreement (EULA) to ensure you do not violate anyone's copyright. Some opensource fonts aren't quite so "open" as others.
FYI, the traditional font industry is moving to "rented fonts" and the big names like Adobe, Monotype, Linotype, Font House, etc. are pricing fonts on how you'll use them. You could be charged thousands of dollars per year for embedding one of their fonts into a PDF that gets a lot of hits on a website.
The industry buzzword is that they are "monetizing" their intellectual property. Just say "no" to Adobe TypeKit and go opensource instead.
And don't forget to check the EULA on every font you want to use.
âBevi Chagnon
Former typesetter, typographer, and designer
â â â
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
â â â
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
â â â
From: Cervone, Gian Carlo (gcervone)
Date: Thu, Apr 12 2018 10:51AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Google Fonts
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Hi Kristina:
We use Raleway on our site - feel free to look around if you'd like to see it used on a large site: www.brockport.edu<;http://www.brockport.edu>;. FWIW we use it alongside Droid Serif, and also use Font Awesome for icons.
Best regards,
-= G =-
Gian Carlo Cervone
Web Manager
The College at Brockport
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > ' 585-395-5073
https://www.brockport.edu/support/web_team/team/gcervone.html
https://brockportwebredesign.wordpress.com
On Apr 12, 2018, at 12:23 PM, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
The "font fairy" chiming in...
Here are some good opensource Unicode fonts to consider if you need the little hook on the lower case L in the sans serif versions.
Montserrat is an excellent sans serif font with multiple weights to accommodate a myriad of design and publishing needs. It has a slightly wide, circular design with a large x-height, which makes the letters very legible. However, the downside is that you'll get fewer characters on a page. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM. Possible use Noto Symbols to fill in those STEM symbols.
Montserrat has excellent numbers: very clear, numeral 1 has a little hook at the top, and they produce very legible, readable, clear numbers in tables, formulae, and other STEM material.
Raleway is another excellent choice with multiple weights. Very clean appearance that's just a tad more flourised than Montserrat but still very legible and readable. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM.
However, Raleway has a typographic feature that bugs me: it uses old style figures, a typographic term that refers to how numbers are placed when typeset. In this case, some numbers have their ascenders sticking up above the x-height, others have descenders sticking below the baseline. The end result is that a series of numbers, such as those in a table or STEM textbook, will have a very cluttered appearance.
I don't recommend it for academia where a significant number of people have reading disabilities and dyslexias. I personally wouldn't want to read a math textbook in Raleway.
You can find more opensource Unicode fonts at https://fonts.google.com/ (note that there isn't a www preceding the URL address).
You're wise to choose opensource fonts because they are 1) Unicode by default, so they meet accessibility requirements, and 2) usually free to use in any type of published material, including PDFs, EPUBs, and websites.
But do check the end user license agreement (EULA) to ensure you do not violate anyone's copyright. Some opensource fonts aren't quite so "open" as others.
FYI, the traditional font industry is moving to "rented fonts" and the big names like Adobe, Monotype, Linotype, Font House, etc. are pricing fonts on how you'll use them. You could be charged thousands of dollars per year for embedding one of their fonts into a PDF that gets a lot of hits on a website.
The industry buzzword is that they are "monetizing" their intellectual property. Just say "no" to Adobe TypeKit and go opensource instead.
And don't forget to check the EULA on every font you want to use.
âBevi Chagnon
Former typesetter, typographer, and designer
â â â
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
â â â
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes<;http://www.PubCom.com/classes>;
â â â
From: England, Kristina
Date: Fri, Apr 13 2018 11:43AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Google Fonts
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Thank you Bevi and Gian! We are only using the font on a website for checking course grades, registering for classes, etc. (no textbooks - we would search out another font in that case). I'll check out the other fonts mentioned.
On 4/12/18, 12:51 PM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Cervone, Gian Carlo (gcervone)" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = on behalf of = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
Hi Kristina:
We use Raleway on our site - feel free to look around if you'd like to see it used on a large site: www.brockport.edu<;http://www.brockport.edu>;. FWIW we use it alongside Droid Serif, and also use Font Awesome for icons.
Best regards,
-= G =-
Gian Carlo Cervone
Web Manager
The College at Brockport
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > ' 585-395-5073
https://www.brockport.edu/support/web_team/team/gcervone.html
https://brockportwebredesign.wordpress.com
On Apr 12, 2018, at 12:23 PM, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
The "font fairy" chiming in...
Here are some good opensource Unicode fonts to consider if you need the little hook on the lower case L in the sans serif versions.
Montserrat is an excellent sans serif font with multiple weights to accommodate a myriad of design and publishing needs. It has a slightly wide, circular design with a large x-height, which makes the letters very legible. However, the downside is that you'll get fewer characters on a page. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM. Possible use Noto Symbols to fill in those STEM symbols.
Montserrat has excellent numbers: very clear, numeral 1 has a little hook at the top, and they produce very legible, readable, clear numbers in tables, formulae, and other STEM material.
Raleway is another excellent choice with multiple weights. Very clean appearance that's just a tad more flourised than Montserrat but still very legible and readable. Has 598 glyphs to accommodate most publishing needs, but you'll be missing some special characters for STEM.
However, Raleway has a typographic feature that bugs me: it uses old style figures, a typographic term that refers to how numbers are placed when typeset. In this case, some numbers have their ascenders sticking up above the x-height, others have descenders sticking below the baseline. The end result is that a series of numbers, such as those in a table or STEM textbook, will have a very cluttered appearance.
I don't recommend it for academia where a significant number of people have reading disabilities and dyslexias. I personally wouldn't want to read a math textbook in Raleway.
You can find more opensource Unicode fonts at https://fonts.google.com/ (note that there isn't a www preceding the URL address).
You're wise to choose opensource fonts because they are 1) Unicode by default, so they meet accessibility requirements, and 2) usually free to use in any type of published material, including PDFs, EPUBs, and websites.
But do check the end user license agreement (EULA) to ensure you do not violate anyone's copyright. Some opensource fonts aren't quite so "open" as others.
FYI, the traditional font industry is moving to "rented fonts" and the big names like Adobe, Monotype, Linotype, Font House, etc. are pricing fonts on how you'll use them. You could be charged thousands of dollars per year for embedding one of their fonts into a PDF that gets a lot of hits on a website.
The industry buzzword is that they are "monetizing" their intellectual property. Just say "no" to Adobe TypeKit and go opensource instead.
And don't forget to check the EULA on every font you want to use.
âBevi Chagnon
Former typesetter, typographer, and designer
â â â
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
â â â
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes<;http://www.PubCom.com/classes>;
â â â