Open Fonts + i18n
While reviewing the submissions for the Open Font Library logo competition we came across many concepts that nicely tied into the OpenClipart aesthetic. That was great.
We also noticed a tenancy to use glyphs from other scripts which was great but this really limits the brand for those coming from other nationalities who’s alphabet didn’t make it into the 3 used in the logo.
The best way to deal with this? Make a derivative logo for all locales!
As an exercise I took one submission by Marty, cleaned up the aesthetic a little and had it translated in 23 languages :-).
Considering I know only English and dumb English (translated here), It’s a privilege to have brilliant translators as colleagues.
Tools:
Inkscape (design)
XML2PO (conversion from SVG into pofiles )
RSVG locale specific style tweaks+rendering),
UPDATE:
I’ve published the major part of the technique for creating these translatable graphics here.
March 30th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Long time no see, and Great work Andy! In your examples, you have green character in front and then blue and orange “shading” behind. Would it make sense to switch the “shading” order around for right-to-left languages, so that starting from right orange is in front and green is behind?
March 31st, 2007 at 7:14 am
oh my goodness, these are gorgeous! great work!!!
April 1st, 2007 at 11:10 pm
They’re wonderful, but in the Italian version there’s an error: “cartteri” is “caratteri”
April 1st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Passing by on planet.inkscape.org I saw a spelling error in the Italian version : It’s “caratteri” not “cartteri”.
Good job anyway
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:46 am
I’m afraid that the Spanish translation is wrong (and I’m a native speaker).
It is a common mistake to translate “font†with “fuente†in Spanish. But “font†in this context should be translated with “tipografÃa†or even “tipografÃa digitalâ€. False friends, you know.
If you want to read a longer explanation “font†comes from the Latin «funditus», but in Spanish that would be “fundidoâ€. “Fuente†in Spanish comes from the Latin «fons» and it means both “fountain†and “source“ (it also means “serving dishâ€). Translating back “Biblioteca abierta de fuentes tipográficas†would give something like “Open Library of Typographic Sourcesâ€.
In my opinion, the Spanish translation should read “Biblioteca abierta de tipografÃas digitalesâ€.
I hope it helps. Congratulations for your excellent work.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
Thanks for the feedback Pablo, Riccardo & Stefano.
I’m really glad that the translators for Spanish and Italian had logical errors rather than just typing “andy smells” in their respective languages
Your changes should be there now .
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:45 pm
hi, nice to see you derivated my logo. in german the title could be
“Offenes Schriftenarchiv”. you could use the letter abc as well or äbc or aßc.
April 6th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Thanks for the improvements, Andy.
If you allow me a further comment, the last word in the Spanish translation should read “digitales†and not “digitale†(which is wrong in Spanish). Yes, “digitales†is the Spanish form for “digitalâ€, but in Spanish adjectives have a plural form that is different from the singular one (singular: “digital†and plural: “digitalesâ€).
I hope it helps,
Pablo
April 29th, 2007 at 2:26 am
oh my goodness, these are gorgeous! great work!!!