fonts/TRIVIA.md

# github.com/google/fonts.git repo trivia

## Incomplete greek-ext subsets 

Open Sans (and some others, like Roboto) are advertised as they supporting Extended Greek, but choosing the greek-ext subset will not display Open Sans (or the required font) for this range because they don't actually contain the required characters.
You're welcome to commission these characters, though.

## Google Fonts Repo Wiki

The previous fonts Mercurial repository had a wiki at <https://code.google.com/p/googlefontdirectory/wiki> which is no longer available. 
The contents of the wiki are now available here:

<https://github.com/googlefonts/gf-docs>

## Duplicated fonts

From time to time, families have been renamed or updated in a way that the existing styles had to change substantially.
Until April 2020, the initial family was retained, creating similarly named pairs of directories and often duplicate/redundant, files.
The initial families are kept in the API so that people already using them can continue to do so. 
They are no longer listed in the [fonts.google.com](https://fonts.google.com) catalog, or in the HEAD of the master branch, but the files exist still exist in the commit history.

| Initial Family           | Current Family           | Category |
|:-------------------------|:-------------------------|:---------|
| `ofl/alefhebrew`         | `ofl/alef`               | renamed  |
| `ofl/mrbedford`          | `ofl/mrbedfort`          | renamed  |
| `ofl/misssaintdelafield` | `ofl/mrssaintdelafield`  | renamed  |
| `ofl/siamreap`           | `ofl/siemreap`           | renamed  |
| `ofl/terminaldosis`      | `ofl/dosis`              | renamed  |
| `ofl/terminaldosislight` | `ofl/dosis`              | expanded |
| `baloo`                  | `baloo2`                 | expanded |
| `baloobhai`              | `baloobhai2`             | expanded |
| `baloobhaijaan`          | `baloobhaijaan2`         | expanded |
| `baloobhaina`            | `baloobhaina2`           | expanded |
| `baloochettan`           | `baloochettan2`          | expanded |
| `balooda`                | `balooda2`               | expanded |
| `baloopaaji`             | `baloopaaji2`            | expanded |
| `balootamma`             | `balootamma2`            | expanded |
| `balootammudu`           | `balootammudu2`          | expanded |
| `baloothambi`            | `baloothambi2`           | expanded |

## Missing METADATA.pb files

Fonts in Early Access do not have METADATA.pb files.

## .pb vs .textproto 

While `.textproto` is now the canonical extension for Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) text files, we have hundreds of `METADATA` files with the `.pb` extension. 
The inconsistency isn't a practical issue, and as we have internal tools that assume the old filenames, it isn't worth renaming them proactively.

## Install on Windows

You can install all of the fonts using Windows PowerShell. Change directories to the folder where you downloaded the package, and run the following command:

    $fonts = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14)
    dir ofl/*/*.ttf | %{ $fonts.CopyHere($_.fullname) }

## 3rd Party Directories

The [fonts.google.com](https://fonts.google.com) is accompanied by a [Google Fonts Developer API](https://developers.google.com/fonts/docs/developer_api), which provides raw data for constructing such a directory in JSON format. 
Here is a list of 3rd party directories:

* <http://font-combinator.com> + <http://chipcullen.com/font-combinator>
* <https://www.typetester.org>
* <http://font-combinator.com>
* <http://somadesign.ca/demos/better-google-fonts>
* <http://fontapp.org>
* <http://fontapp.org/graph>
* <http://katydecorah.com/font-library>
* <http://fontcdn.org>
* <http://googlefontsdirectory.org>
* <https://hail2u.github.io/mn>
* <http://fontflame.com>
* <http://jenniferdewalt.com/gfboom/page>
* <http://fontpair.co>
* <https://typ.io>
* <http://andreasweis.com/webfontblender>
* <http://www.typegenius.com>
* <http://abbychen.me/punch>
* <http://typewonder.com>
* <http://www.localfont.com>
* <http://open-foundry.com>
* <https://typeresources.github.io/glyph-gazer>
* <http://cdn.canelodigital.cl/fonts>
* <http://code.thisarmy.com/fontsinfo>
* <http://www.localfont.com>
* <http://brandmark.io/font-generator>
* <http://archetypeapp.com>
* <https://useratio.com/the-anatomy-of-a-thousand-typefaces>
* <https://tyffle.ml>
* <https://lepovirta.github.io/Typographer> 
* <https://lepovirta.github.io/Typographer-React>
* <https://jmattthew.github.io/better-font-finder/better-font-finder.html>
* <https://font2vec.vishalgupta.me> ([source](https://github.com/py-ranoid/font2vec)), a 3D projection of all fonts
* <https://logogenerator.website>
* <http://www.ourownthing.co.uk/fontpairing/>
* <https://goofonts.com>

There are also handcrafted directories with rich samples:

* <http://hellohappy.org/beautiful-web-type>
* <http://femmebot.github.io/google-type>
* <http://100daysoffonts.com>
* <http://jxnblk.com/type-a>
* <https://jonsuh.com/100-days-of-scriptures>
* <http://codepen.io/nxworld/pen/XKRaRm>
* <https://twitter.com/FontSnek>
* <https://www.reliablepsd.com/ultimate-google-font-pairings>
* <http://fonts.greatsimple.io>
* <https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/best-google-font-combinations-typeface-pairings/>
* <https://www.fontsinthewild.com/google>

## Rightsholder contacts

This shell command shows all email addresses for font copyright holders listed in the METADATA.pb files:

    grep copyright\: */*/MET* | grep \@ |  perl -ne'if(/[\w\.\-\_]+@([\w\-\_]+\.)+[A-Za-z]{2,4}/g){print "$&\n"}' | sort | uniq

This shell command shows all the families without a contact email address:

    grep copyright\: */*/MET* | grep -v \@ | cut -d\: -f1 | cut -d\/ -f2 | uniq | sort

The copyright holders of those families include Google, SIL, Adobe, Canonical, Naver, and a couple of outliers. 

## Articles about Google Fonts

Some interesting articles about Google Fonts:

* <http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2010/05/introducing-google-font-api-google-font.html>
* <http://googlewebfonts.blogspot.com>
* <https://design.google.com/articles/reimagining-google-fonts>
* <https://medium.com/google-design/introducing-space-mono-a-new-monospaced-typeface-by-colophon-foundry-for-google-fonts-84367eac6dfb>
* <http://www.fastcodesign.com/3033126/roboto-rebooted-why-google-plans-to-update-its-font-like-the-rest-of-its-products>

## Interesting Libre Fonts Not In Google Fonts

Here is a list of some libre fonts made for special purposes (emoij, math, icon, etc) that are not available in Google Fonts. 

* <https://material.io/icons>
* <https://github.com/figs-lab/datalegreya>

## Where were the homepage sample texts from?

In 2016 to 2020, the Google Fonts catalog displayed one of a dozen or so different sample texts.
Here they are and where they are from:

* "A red flair silhouetted the jagged edge of a wing" – The Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delany
* "A shining crescent far beneath the flying vessel" – Triplanetary, E. E. Smith
* "All their equipment and instruments are alive" – Mr. Spaceship, Philip K. Dick
* "Almost before we knew it, we had left the ground" – A Trip to Venus, John Munro
* "I watched the storm, so beautiful yet terrific" – Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
* "It was going to be a lonely trip back" – Youth by Isaac Asimov
* "Mist enveloped the ship three hours out from port" – The Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delany
* "My two natures had memory in common" – Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
* "She stared through the window at the stars" – The Millionaire's Convenient Bride, Catherine George ????
* "Silver mist suffused the deck of the ship" – The Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delany
* "The face of the moon was in shadow" – Mr. Spaceship, Philip K. Dick
* "The recorded voice scratched in the speaker" – Deathworld, Harry Harrison
* "The sky was cloudless and of a deep dark blue" – A Trip to Venus, John Munro
* "The spectacle before us was indeed sublime" – A Trip to Venus, John Munro
* "Then came the night of the first falling star" – The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
* "Waves flung themselves at the blue evening" – The Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delany"