[KS] Middle Korean fonts (Thorsten Traulsen)

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear All,

Just a logistical note about the Middle Korean font issue--an aspect to 
keep in mind when choosing which font to use (and not just for 
Middle Korean):

If you only care about the print version of a book or journal, whatever 
font works for you is fine. But if you're forward‑looking and 
considering digital access across various media, you really want to 
avoid Microsoft Windows system fonts such as New Gulim or HCR Batang 
(that were also mentioned here). Even if they include the 
Extended‑A/Extended‑B Jamo blocks (for Middle Korean), you cannot 
legally embed or export these fonts to other systems (Mac/Linux) because 
they are licensed by Microsoft. In addition, they may simply vanish in a 
couple of years when Microsoft ships a new OS. Avoid proprietary 
Korean‑system fonts for the same reason if you want to create a truly 
future‑proof "product" that anyone can read without going through some 
complex transfer in 5, 10, or 15 years on a new digital medium. In that 
regard, the Noto fonts--updated regularly and now released under the 
SIL Open Font License--provide the latest encodings. (Update them if you 
still have an old edition, and download the current version directly 
from https://fonts.google.com/noto/fonts, not from a 3rd party source 
that may have reposted them, to avoid getting an old release.) They are 
cross‑platform compatible and available in multiple styles; I believe 
Noto Serif CJK KR was mentioned, which works especially nice, visually, 
in the body text and/or if mixed with western language fonts. Whatever 
other fonts might be designed later will very likely all be 
upward‑compatible with Noto (which isn't the case with these Microsoft 
fonts).


Best,
Frank


_______________________________
Frank Hoffmann
https://koreanstudies.com
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