Changes/Indic Noto fonts

Use Noto fonts for Indic (Indian language) scripts

Summary

Google Noto fonts for Indic (Indian) languages replace the default Lohit fonts

Owner

• Name: Jens Petersen
• Email: <petersen@redhat.com>
• Name: Sudip Shill
• Email: <sshil@redhat.com>
• Name: Akira Tagoh
• Email: <tagoh@redhat.com>

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 39
• Last updated: 2023-09-05
• devel thread
• FESCo issue: https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/3048
• Tracker bug: #2233271
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Currently the Lohit fonts are installed and used by default for Indian languages (Indic scripts). However the Lohit project is essentially inactive and at best in maintenance mode now. So we will change the default to Google's Noto Indic fonts, which are available in both Sans and Serif faces with multiple weights and as variable fonts. This should provide a more flexible modern maintained set of fonts for Indic language scripts.

Default Indic fonts changes

Language script	Old default	New default	Serif font
Devanagari	lohit-devanagari-fonts	google-noto-sans-devanagari-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-devanagari-vf-fonts
Bengali	lohit-bengali-fonts	google-noto-sans-bengali-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-bengali-vf-fonts
Gujrati	lohit-gujarati-fonts	google-noto-sans-gujarati-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-gujarati-vf-fonts
Kannada	lohit-kannada-fonts	google-noto-sans-kannada-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-kannada-vf-fonts
Odia	lohit-odia-fonts	google-noto-sans-oriya-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-oriya-vf-fonts
Tamil	lohit-tamil-fonts	google-noto-sans-tamil-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-tamil-vf-fonts
Telugu	lohit-telugu-fonts	google-noto-sans-telugu-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-telugu-vf-fonts
Assamese	lohit-assamese-fonts	google-noto-sans-bengali-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-bengali-vf-fonts
Marathi	lohit-marathi-fonts	google-noto-sans-devanagari-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-devanagari-vf-fonts
Maithili	lohit-devanagari-fonts	google-noto-sans-devanagari-vf-fonts	google-noto-serif-devanagari-vf-fonts

(Note that Noto is already default for Punjabi (Gurmukhi) and Sinhala, as well as Divehi, whereas Malayalam defaults to RIT fonts)

Feedback

There was some initial discussion on fonts list, etc, which was generally positive.

This started with:

• comparison screenshots: https://sshil.fedorapeople.org/lohit-vs-noto-comparison.html
• a copr repo for testing: http://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/sshil/indic-fonts-test

Benefit to Fedora

Wider range of Indic (Indian) fonts will be available by default as variable fonts in both sans and serif faces with various weight styles.

Scope

• Proposal owners:
  • update Indic langpacks (default-fonts) to use Noto fonts [draft PR]
  • update the Noto and Lohit fonts packages so that Noto Indic fonts have higher priority
  • change comps @fonts (through default-fonts) from Lohit to the corresponding Noto Indic fonts
  • update ostree desktops to use Noto Indic
  • update lorax to use Noto for Indic fonts

• Other developers: N/A

• Release engineering: #11502

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Community Initiatives:

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Lohit fonts will continue to be available, but assuming the default-fonts Change is implemented users will be moved to use Noto Indic fonts by default on upgrade.

Nevertheless advanced users can use fonts-tweak-tool to change the priority of one or more Lohit fonts to be higher than Noto if they so wish.

How To Test

• install/test default/Noto fonts on various desktops and their applications
• test Noto Indic with and without Lohit fonts installed
• test rendering of Indic scripts in applications/websites
• test upgrades from Fedora 38
• test if removing Noto Indic (and (re-)installing Lohit) still allows using Lohit as a second default.
• (advanced) revert the font priorities using the user fonts-tweak-tool.
• Compare default font installed for mr_IN language

On Fedora 38 you will see

$ LANG=mr_IN fc-match
Lohit-Marathi.ttf: "Lohit Marathi" "Regular"

On Fedora 39 you will see

$ LANG=mr_IN fc-match
NotoSansDevanagari[wght].ttf: "Noto Sans Devanagari" "Regular"
 

Dependencies

Not really a direct dependency, but we currently plan to implement this using the new default-fonts metapackages.

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: Change owners will revert the changes back to using Lohit by default
• Contingency deadline: before final freeze
• Blocks release? Yes

Documentation

https://sshil.fedorapeople.org/lohit-vs-noto-comparison.html

Release Notes

Google Noto fonts are now installed and used for Indic scripts (Indian language) by default instead of Lohit fonts.