Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it will be a good way to attract downvotes moreso than attention.
I'm getting AOL chatroom flashbacks. When do we start using color faders again?
I'll fire up the trivia bot...
Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
41–50 of 172 posts
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#42This is awesome! But how does it work? I don't understand how this is possible
𝕀, 𝕥𝕠𝕠, 𝕤𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕟 𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕠 𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕖𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕗𝕖𝕒𝕥.
In the early 2000s, unicode added a block of Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols. The styles stay constant because 𝖊, ℯ, and 𝓮 might mean different things.
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#43This is (ab)using unicode, for example the F is actually a Mathematical Bold Fraktur Capital F: https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1D571 This is terrible for screen readers and the like which are unable to read or understand these unicode characters making accessibility a real concern.
I wonder actually. Google seems to understand these, you can search with them. I wouldn't be surprised if screen readers understand these symbols. They're originally for Mathematics, and I'm sure there's plenty of blind mathematicians.
It's less "can they render them" and more "do they maintain their meaning in alternate renderings".
For example, it's common in these to use non-latin characters that visually resemble latin characters. But if you were to try and substitute them literally, either as their actual phonetic sound, or a latin equivalent that is semantically similar but visually different, you risk breaking the meaning.
It's a bit like when old manuscripts use letters that look like "s" and "f" in places that seem nonsensical today.
In google's case, it's certainly worth it to write a little interpreter that maps the visual meaning to its latin equivalent so you can get better search results.
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#44Interesting, looks like Firefox automatically resolves these to the real letters in the address bar, but leaves them as is for google search. Nice job aggregating these into an easy-to-use font.
I'm guessing you mean on a desktop? On my Android phone, Firefox renders each letter as a grey box. Had to switch to Chrome to see the actual text :(
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#45Ỹ̹̼̰͚̺̥ẻ̥̏p͔̭͙̐ͪ̇͊,̤̪̯̙̣ ̰̣̼̻̺͈a̜͚̟ll ̮̼̙̗o͇f̜ t̳̬͍̤͖h̝o͉͚̩̗s̠͙̗̝̬͕ͅḙ͇̬̱͔̟ ͖̘̖͉ͅa͇̥̖͎̜͇r͓̳e͔̙͙ ̞̦͈u̪̤̳̟̞̰s̼̣̩̗i̭̯n͔̟̞͕̹g̩͇͍̗͖̻ ͕̪̮̩v͙̳͍̞͓ͅa̹̫̰ͅlịd̯͚̘̯ ̤̙A̜̪S̗͎͖̥̠̳C͇̮I͓̭̟̲I̦̟̲/̶̞̞̱͈̰̣͙̥̹̪̯͚̝͈̹̹ ̛͈̱̻͍̬̟͙̰̠̟̖̕Ú̡͉͙̻̗͙̭͉̖̖n̨̡̗̩͈̭̻͕̭͇͇̲͙̖̫̯̜͚͈ͅi͏̷̀͏̪͎̜̜̠͇̩͙̗̯͍̮̜͖̮͓͓̫c̺͉̦͓͙̤̼̰̀͠ͅo͏̯̜̥̣̯͕̻̮͘͡d̖͉͈̬͍̩͚̬̯̰̳̀́͞ͅe̡̗̻̫͕̙̘̲̫̦͉̬̖̭̺͡͝ ͖̺̳̟͓͇c̠̟͎̼̲̳h͖̣͕̯a̜͔͉̼̮r̗a̰̘̭͚̠̮̝c̱̰̦͕̰ͅͅt͉er̟͉̫͍̥̦s͈͖̤̞. ... 日本の作品も (🅙🅐🅟🅐🅝🅔🅢🅔 also w…
We called those corrupted-looking fonts "Zalgo"
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#46Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see why screen readers can't just be extended to handle characters that look like F.
Depending on context it may not actually mean "F". Screen readers are not yet capable of fully understanding the meaning behind the text they are reading. If for example someone uses this to write a mathematical formula, having a screen reader says "F" changes the entire meaning. Could this be done, absolutely, but it is something to be aware of and is something I noticed on Twitter where blind users were complaining…
If I were to write a math formula in ASCII, it would probably have strings of multiplied variables that would be indistinguishable from English words to a screenreader that didn't know anything about meaning. The only way it would know to sound out the letters is if they had spaces or asterisks between them. The additional glyphs would do nothing to change this.
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#48𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝... 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚏𝚏
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#49Very cool. I don't know if this counts as a bug as it's not really the intended use, but if I copy one of the results and then paste it into the "Write something here..." input, all the results then match the pasted style rather than being re-styled.
because, if i can work it out, the script takes ascii char 69 (E) and maps it to say unicode 2107 which is the Euler Constant and looks like a scripted E - so when you then paste unicode 2107 into the app again, it has no map for 2107 back to 65 and so cannot "change" fonts
That's what I assume anyway.
Re: Show HN: Fancy fonts you can use almost anywhere
#50...and break the crap out of most software.
And yet it works in the weirdest places. Saving some of the text in a file and opening it in a Python interpreter works fine, it even counts the numbers of letters right.