Khmer Script For Small Devices

Khmer Script

1. History of Khmer script

2. Challenging with new technology

3. UI Fonts

History of Khmer Script

- found in 3rd century with

Vo Canh inscription during

former Champa kingdom

(Central part of Vietnam).

History of Khmer Script

- It drived from

Pallava script with

more and clear

inscription found in

7th century (Srah

Keo of Thailand and

Angkor Borei of

Cambodia).

History of Khmer Script

- The script was used to combine single-

syllable (Khmer original word) and multi-

syllable (Pali/Sanskrit loan words)

Challenge with new technology

- From Pali/Sanskrit loan

word or multi-syllable

style, it makes body-

height of Khmer text

getting much larger than

Western European text.

Challenge with new technology

- Printing industry came

to Cambodia in early of

20th century, in French

colonied period. Khmer

script started to enter

modern technology.

Challenge with new technology

- Khmer letters were

used for printing with

metal type to keep

long vertical space as

in most of the

inscription, and

manuscript.

Challenge with new technology

- Khmer computer font from Khek family, Om

Mony in USA and from Cinotec in Vietnam in

1990s can make body-height of Khmer text

getting much smaller than metal type, but it is

still larger than Western European text.

UI Fonts

UI font is designed to reduce the overall body

height of text, and allow Khmer to have

descender and ascender-lines closer to other

scripts. It also allows their use in UI

components where vertical space is a

premiun.

UI Fonts

-Khmer UI of Windows Phone

-Noto Sans KhmerUI of Nexus 5

-Hanuman UI of Samsung Android phone

UI Fonts

Microsoft Windows Phone Samsung Galaxy S4 LG Nexus 5

UI Fonts

Microsoft Khmer UI

Noto Sans Khmer UI

UI Fonts

Why do we need to create UI fonts?

-Hamornize with English text.

-Need more info display on small screen.

UI Fonts

UI Fonts

→

UI Fonts

OpenType features

UI Fonts

How to do?

-Learn from hand writing style.

-Learn from banner design.

-Some old inscriptions also try to make vertical space shorter.

UI Fonts

UI Fonts

Question?