NotoSansTifinagh is graphically a Neo-Tifinagh font, but uses traditional Tifinagh shaping

[iwsfutcmd]

NotoSansTifinagh is graphically a Neo-Tifinagh font, but uses traditional Tifinagh shaping

Font

NotoSansTifinagh-Regular.ttf

Where the font came from, and when

Site: Latest noto-fonts Github repo Date: 02019-08-30

Font Version

2.1

Issue

NotoSansTifinagh uses Neo-Tifinagh glyph shapes (see, crossbars on U+2D3C TIFINAGH LETTER YAF ⟨ⴼ⟩ and U+2D4D TIFINAGH LETTER YAL ⟨ⵍ⟩. Traditional Tifinagh typefaces would not have these crossbars). However, it performs traditional Tifinagh shaping behavior on U+2D4F TIFINAGH LETTER YAN ⟨ⵏ⟩, where it becomes slanted à la ⟨\⟩ after YAL or YAN. It appears that the similar shaping behavior that occurs with YAL was removed at some point, as the glyphs for a slanted YAL are still in the font.

Note: all of the relevant shaping behavior for YAN is located in the first ccmp lookup table.

There are two possible paths forward:

1. Treat NotoSansTifinagh as a traditional Tifinagh font, keep the shaping behavior for YAN, re-add the shaping behavior for YAL, and modify the glyphs for YAF and YAL (and possibly others) to remove the crossbars.

2. Treat NotoSansTifinagh as a Neo-Tifinagh font, and remove the shaping behavior for YAN.

I would recommend the 2nd option, as a) it is quite clear that the intention of the original font design was for Neo-Tifinagh, based on glyph design and b) Neo-Tifinagh is the official writing system of Standard Moroccan Tamazight, one of the official state languages of Morocco. As such, most modern Tifinagh publishing is in Neo-Tifinagh and it is more important at this time to fully support it.

Ideally, either NotoSansTifinagh could be expanded to also fully cover traditional Tifinagh, or a new Noto font could be developed for traditional Tifinagh. However, making sure NotoSansTifinagh is consistent is the highest priority.

Evidence

Current NotoSansTifinagh behavior. Note that YAN becomes slanted after YAN or YAL. This behavior should not occur in Neo-Tifinagh:

Correct Neo-Tifinagh behavior, from the website of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (the organization responsible for the standardization of Neo-Tifinagh). The sequence YAN YAN does not result in any slant-shaping. The first image is taken from a flyer downloaded from the site, the second is a screenshot of Adlis Regular, the Tifinagh font used on the site. The red arrow indicates the sequence YAN YAN (note that there is not slant-shaping). The green arrow indicates YAL (note the crossbar).

[simoncozens]

I think this is the same as #2?

[Yassine3649]

Guys if this is fixed , how can i download it to my phone and use it as a keyboard?

[simoncozens]

This is fixed (I believe), and I will recommend the Tifinagh font for upgrade in the next version of Android, but I'm not really sure how keyboards get added. There does seem to be this app, but I have no direct experience of it; this is just a project for the fonts.