1473240 - Add Microsoft JhengHei to font.name-list.sans-serif.zh-HK

Status: NEW

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

From https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/3pJeDky_VC4, we consider to change zh-HK too.

Comment 1

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

Fanolian, you raised this on the mailing list -- do you think we should go ahead and change zh-HK at the same time as zh-TW, or does it require further evaluation?

:m_kato, WDYT? Are there others we should ask?

Comment 2

[Fanolian]

(In reply to Jonathan Kew (:jfkthame) from comment #1)
> Fanolian, you raised this on the mailing list 
I am merely a regular Firefox user and thus below are only anecdotes. Please excuse the lack/misuse of terminologies.

> Does it require further evaluation?
The main concern for _not_ adding Microsoft JhengHei to zh-HK list is that JhengHei does not support CJk ext-B and HKSCS(?) but these are rarely used.
In daily web consumption, Hongkongers use probably no more than 5 characters in CJK ext-B. Off the top of my head, only 𠝹(to cut with a knife or scissors), 𡃁(young) and 𨋢(lift/elevator) are actually used.
There are scarcely any new content in recent years created with Chinese characters that use PUA block and require MingLiU_HKSCS to view. I may have seen a few cases from discussion forum users inputting those characters. I think they may be using some odd IMEs that still not fully utilise unicode.
Hongkongers are used to the fallback to MingLiU* from other font families. Even if it may happen more, yet still rare, for zh-HK than zh-TW users, I am not aware of any complaints (about the above issues) to JhengHei being the default in Edge/Chrome.

> Do you think we should go ahead and change zh-HK at the same time as zh-TW?
Mozilla may consider waiting for the release of Source Han/Noto Sans and Serif 2.000 and add Source Han/Noto and JhengHei together to zh-HK list.
Source Han 2.000 will be a far more suitable font for Hong Kong use because it adds a HK variant[1] while JhengHei follows Taiwan standard. Unfortunately there is no release date for the 2.000 update.[2]

[1]: https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-han-sans/issues/48#issuecomment-304294569
[2]: As late as May 2019 as hinted at https://blogs.adobe.com/CCJKType/2018/08/preparing-for-20190501.html

Comment 3

[Fanolian]

Source Han Sans/Noto Sans 2.0, with HKSCS-2016 support has been released [1].
Is it better to wait for the release of Serif 2.0 and add them to font.name-list.sans-serif.zh-HK and font.name-list.serif.zh-HK in the same release, if Mozilla opts for them (in addition to JhengHei)?

[1]: https://blogs.adobe.com/CCJKType/2018/11/shsans-v2-technical-tidbits.html

Comment 4

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

In bug 1615652, we're appending JhengHei to the end of the zh-HK font lists, to improve behavior when MingLiU is not present.

Leaving this open for now given the useful background in comments 2-3, and the possibility that further adjustments might be worthwhile.