967177 - [B2G][l10n][Clock] Bengali: 'Alarm', 'Timer' and 'Stopwatch' font size too small

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::Clock, defect)

Description

[Josh Schmitt [Joshs]]

Attachment: Font_Size.png

Description:
Font size too small on the tabs selection bar in the 'Clock' app.

Repro Steps:
1) Updated Buri to BuildID: 20140203004001
2) Proceed to settings and change language to Bengali
3) Restart device
4) Open the 'Clock' app and observe

Actual:
The tabs selection text 'Alarm', 'Timer' and 'Stopwatch' font size too small

Expected:
The tabs selection text 'Alarm', 'Timer' and 'Stopwatch' font size to be bigger

Environmental Variables:
Device: Buri 1.3 MOZ
BuildID: 20140203004001
Gaia: f9a37c77efb4621a1f57e4695b497d18601fe134
Gecko: 3d9d920ca43b
Version: 28.0a2
Firmware Version: V1.2-device.cfg

Notes:
Repro frequency: 100%
See attached: Font_Size.png

Comment 1

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Moving this out of bn-BD, this seems to be a font problem.

Not sure what "too small" really is, the latin script doesn't look much taller. Maybe a tad light?

Maybe Johnathan can help.

Moving to Clock for now.

Comment 2

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

The Bengali text (along with many non-Latin scripts) probably won't tolerate "faint" (low-contrast) rendering as well as Latin script, because the more complex glyph shapes will tend to have thinner lines. When this gets rendered in light-gray-on-darker-gray, as in the Clock's day and month names, it ends up looking very weak. Styling that for Latin script looks "elegantly understated", with text that's de-emphasized but still clear, is likely to just look poor in many Asian scripts.

The use of light-on-dark text is also exacerbating this issue, as this generally won't stand up to low-contrast styling as well as dark-on-light would do; the surrounding dark background visually overwhelms the faint antialiasing of the light glyphs.

So I suspect a number of non-Latin locales may run into similar issues.

In this particular case, one option would be to replace the Lohit-Bengali font we currently have in moztt with Google's NotoSansBengali, which does have a significantly heavier stroke weight. As such, it will stand up better to rendering in contexts like this.

Comment 3

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

Attachment: PR to replace Lohit Bengali with NotoSansBengali

I think it'd be worth trying this, and see whether text in the bn-BD localization looks better in general.

Comment 4

[Michael Wu [:mwu]]

Comment on attachment 8372861 [details] [review]
PR to replace Lohit Bengali with NotoSansBengali

Do we have any version info on this font? Would be nice to name the Noto directory appropriately if we have that info.

Comment 5

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

This was an alpha of Noto Bengali 1.01, but given its alpha status, I'd be inclined not to try and name the directory accordingly; seems like a recipe for churn.

We could drop back to the official 1.0 release, and have a Noto-1.0 directory, but then it seems a shame not to pick up the most recent fixes to the font.

Comment 6

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

So do you want me to modify the PR at all - either naming or font version - or will you merge it as-is?

Comment 7

[Michael Wu [:mwu]]

I'll live with it as is - let's version it when we switch over to the 1.01 release version.

Comment 8

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Master: 3d5c964015967ca8c86abe6dbbebee3cb82b1609

Comment 9

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

:Pike, can you ensure we get feedback on the changed font from the bn-BD folk as soon as builds are available? If it's positive, might we want to take this for 1.3 as well?

Comment 10

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Delphine, can you look at this on the device?

I just updated /gaia-l10n/bn-BD with the latest landings from 1.3

Comment 11

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

I don't think the new font landed for 1.3 at this point, did it? You'd currently need a 1.4 build to see how this looks.

Comment 12

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Yes, that's my understanding, too. Also confirmed with my Keon 1.3 build from today, that's still on Lohit.

Comment 13

[Mahay Alam Khan]

Attachment: 2014-02-14-04-20-08.png

(In reply to Jonathan Kew (:jfkthame) from comment #9)
> :Pike, can you ensure we get feedback on the changed font from the bn-BD
> folk as soon as builds are available? If it's positive, might we want to
> take this for 1.3 as well?

Used latest nightly for my PEAK. This is not Lohit and I liked this NoTo font. It's much sharper and bright.

Comment 14

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

I might not be the right person to ask this, because I don't see a drastic difference.
If Mak thinks this is better, then I would trust him.

Comment 15

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

MAK, can you create a screenshot of the clock for us? That'd be uber-helpful for this bug.

Comment 16

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

(In reply to Axel Hecht [:Pike] from comment #15)
> MAK, can you create a screenshot of the clock for us? That'd be uber-helpful
> for this bug.

making this an explicit needinfo.

Comment 17

[Mahay Alam Khan]

Attachment: 2014-03-02-15-26-11.png

used latest nightly of 2014-03-02, and opened Clock App. The Bengali fonts appears to be normal in size. Not too big, not too small.

The timer tab label 'Timer' reverted back to not translated.

Comment 18

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

Therefore marking as verified fixed, since font is OK now as per Maks visual confirmation in comment 17

Comment 19

[Luke Chang [:lchang] (inactive)]

Noto Sans font seems to be more accurate than Lohit font in Bengali language case. Since 1.3T supports Bengali languages, I propose uplift this patch to v1.3t.

Comment 20

[Joe Cheng [:jcheng] (please needinfo)]

1.3T+ to support the required locales/keyboard for tarako

Comment 21

[Joe Cheng [:jcheng] (please needinfo)]

1.3T no longer needs this if Bug 993353 lands. revert the blocking flag

Comment 22

[Luke Chang [:lchang] (inactive)]

Bug 993353 has already addressed this issue on 1.3T.