The McDonald’s menu exists in 115 languages, while the Macbook interface supports 40. Numerous teams of designers and localizers in different countries worked to make this happen. But Apple and McDonald’s are giant, long-established
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What you need to know about the project you’re about to work on
The choices made by a designer working on a multiscript project are often driven by things such as the project’s budget or its plans to expand into new markets. This section covers the questions a designer needs to find answers to before embarking on a project.
Environment
If you deal with printed layouts, the environment they’re supposed to exist in is most often obvious, whereas a designer working on a website does not always know which devices the users will be opening it with. It might be people from poor areas who use old computers or open-source activists who only use Linux that end up being this particular website’s target audience.
Goals
If you’re making a site for the French embassy in the UK, for example, it will most likely never feature any text in languages other than French and English. However, when developing an interface for a startup or young business, you should find out whether the project plans to enter new markets anytime soon and translate its app interface or printed materials to the languages not initially used in your layouts.
You might want to specify whether there are any plans to translate the project into languages that may prove challenging, such as Danish in which an average word length is 8-12 characters. You should also find out whether the project will add languages using a different type of writing system Writing systems are classified according to how elements of speech are represented by symbols. There are four types of writing systems: pictographic (where each sign is used to represent a specific object), ideographic (where a symbol represents a particular idea or concept), syllabic (where a symbol represents a syllable), and alphabetic (where a symbol represents a phoneme). (for instance, an initially English-speaking project adds Hindi, which is written in a syllabary).
The Typojanchi 2019 biennale website, which is held exclusively in Korea, is available in Korean and English. Adding a third language to such a layout would be quite challenging. Design: Myungsang Yu, Jin Dallae, Park Woohyuk
The Disability Arts Week website, held in various countries, is available in Korean and English. It is easy to translate into other languages. Design: Everyday Practice
What you need to know about a script and a language you’re about to work with
Each script and each language has its own specifics and typographic conventions. We won’t be able to cover all of them but we would like to list the ones that are most important to know when starting to work on a multiscript project.
Writing direction
Different writing systems may have different directions. Latin and Cyrillic are read (and written) from left to right, whereas Arabic and Hebrew are read and written from right to left. Therefore, a text written in Arabic will be easier to read if it’s right-justified, and a text
Tasmeem Doha 2017 conferece catalogue in Arabic and English. Design: Lauren Thorson
In-flight menu for El-Al Airlines in Hebrew and English, 1970. Design: Otto Treuman, Georg Him
YouTube app in English (left) and Hebrew (right)
Figures
The Hindu-Arabic numerals have the so-called national variants. For example, Lao numerals, Thai numerals, Tamil numerals. The editor will most likely introduce the proper numerals into a body text, but make sure you check whether you need to use national numerals before using any numbers in display typography.
Texture
Any script has its own history. As different scripts appeared at various times and began their journey with different tools, they may have quite different proportions and letterforms. For example, ascenders in Georgian letters are normally twice as tall as the x-height, which means that a text in Georgian needs more generous leading than, let’s say, a text written using
Point par point. Vera Pagava in Georgian and English. Design: Timur Akhmetov
When it comes to languages using the same script, the texture may also be different. Some languages have lots of characters with vertical strokes, while others feature numerous accented characters.
To get an idea of how text in a specific language or script looks, look into a font
Length of words
The average word length varies depending on the
Endel app in English (left) and German (right)
Punctuation
Different languages have different typographic conventions when it comes to punctuation. For instance, even British and American English use different dash spacing rules. Find out how quotation marks, omissions, and spaces of different widths work in a language you deal with. We addressed the most common rules for languages using Latin and Cyrillic in our Manual.
Hyphenation
In almost all languages mentioned in this article, words are hyphenated by breaking them down into syllables, but there might also be some specific rules. For example, in Russian, you cannot separate ь or ъ from the preceding consonant, while in German the letter ß in the middle of the word can be turned into a ss that can well be hyphenated. In Armenian, there are the so-called ‘hidden’ syllables where the vowel ը [э] is pronounced but is not represented in writing. If a hyphen goes after a hidden syllable, you should add the ը. Adobe package apps, for example, won’t do this
While the majority of multiscript projects are websites and applications (and it’s mostly printed materials that we use hyphenation in), it is still important to remember how it works. For example, the project might want to produce leaflets.
Software specifics
Make sure your layout features proper diacritics. For example, up until recently, Figma did not correctly display diacritics in Devanagari. The reason behind diacritics not being displayed the way it was in a text document provided by the editor may not only be a software error but also an error in the font. In this case, you might want to approach the font’s author (if there is one) or seek help from a type designer (if it’s an open-source typeface and the author is not specified).
How Figma worked with diacritics in Devanagari in 2021. Image: David Březina
How diacritics should look in Devanagari. Image: David Březina
Make sure that the script you are working with is displayed exactly as it should. For example, the letters in Arabic words are connected, but, if you’re based in a country where the language using Arabic is not the official language, Adobe apps will separate the letters by default. Different tools solve this issue in different ways. For example, in Illustrator you have to click CMD/CTRL + K, check the Show Indic Options line in the Type tab, and then choose Middle Eastern & South Asian Line Composer in the Paragraph tab menu.
What to look at in a typeface you’ll be working with
This section lists a number of things to consider when choosing a font for a multiscript project.
Language support
When choosing a font, make sure it supports all the languages you need. If you open a specimen and only see a text in English or French, while you are supposed to set text, say, in Icelandic (which features the letters Ðð and Þþ) or Vietnamese (with a huge amount of accented characters), find out whether this language is listed or not.
Alternative font
If the interface contains any fields to fill, it makes sense to cover a scenario where the user types in a language which is not supported by the website’s main font. For instance, the main language may be English, but a user signing up to the website has diacritics in their name. For these fields, you should choose a typeface providing broader language support, such as Noto or Roboto. It might be less accurate in terms of tone of voice, but at least it won’t ruin the user experience.
Keep in mind that here we’re talking specifically about language support. If what you look for is not just more languages, but more scripts as well, you will most likely need multiple font files (such as Noto Sans Tamil for Tamil and Noto Sans Georgian for Georgian).
Icons
To minimize possible challenges when switching from one language to another in a multiscript interface, you can replace some words with icons (for example, in a list of services). Yet you should be careful when choosing these
SF Symbols icons for the San Francisco font
In the identity of the Preview fair (in Chinese and English), icons and arrows from the Purple Haze typeface work as decorative and navigation elements. Design: Jun Ki Kong
Make sure to check how the icons you chose work with all the scripts your project uses (or intends to use). Since the structure of characters is different in different scripts, the icons you picked for Latin may not be suitable for, say, Devanagari or Arabic.
ChatGPT in English (on the left) and Arabic (on the right)
Ligatures
Some typefaces have standard ligatures (ff, fl, fi, fh) enabled by default. To typeset in German, for example, you have to turn them
If you are working on a German-speaking interface and ligatures are enabled by default, make sure to communicate to the developer that they need to be turned off. Please note that this rule is not applicable to handwritten fonts.
What to avoid
While we believe there is no such thing as prohibited moves and techniques in design, there are those that should be used carefully.
Replacing one language’s characters with similar characters of another
You should not use letters from one script instead of fairly similar letters from another. This choice will make a logo unreadable for people familiar with both alphabets. If you decide to replace several letters in the body text, any words containing those letters will be impossible to find on the page through a search and the site will be impossible to find by googling these words.
Signage for the Bebo restaurant in Moscow, which features Georgian letters ნ [n] and mirrored პ [pʼ] that should be read as Russian letters б [b] and e [e]
This applies to any glyphs of the font. While some of them may resemble certain punctuation marks that we use, they have an entirely different meaning or function in the culture of those ethnic groups the typeface was designed for in the first place. For example, the Arevakhach
Choosing a typeface that copies the features of another script
Each script has its specific plasticity and its specific set of structural elements. For instance, unlike Cyrillic and Latin, Arabic and Georgian cannot have serifs as we know it. However, some authors attach serifs to Arabic letters as a decorative
Banana Republic store logo in Qatar. Serifs have been added to the Arabic letters
Excessive use of emojis
Emojis can have different meanings in different cultures. For instance, the Japanese read 🙏 as ‘thank you’, while for many other cultures that’s two hands clasped in prayer (let alone that some people read this as ‘high five!’)
It’s best not to use flag emojis in a language selector, as a country may have more than just one flag and one language might be spoken in different countries.
(Almost) universal tips
There is no universal advice, yet there are a few recommendations which, we believe, may be helpful in any (or nearly any) multiscript project.
Look into visual materials in a language you don’t know
You don’t have to learn a language to design a layout in it. However, you definitely should look at, say, old books published in this language to get an idea of what traditions and techniques of dealing with the language and the script were in place in the region you’re doing a project for.
In addition to old books, it’s a good idea to look into the projects of today’s designers and typographers to ensure that you follow time-relevant typographic conventions rather than outdated ones.
French dictionary, 1801. All punctuation marks (except the period) are spaced both before and after the mark. There’s no such rule in contemporary French
Study typefaces that support multiple scripts
If your layout implies two scripts and you intend to choose a separate typeface for each, try looking at how two scripts work together in a font that supports both. For example, if one of these scripts comes in only one case (like Hebrew) while the other has two (like Latin), look at how the height of the first one’s characters correlates with the x-height and the cap height of the second. This might help you balance two different typefaces supporting two different scripts.
Ask for professional advice from someone who speaks the language
If you don’t know the language you’re supposed to deal with, take some advice from a native speaker (preferably also a designer). Such a person can answer fairly specific questions, spot some errors, tell about the quality criteria for a typeface supporting their native language, or even share some tools that could speed up your workflow.
We thank Alexander Ratasep and the Together with You for their help in working on this article.
