Google Fonts: i is rendered with a dot

[timohausmann]

Hey, when embedding the font from Google Fonts we notice that the font appears different on iPhone than on desktop: just recently the letter i has a dot on iPhone. I attach two screenshots from Google Fonts (iPhone and Mac).

I just converted the TTF from this Github Repo to WOFF2 and host it myself now, and the i-dot is gone again. So I think the dot is unintentional and there is an issue with the font hosted at Google Fonts.

[NDISCOVER]

Thank you so much! It is unintentional because the original design does not contain it. It will certainly be fixed in the next batch of updates (but it might take a while, it doesn’t depend on me). I am glad you found a fix. Best Regards Natanael Gama Type Designer Rua Acácio de Paiva 21 1700–003 Lisbon Mobile + 351 91 857 63 36 www.ndiscover.com

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On 14 Oct 2020, 14:28 +0100, Timo Hausmann ***@***.***>, wrote: Hey, when embedding the font from Google Fonts we notice that the font appears different on iPhone than on desktop: just recently the letter i has a dot on iPhone. I attach two screenshots from Google Fonts (iPhone and Mac). I just converted the TTF from this Github Repo to WOFF2 and host it myself now, and the i-dot is gone again. So I think the dot is unintentional and there is an issue with the font hosted at Google Fonts. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[moyogo]

@timohausmann Are you using Turkish or a language that uses both i (letter i) and ı (letter dotless i) as a system language by any chance?
The font has a special behaviour in Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Kazakh, Tatar, and Turkish so a word like ilik ("marrow" in Turkish) keeps the dots to stay different from ılık ("warm" in Turkish).

Can you have a look at the test page https://jsfiddle.net/04fjgd87/ do you have dots on the first word with the default language like in Turkish or none like in English?

[timohausmann]

@moyogo my iPhone is set to german (we only have "normal" i with a dot). Here is a screenshot from my iPhone of that fiddle.
On desktop, only the Turkish first word has dots.

[m4rc1e]

I'm not able to replicate this on my phone or my machine.

@timohausmann is your i.p address different to the country you're in? I'm asking because the issue may be in the font's locl opentype feature. The Google Fonts site may be using your i.p address to trigger which locl features to enable.

[timohausmann]

the issue may be in the font's local opentype feature.

Sounds reasonable ... I use no VPN or alike, https://whatismycountry.com/ locates me in Germany. I tested from two different WiFis and my mobile carrier. And my client actually noticed it so it's not just my device.

[thlinard]

I was able to reproduce the problem on an iPhone with iOS 14. Seems a common problem with Safari 14 on iOS and macOS 11 (Big Sur): google/fonts#2688

[m4rc1e]

Thanks @thlinard!

[Git-to-it]

Hard to believe this is still an ongoing issue for this font and several others. It really messes up a website’s look and feel. In my case, Cinzel is the primary header font and used in the logo - imagine that mess up. Had to host font locally to get around the problem. I may never go back to relying on google font calls. If this was a temporary glitch - ie: lasted a day or two, it would be tolerable, but this has been going on for months - intolerable! Ruin sites - with seemingly no urgency anywhere to fix the problem (Hello Apple!!? Hello Google!!? Anybody home?).

[m4rc1e]

I've found the root cause here. If i do the same hack as I outlined, I get the correct results.

I'll let you folks know once it has been sorted. Since the issue is either Apple's or our subsetter, no action is needed from anyone in this issue.

I'll keep you all posted.