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The computer world has been moving to use of Unicode-encoded fonts. These "Unicode fonts" may include any subset of the Unicode / ISO-10646 standard; no single font has everything in Unicode.
Here is a list of some "Unicode fonts" that may be of particular use for African languages written with Latin extended character sets ("special characters") or non-Latin scripts.
Most African languages using Latin Script can do with Unicode 2.1, but Unicode 4.1 is better. Unicode 5.0 adds uppercase letters and some diacritics required by a few languages. Proper support for combining diacritics is hard to find.
| Font | Coverage | Diacritics | Styles |
|---|---|---|---|
| AfRomanSerif | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking, soft i, NFD = NFC | Regular, Bold |
| Andika | Unicode 4.1 | present | Regular |
| Arial | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Arial Unicode MS | Unicode 2.1 | present | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Charis SIL | Unicode 5.0 | positioning, stacking, soft i, cedilla, NFD = NFC | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| DejaVu Sans | Unicode 5.0 | positioning, stacking, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics, Condensed (Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics), ExtraLight |
| DejaVu Sans Mono | Unicode 4.1 | some positioning, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| DejaVu Serif | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics, Condensed (Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics) |
| Doulos SIL | Unicode 5.0 | positioning, stacking, soft i, cedilla, NFD = NFC | Regular |
| Gentium | Unicode 3.0 | present | Regular, Italics, Alternative (Regular, Italics) |
| FreeMono | Unicode 4.1 | present | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| FreeSans | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| FreeSerif | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Junicode | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking, soft i | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Linux Libertine | Unicode 4.1 | positioning | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics, Smallcaps (Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics) |
| Lucida Grande | Unicode 4.1 | present | Regular, Bold |
| Lucida Sans Unicode | Unicode 4.1 | present | Regular |
| Segoe UI | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Tahoma | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
| Times New Roman | Unicode 4.1 | positioning, stacking | Regular, Italics, Bold, Bold Italics |
Unicode fonts should be used in preference over 8-bit "special fonts" developed in many countries. The advantage of Unicode over 8-bit special fonts (also called "legacy fonts") is that the Unicode fonts are intercompatible on any computer.
AlanWood.net, "Unicode fonts for Windows computers" (includes links to fonts for Mac) http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html
Bisharat.net, "A12N: Resources on fonts & keyboards / Ressources sur des polices et claviers," http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/#font
Wikipedia, "Unicode typefaces," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_typefaces
Gallery of Unicode fonts, http://www.wazu.jp/index.html
