There are now a number of Myanmar web sites and blogs written in Myanmar language. It is a good thing. I can now read about news, articles, short stories, poems and blogs in Myanmar. However, many a time I feel frustrated with some of the Myanmar blogs and sites. I install Zawgyi-one Myanmar font on my computer. As most Myanmar blogs use Zawgyi font, it is not a problem for me to read these blogs. However, some Myanmar blogs and many Myanmar websites don’t use Zawgyi. Still no problem as long as I can download and install the font from the internet. The problem arises when the website or the blog doesn’t mention the font they use or provide a download link to install the font. It really sucks. If a site is not using a common font, they should mention what kind of font they are using, and should also provide download link for the font, as many of us don’t know where to download some of these Myanmar fonts. The bloggers and web site developers should bear this fact in mind if they want visitors to their site. Unless they want to drive the visitors away from their site, they can ignore this simple fact, and us readers will be happy with Myanmar blogs and sites which use Zawgyi, or those which offer easy download of Myanmar fonts they use.
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First learn which one is Unicode-complaint Burmese font before you utter your ignorance.
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[...] above is a comment by Laka Thang about my blog article “One thing I hate about Myanmar blogs” (Actually it was written into my guest book, but I know he means about my above article, and [...]
I was looking for a portable/online Zawgyi virtual keyboard and came across this post (through a few clicks, of course).
Anyway, I don’t know what Laka Thang’s point exactly is! I’m a little more IT-literate than an average chap and I am very well aware that Zawgyi isn’t a standard-compliant font.
Still, it detracts from the main discussion of content creators not ensuring that their work can be consumed by the general public easily. Use whatever font you want – create your own if you wish – but at least, provide a link to get the font or indicate the font type. There were times I had to dig through the source to figure out which font to download and install. “Frustrating” is an understatement.
As a side note, I would really like to see a unified effort to create a standard Burmese font system instead of everyone doing his own thing.
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Bamarlay Reply:
August 24th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Thanks for a very nice comment. Yes, you are right. What I was discussing was on the viewpoint of a visitor who does not know much about fonts, and don’t know where to get the required font to see the page. Believe me, most visitors don’t bother to find out what the font is and where to get the font. If they cannot get the font easily, they will leave your site. Sometimes, even if you provide a link to download the font, many of them don’t bother to download and install your font. They will simply leave your site. As a webmaster, this is a very distressing thing. Unless you want to exclude your non-IT visitors from visiting your site, you should simply follow the mass. This is more of a user accessibility rather than a techno issue.
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