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These tests check whether browsers support the downloading of TrueType/OpenType fonts using various methods, particularly for complex script support. The text chosen covers a number of typical features occuring in complex fonts.
Exact rendering for some of the text used for testing relies on the availability of operating system support. To take this into account, if the test doesn't match the reference graphic, we also look at whether an installed version of the font matches the reference graphic.
It is important to note that support for webfonts is work in progress at the time of writing. Upcoming versions are expected to perform better against these tests.
In what follows, 'HTML' means HTML4.01, HTML5 or XHTML 1.0 served as text/html. XML means XHTML 1.0, XHTML5 or XHTML 1.1 served as application/xhtml+xml.
See the results below for user agents tested. This section summarizes the results of those tests.
As a general summary, it is still difficult to use webfonts interoperably for certain non-Latin scripts. (However, it should be noted, again, that improved support is on its way, and several browsers already have improved support in the nightly builds. These results only look at browser versions in official releases.)
Of the browsers tested, only Safari, Firefox and Opera currently produced the expected display of the text on Windows. Tests run on OS X with those same browsers were less successfu, however. For Safari, there is a difference only in rendering of the Khmer text: this appears to be because the font is relying on Windows-specific rendering support for some of the combining characters. Firefox and Opera, however, showed marked differences in support on OS X for the complex scripts. In many cases (though it wasn't completely consistent) Firefox and Opera failed to render installed versions of the font, so the issue may not be with the webfont implementation itself.
Note, by the way, that some tests take a very long time to download, due to the size of the fonts involved. This points to the need for some type of subsetting and compression of fonts to make this technology useful in many situations.
Of the browsers tested, only Firefox supports WOFF fonts at the moment. Windows support was good, but on OS X the results were poor for the complex fonts. This may not be a WOFF-specific issue, however. The fonts that failed for the WOFF tests would not display in Firefox on OS X even as installed fonts. (They did display in other browsers.)
Of the browsers tested, only Internet Explorer currently supports EOT webfont downloads. There were, however, some unexpected issues with Khmer and Arabic script rendering, so EOT does not appear to work for those scripts at the moment.
These are results for the latest versions of each browser tested. To view the assertion, mouse over the text in the left column.
The background color indicates whether the webfont text used the same font as the reference graphic. A green background (yes) means that the webfont text did use the same font. A red background (no) means that it did not.
If the webfont text used the same font as the reference graphic but there were rendering issues, the right side of the background will be orange. In this case, a green check mark indicates that the installed font text looked ok, so the rendering failure was due to the webfont. If there is no check mark, then the webfont and the installed font have both failed to render the text correctly. This typically signifies that the font relies on OS-based rendering algorithms that were not available on the platform tested.
A green check mark on a red background indicates that the installed font worked fine, but the failure was in the webfont text. An orange check mark or red cross on a green background signifies that the webfont succeeded even though the installed font did not.
The final three rows in the table refer to the Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar text in the last test, in that order.
Most XP tests were run using a very recent Uniscribe version, 1.626.5756.0. Unless you have this version installed, your results may differ.
For most browsers, six types of document format were tested: H4 (HTML 4.01), H5 (HTML5), XH (XHTML 1.0 served as text/html), X (XHTML 1.0 served as XML), X5 (XHTML5), and X11 (XHTML 1.1, served as XML), but since all results were the same for the browsers tested, a single cell is used to represent all five test instances. The exception is Internet Explorer, which doesn't handle XML files, so only the HTML formats were tested.
| browser | IE | IE | Firefox | Firefox | Safari | Safari | Chrome | Chrome | Opera | Opera | Camino | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| version | 8 | 7 | 3.6.3 | 3.6.8 | 5.0.1 | 5.0.1 | 4.1.249.1045 | 5.0.375.126 | 9.64 | 10.61 | 2.0.3 | |
| OS | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | OS X 10.6.4 | |
| OS renderer | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | ? | |
| date | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100825 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100818 | |
| Alphabetic scripts (Georgian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Georgian script when using @font-face to download the BGP Ucnobi U font - a TrueType font with no GPOS or GSUB OpenType features. |  no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Alphabetic scripts (Armenian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Armenian script when using @font-face to download the Arian AMU font - a TrueType font with GPOS or GSUB OpenType features that are not used in this text. | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Khmer)The UA supports complex script features in Khmer when using @font-face to download the Khmer OS Battambang font. | no | no | yes | yes 1 | yes | yes 1 | no |  yes 1 | yes | yes 1 |  no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Devanagari)The UA supports complex script features in Hindi when using @font-face to download the Uttara font. | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes 2 | no | yes 2 | yes | yes 2 | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Arabic)The UA supports complex script features in Arabic when using @font-face to download the Scheherazade font. | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes | no | yes 6 | yes | yes 6 | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Urdu)The UA supports complex script features in Urdu when using @font-face to download the Nafees Nastaleeq font. | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes | no | yes 7 | yes | yes 7 | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | ? 5 | yes | yes | no | ? 5 | yes | ? 5 | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes | no | yes 8 | yes | yes 8 | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | ? 5 | yes | yes 3 | no | ? 5 | yes | ? 5 | ? 5 | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
Link to tests: Font linking
Assertion:
Notes:
| browser | IE | IE | Firefox | Firefox | Safari | Safari | Chrome | Chrome | Opera | Opera | Camino | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| version | 8 | 7 | 3.6.3 | 3.6.8 | 4.0.5 | 5.0.1 | 4.1.249.1045 | 5.0.375.126 | 9.64 | 10.61 | 2.0.3 | |
| OS | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | OS X 10.6.4 | |
| OS renderer | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | ? | |
| date | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100818 | |
| Alphabetic scripts (Georgian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Georgian script when using @font-face to download the BGP Ucnobi U font - a TrueType font with no GPOS or GSUB OpenType features. | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Alphabetic scripts (Armenian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Armenian script when using @font-face to download the Arian AMU font - a TrueType font with GPOS or GSUB OpenType features that are not used in this text. | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Khmer)The UA supports complex script features in Khmer when using @font-face to download the Khmer OS Battambang font. | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Devanagari)The UA supports complex script features in Hindi when using @font-face to download the Uttara font. | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Arabic)The UA supports complex script features in Arabic when using @font-face to download the Scheherazade font. | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Urdu)The UA supports complex script features in Urdu when using @font-face to download the Nafees Nastaleeq font. | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | ? | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | no | no | yes | ? | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
Link to tests: WOFF fonts
Assertion:
| browser | IE | IE | Firefox | Firefox | Safari | Safari | Chrome | Chrome | Opera | Opera | Camino | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| version | 8 | 7 | 3.6.3 | 3.6.8 | 4.0.5 | 5.0.1 | 4.1.249.1045 | 5.0.375.126 | 9.64 | 10.61 | 2.0.3 | |
| OS | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | XP, SP3 | OS X 10.6.4 | OS X 10.6.4 | |
| OS renderer | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | Uniscribe 1.626.5756.0 | ? | ? | |
| date | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100427 | 20100818 | 20100818 | |
| Alphabetic scripts (Georgian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Georgian script when using @font-face to download the BGP Ucnobi U font - a TrueType font with no GPOS or GSUB OpenType features. | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Alphabetic scripts (Armenian)The UA supports alphabetic characters in the Armenian script when using @font-face to download the Arian AMU font - a TrueType font with GPOS or GSUB OpenType features that are not used in this text. | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Khmer)The UA supports complex script features in Khmer when using @font-face to download the Khmer OS Battambang font. | yes 1 | yes 1 | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Complex scripts (Devanagari)The UA supports complex script features in Hindi when using @font-face to download the Uttara font. | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Arabic)The UA supports complex script features in Arabic when using @font-face to download the Scheherazade font. | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Shaping scripts (Urdu)The UA supports complex script features in Urdu when using @font-face to download the Nafees Nastaleeq font. | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | yes 2 | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
| Mixed scripts (Thai, Tibetan, and Myanmar)The UA supports the complex scripts Thai, Tibetan and Myanmar all in a single paragraph when using @font-face to download the Garuda, Tibetan Machine Uni, and Myanmar3 fonts. | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | H4 H5 XH X X5 X11 |
Link to tests: EOT fonts
Assertion:
Notes:
Tell us what you think (English).
Content first published 2008-09-23. Last substantive update 2010-08-25 11:27 GMT. This version 2010-08-25 11:27 GMT
For the history of document changes, search for results-webfonts in the i18n blog.
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