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W3C i18n activity update

By Fuqiao Xue, Senior Principal Internationalization Specialist

The W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity works to ensure the web is truly global, supporting all languages, scripts, and cultures. Recent efforts include expanding type samples, advancing layout work for Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian, adding tests for scripts like Chinese and Tibetan, and publishing new educational resources. Outreach is growing through translations, articles, and video content. We invite wider community participation to help build a web that works for everyone.

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Hello, and welcome to the W3C Internationalization Activity update for TPAC 2025! For the web to be truly ‘World Wide’, it needs to work for everyone, no matter their language, script, or culture. That's our mission in the I18n activity.

Our work is multifaceted. We collaborate with W3C working groups to ensure new web technologies are designed with the world in mind. We provide guidance to developers and content creators, and we produce a wealth of resources to educate the community on internationalization best practices.

To help developers and designers understand the intricacies of global typography, we have expanded our type samples repository. This resource now includes a richer collection of images and examples from a multitude of scripts.

Our task forces for Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian have been diligently working to solve complex layout challenges. For example, in our Chinese Layout Requirements, we're tackling issues like the proper rendering of multi-level counters. This work is critical for ensuring a high-quality reading experience for over a billion users.

To ensure that browsers and other user agents correctly implement internationalization features, we're continuously adding tests to our test suite. This year, we've added more tests for a variety of scripts, including Chinese and Tibetan. These tests are essential for identifying and fixing bugs, leading to a more consistent and reliable web for everyone.

Education and outreach are core to our mission. We've published several new articles on key internationalization topics. We've also been expanding our library of translated articles, making our resources accessible to a wider audience. And we've launched a new Bluesky account and have been creating more video content for our YouTube channel.

We'll continue to tackle new challenges as the web evolves. But we can't do it alone.

We invite you to get involved! Whether you're a spec developer, a content author, a designer, a linguist, or simply passionate about a global web, your contributions are welcome. Visit our website to learn more, join our discussions, and help us build a web that truly works for everyone. Thank you.