Plex 7.0 (next)

[vpicone]

Goals

• Able to include any Plex language for internationalization
• Able to include any additional font weights for a font family
• Able to include any additional font style variants for a font family
• Migrate to Dart Sass

Requirements

• There is a sensible fallback that uses a CDN by default
• Able to self-host font files

To-do

• Update Hebrew and Arabic to use latest PostScript/Font names
• Add tooling for easier/automated pre-release and release procedures
• Utilize Sass modules to permit modular builds based on application requirements (weights, languages, font-face features) for Carbon languages +1 non-standard variant
• Remove ie11 font files (eot/ttf/otf)
• Add semver to font files
• Same as above but for all languages
• Use @forward rule
• Add support for subsets
• Create declarations for Variable font
• Document build pipeline and release procedures
• Fix Korean asset zip for github release
• Add IBM Plex Sans JP to github for release
• Add IBM Plex JP sample text to IDL typetester —> “Non-Latin scripts” Add Plex Sans JP to the Typeface page & remove resource card for Noto JP carbon-design-system/design-language-website#965

[johnnyshields]

Is Japanese included in this release?

[vpicone]

@johnnyshields It's not, @BoldMonday do we have an update on the intended release date for Japanese?

[mjabbink]

@johnnyshields Our current estimate is sometime in June. The latter part of the month to be safe.

[johnnyshields]

@mjabbink thanks, we're looking forward to it at TableCheck

[ghost]

* Able to include any additional font weights for a font family

@vpicone It means that will be 9 weights (from 100 to 900) plus italics (18 styles)?

[EatonZ]

It appears that the "split" fonts are included as font files in the latest next, but they aren't declared in the CSS/SCSS. Is this because it's not done or are split fonts being phased out for 6.0?

[elyran2]

when will Hebrew be fixed? it's been almost a year since I reported kerning issues in Hebrew and someone said that it is already fixed but no new version is published... why wait on it?

[vpicone]

@johnnyshields Correction, it looks like we'll be able to include IBM Plex Sans JP in this release.

[mjabbink]

@elyran2 The Hebrew fixes will be resolved in the next release. @vpicone can provide a more accurate timeline.
There are many updates but a few in Arabic and Hebrew are at the top of the list.

[kifzuka]

Add font ligature please, it's very nice to code with

[mjabbink]

@kifzuka

[BoldMonday]

Add font ligature please, it's very nice to code with

Coding ligatures have been discussed in #63

[kifzuka]

@kifzuka

Ligatures for coding, programming like 'Fira code'

[vpicone]

@mjabbink @Katie-A-IBM my plan is to have the Japanese files released in a beta by Friday with an official release by the end of next week.

I'll update the video and remove the Noto card ASAP.

[mjabbink]

Thanks for update @vpicone I already removed the Noto Card carbon-design-system/design-language-website#972

The only think left is to add the Plex JP in the type tester section with sample text and placement all provided here carbon-design-system/design-language-website#965

[EatonZ]

Hi - any comment on my question above yet?

[vpicone]

Hi - any comment on my question above yet?

Yes, the styles will use subsets. You can see subsets in the list of items at the top of the issue.

[EatonZ]

@vpicone Thanks, didn't know those were called "subsets".

[mjabbink]

@vpicone Let’s add the Plex Mono update to GitHub.

[BoldMonday]

@mjabbink @vpicone And Plex Sans Hebrew + Plex Sans Arabic updates please.

[mjabbink]

Those are not released either! Oh wow. OK, we gotta get that done.

@alisonjoseph We defiantly need to get these in this sprint.

[vpicone]

@mjabbink Hebrew and Arabic are released under the next branch: https://github.com/IBM/plex/releases/tag/v6.0.0-next.6

They require breaking changes due to the change in family name.

[dayfuaim]

Any plans for old style numbers (onum) and caps from small caps (c2sc)?

[mjabbink]

@dayfuaim OSF and SCs are maybe future items but for now, those are not on the priority list. The original intent was to not include those but have always considered those for potential future enhancements.

[dayfuaim]

@mjabbink Got it. But waiting for them to appear. :)

[mjabbink]

@vpicone status on this?

[mjabbink]

@vpicone Any updates for this issue?

[barmadrid]

Would love to hear the progress on this!

[Hackgets]

I am not a programmer, so I am waiting for a Japanese monospace font that is suitable for general use and still highly legible. That's why I have high hopes for IBM Plex.

In open source projects, it is unavoidable that Japanese language support is lacking. This is because there are few Japanese contributors, and I am ashamed of that.

[Yoshiko321]

We are observing an issue where non-breaking space ( ) becomes visible as ” □ ” when accessing from iPhone iOS 15.4 browser. This is for IBM Plex Sans JP font.

• This is not the case for iOS 15.3
• This phenomena is not observed on US page for non-breaking space

Might you be able to help? @BoldMonday

[BoldMonday]

@Yoshiko321 I suspect this is a text encoding problem in 15.4 instead of a font problem. I'm afraid we're unable to help here.

[XenBG]

@vpicone

The Bulgarian Minister of e-Government Bozhidar Bojanov has launched an initiative for Bulgarian institutions to use fonts that support Bulgarian Cyrillic. Source: https://www.facebook.com/bozhidar.bozhanov/posts/pfbid036YFX1SuEjFv4Mzg4WGfdnmCSG6yKT5f4wBokqjZigxCER6tkFdmrxzsD6xeedLBzl

The IBM Plex font is widely used in the Bulgarian web and I suggest you add support for the Bulgarian Cyrillic Script so that everyone can take advantage of it. You can read more about the loclBGR glyphs with examples and info on this article - https://www.lettersoup.de/what-shall-be-done-for-bulgarian-cyrillic-loclbgr/. More detailed information can be found here - https://www.fontfabric.com/blog/rounded-bulgarian-cyrillic-narrative-and-comparison/.

I will be more than grateful if you consider my proposal!

[Skr-ZERO]

Seems like version 7.0 still doesn’t support Chinese… How many Chinese characters will be included in IBM Plex Sans SC & TC and when will they come out?

[mjabbink]

@Skr-ZERO Plex Sans SC & TC will be released in 2023. Roughly 30,000 glyphs.

[jerviscui]

Very much looking forward to supporting the Chinese.

[Marcus98T]

Is there any reason why Plex Sans TC and SC got delayed yet again to 2024? The Plex website still says 2023.

I don't want to speculate, but manually drawing new Chinese glyphs and extensive quality checks may be one of the reasons?

[cssobral2013]

Are Greek/Cyrillic support for Variable planned?