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| | | (1) Posted by Andrew Buchanan [Saturday, Feb 14, 2015 03:15] | chess font
I don't know much about fonts.
Does anyone know a good chess font which I can use for writing chess moves, particularly to be read online,?
- It is 100% MANDATORY that white moves and black moves show the correct colour symbols, rather than the horrible practice that all moves show white pieces.
- Ideally it would be readable by anyone online, without having to download anything. (Not sure that's possible.)
- But if anything did need to be downloaded, could it be done with just a few symbols, rather like math equations where you only download what you need.
- Maybe in fact there is a math graphic library which includes chess pieces?
Can anyone tell me the right questions I should be asking here, and what the right answers are?
Thanks in advance,
Andrew.
| | | (2) Posted by [Saturday, Feb 14, 2015 16:40]; edited by [15-02-14] |
Andrew Buchanan asks:
>Does anyone know a good chess font which I can use for writing chess moves, particularly to be read online,?
Look for a font that was designed for figurine notation. While you may find chess symbols in Unicode fonts, they may not be well adjusted for text. Tilburg from Chessworks Unlimited (not sure if they're still around) and several of the Alpine fonts by Partae were designed to do the job. However, they exist in one version for Windows and one version for Mac -- or used to do so. That just might be a problem.
Note: chess diagram fonts are unlikely to be useful. They solve an entirely different problem.
>- Ideally it would be readable by anyone online, without having to download anything. (Not sure that's possible.)
I doubt it. For that you would need to rely on standard Unicode fonts present on all reader computers having the correct symbols (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_symbols_in_Unicode for some additional info). On Windows, Arial Unicode MS is the only one I know that contains them. (It doesn't seem to be around for free download anymore, though, so ... )
>- But if anything did need to be downloaded, could it be done with just a few symbols, rather like math equations where you only download what you need.
Unlikely. You need the baseline of the figurines to be in some relation to the baseline of the text -- and you don't get that by accident. You typically need a combined chess + text font.
When I was contemplating electronic chess problem books, I faced a similar problem. I did not find a solution then -- the only way I could ensure that everything worked as it should was by going for a document format that embedded the typeface required.
These days, fonts can be embedded in web pages, so I would think that's the right way to go now. But don't try to minimize the solution: fonts for figurine notation does the job, so don't try to second-guess the font designer by thinking that you can use any text font. You're probably stuck with TrueType, OpenType or WOFF fonts, if you want functionality for a majority of browsers.
It's some times since http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/fonteng.htm was updated, but you can find several free fonts referenced on their pages.
Added: As you require separate black/white figurines you just might be stuck. Using black figurines will probably be so ugly that your readers will have to fight to keep reading. A bit like reading text in ALL CAPS. Still, you may find a decent font that does it that way: none of those I have collected over the years do it.
| | | (3) Posted by Sarah Hornecker [Saturday, Feb 14, 2015 18:44] |
Dear friends,
from a technical point it is possible without a manual download by making use of transparent image files (PNG, for example) for the notation instead of a font. However, in practice this will use a lot of time for editing and is not easily portable, i.e. only good for internet or maybe Word document use.
| | | (4) Posted by Thomas Brand [Saturday, Feb 14, 2015 22:34] |
Just another approach is to use LaTeX for writing chess texts with figurine notation (and diagrams) to produce .pdf files looking identically on every platform. This is the way many problem magazines are produced like Die Schwalbe or feenschach.
But also you might use LaTeX styles and fonts mainly made for OTB chess, and they generally include fonts for simply writing moves in figurine notation.
The reader has no fonts to download or install, the output is identically on every platform, be it Windows, Linux, Mac -- or a smartphone. Just click/load a pdf file and enjoy!
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