Zawgyi font
{{Short description|Non-Unicode-compatible Burmese typeface}}
{{Other uses|Zawgyi (disambiguation)}}
{{Expand Burmese|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox typeface
| name = Zawgyi
| image = Zawgyi font.svg
| image_size =
| alt = Zawgyi written in Burmese
| style =
| classifications =
| creator =
| commissioned_by =
| foundry = Arthouse (Mandalay)
| creationdate =
| releasedate = 4 December 2007
| foundries =
| license =
}}
Zawgyi font{{efn|The first version of the typeface is known as Zawgyi-One or zawgyi1}} is a predominant typeface used for Burmese language text on websites. It supports the Burmese script using its Myanmar Unicode block following a non-compliant implementation. Prior to 2019, it was the most popular font on Burmese websites.
Unicode incompatibility
File:Zawgyi vs Unicode krau.svg
The Burmese script is a complex text layout script, whereby the positions and shapes of its graphemes vary based on context. The support for complex text rendering for personal computers did not arrive until Windows XP Service Pack 2 in 2004, and a Burmese font utilizing this technology did not exist until 2005.{{r|griffin|sin}} Furthermore, there were significant revisions in Unicode's implementation of Burmese script up until Unicode 5.1 in 2008.{{r|hosken}} Compounding the fact that Myanmar experienced sanctions from the West, this had resulted in much of the Burmese localization technology being developed locally without external cooperation.{{r|japantimes}}
Numerous attempts at creating fonts with Burmese support were made in the 2000s, but they were developed as Unicode fonts that were only partially Unicode compliant.{{r|sin}} Some of the codepoints for Burmese script were implemented as specified in Unicode, but others were not. Therefore, these fonts became incompatible with Unicode.{{cite web|url=https://code.google.com/p/zawgyi/wiki/WhyUnicode|title=Why Unicode is Needed|work=Google Code: Zawgyi Project|access-date=31 October 2013}} This is referred to as ad hoc font encodings by the Unicode Consortium.{{r|unicode_faq}} With the advent of mobile phones, manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei simply replaced the Unicode compliant Burmese system fonts with their Zawgyi equivalents.{{r|griffin}}
There are significant shortcomings in using ad hoc font encodings. As a separate encoding, the situation leads to garbled text being shown between users of Zawgyi and Unicode.{{r|fb_eng}} Because the Zawgyi font encoding was not implemented as efficiently as specified in Unicode, it had to occupy more codepoints than what is allocated for Burmese.{{r|unicode_faq}} As such, Zawgyi encoding took over the Unicode block reserved for minority languages of Myanmar.{{r|griffin|sin}} In Zawgyi, the same word can be encoded in multiple different ways, making Zawgyi text corpus difficult to search and analyze. It is also difficult to sort Zawgyi text.{{r|watkins}} In addition, using Unicode would ease the implementation of natural language processing technologies.{{r|sin}}
The Myanmar government designated 1 October 2019 as "U-Day" to officially switch to Unicode.{{r|japantimes}} The full transition was expected by some to take two years, but has now been somewhat complicated by the effects of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.{{Cite web |title=Myanmar switch to Unicode to take two years: app developer |author=Saw Yi Nanda |work=The Myanmar Times |date=21 Nov 2019 |access-date=24 December 2019 |url=https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-switch-unicode-take-two-years-app-developer.html}}{{Update inline|date=July 2024}}
Unicode uses the private-use script code {{code|Qaag}} to mark text written in Zawgyi.{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=Mark |title=Unicode Locale Data Markup Language (LDML) |url=https://unicode.org/reports/tr35/#Unicode_Language_and_Locale_Identifiers |website=unicode.org |access-date=11 December 2023 |language=en |date=2023-10-25 |quote=Qaag is a special script code for identifying the non-standard use of Myanmar characters for display with the Zawgyi font. The purpose of the code is to enable migration to standard, interoperable use of Unicode by providing an identifier for Zawgyi for tagging text, applications, input methods, font tables, transformations, and other mechanisms used for migration.}}
=Conversion=
International Components for Unicode supports conversion of Zawgyi-encoded data to conformant Unicode by means of the {{code|Zawgyi-my}} transliterator.{{cite web |url=https://github.com/google/myanmar-tools/tree/master/clients/python |title=Myanmar Tools Python Documentation |publisher=Google, LLC}}
Notes
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References
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|quote=Oct. 1 is "U-Day," when Myanmar officially will adopt the new system. [...] Microsoft and Apple helped other countries standardize years ago, but Western sanctions meant Myanmar lost out.}}
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External links
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{{Portal bar|Linguistics|Myanmar}}