Best default font and custom fonts for Unicode app
What is the best default font for a Unicode application where the user can choose the font they want to use?
The problem I notice is that not all Windows computers have every Unicode font. And every Unicode font doesn't include all Unicode characters.
So what would be the font that has the best compromise between accessibility and completeness to use as the default font? Uncheck if the font is ugly.
Then, after defining the default font, which fonts should be included in the dropdown for the user to select?
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The best default font for any Windows application, Unicode or not, is the one the user selected in the system control applet for all applications . There is nothing more annoying than tweaking the fonts and colors in every application, just to match the system defaults and not visually clash with other applications.
Also: I think it is safe to assume that the system default font supports all glyphs of supported languages (note that different Windows versions install different subsets of the available language support and for testing you may need to manually add support for more number of languages). And if the user changed the default, then most likely they chose a different font that can display all glyphs.
As for your second question, why not leave the decision to the user entirely? What reason would there be for not including everything?
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I see Unicode and fonts as orthogonal. One is data, the other is presentation.
I'm not sure how to answer because I don't know, for example, if the idea of a sans serif font would apply to Kanji or Katakana characters for a Japanese user. Are the fonts that are commonly used for Western languages the same across all languages?
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