One major impetus to the development of universal standards for Tibetan typography is the World Wide Web. The ability to universally display Tibetan language text was initially made possible by the adoption by leading Web browsers of HTML code ("tags") which allow the Web browser client to select any fonts installed on the operating system of the user. We have put examples of Tibetan text on the web in the form of Tibetan-language excerpts of the Ngedon Gyamtso and Lorik and Takrik. Although the use of the font face tag is now discouraged in theory, it remains the easiest way to display Tibetan-languages on the web while we await development of standards supporting Tibetan character sets.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01  and above and Netscape Navigator 4.0 and above web browsers now support the font tag, which allows  the easy display of Tibetan fonts on Web pages. If the Tibetan font is natively loaded on the operating system in which the browser is resident, an HTML tag ("font face") can call that font for use in the browser. The result is the magnificent, easy display of Tibetan documents directly on the Web using readily available tools. The hidden costs of the platform notwithstanding, this ability to display Tibetan-language documents on the Web is another revolution wrought by the Internet.

The font face tag used to implement the Tibetan display is part of rapidly developing HTML standards for display on the Web. Web browser technology initially strictly limited font selection in a drastic manner, so that all Web displays looked the same and used basically similar fonts. This limitation was intentional, to promote the universality of information viewable on the Web. However, the limitations of the fonts used also had drawbacks, as it precluded basic customization of pages and use of nonstandard glyphs. A rapid series of customization tags were implemented by Netscape and Microsoft, and the notion of using resident fonts began to find its way into HTML standards proposals, such as the original HTML 3.2 proposal, and the CSS-1 proposals. With the adoption of HTML 4.0 with the introduction of Cascading Style Sheet technology, font display technology became available not only for Tibetan, but also for Sanskrit diacritics .

Unfortunately, there continue to be problems with Netscape's implementation of the font face tag when used with certain Tibetan fonts. We have not investigated AOL's work in version 6.0

For further information on these standards, please see the current standards for Cascading Style Sheets. Both Netscape and Microsoft have implemented parts of these standards in their systems since version 3 of those browsers, and the implementation is continuing to improve and be more complete. Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 and above has the most stable display of the font face tag in Windows95 and above. For a discussion of the mechanics of displaying fonts native to the operating system in a Web browser, see, for example, Microsoft's general discussion of typography and their specific discussions of Web typography and using the font face tag.

 We would be happy to have any input on the capabilities of different browsers. Please send your comments to our webmaster, who will forward them to the appropriate Nitartha personnel. WebTibetan Design Issues