Noto fonts
Shares rank 17 of 26 typefaces by recommenders
Free, open-source font family of good quality, recommended for fixing missing-character boxes in text. Critics say it adds many fonts that clutter the font picker.
Free, open-source font family of good quality, recommended for fixing missing-character boxes in text. Critics say it adds many fonts that clutter the font picker.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good quality
“Adobe's Noto families are of outstanding quality.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Japanese game devs face font dilemma as license increases from $380 to $20k” “quality wise, FOSS fonts are fine”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Japanese game devs face font dilemma as license increases from $380 to $20k” Suggested fix for missing characters
“Added a small “Font tips (if you see □)” section with system font notes and Noto suggestions.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: One clean, developer-focused page for every Unicode symbol” “system font notes and Noto suggestions”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: One clean, developer-focused page for every Unicode symbol”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Adds many fonts to picker
“now you have to scroll through hundreds of useless squiggle fonts in your font picker”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “GNU Unifont”
Other typefaces people recommend
The four most recommended other typefaces, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman | 35 | 28 | 56% | 4 | — | — |
| Atkinson Hyperlegible | 23 | 2 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Shantell Sans | 19 | 1 | 95% | 2 | — | — |
| Calibri | 16 | 36 | 31% | 1 | — | — |
| Noto fontsThis page | 7 | 2 | 78% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“download a gigabyte of fonts whenever noto gets updated”
“noto lacks support for double stroked text”
“The Noto fonts have great coverage”
“system font notes and Noto suggestions”
“Added a small “Font tips (if you see □)” section with system font notes and Noto suggestions.”
“now you have to scroll through hundreds of useless squiggle fonts in your font picker”
“Noto is also a scalable font with multiple weights and styles”
“explicitly use the modern SIL Open Font License”
“Adobe's Noto families are of outstanding quality.”
“quality wise, FOSS fonts are fine”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.