For the Romance of a Man: Introducing IBM Plex Font [Google is a Necessary Evil]

5 min

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language: ja bn en es hi pt ru zh-cn zh-tw

ibm-plex-images-768x156-1.jpg

I was quite lost when it came to fonts.

I was mindlessly using Roboto and Noto Sans.
I also tried the highly-rated M Plus font for Japanese, but personally, I couldn't quite get into it.

The reason I was looking for alternatives was that Noto Sans is heavy.

Since I'm calling the Google Fonts API using Google's CDN, it slows things down, and sometimes I felt a strange sense of discomfort with the kanji. Of course, if I downloaded it and hosted it on my own server, the load issue would be resolved.
I peeked at other sites for reference on what fonts they were using, but everywhere I looked, it was Noto Sans! Aaaargh!!!!

Even sites that demand originality are all using Noto Sans. What a mess.

So, despite my dissatisfaction, I left it as it was without finding an alternative.

Found it!

The Story Behind the Birth of the Open Source Font "IBM Plex"

So, while I was searching for a new font (which was really just surfing the net), I found IBM Plex, which IBM released as open source.
It's a font created by the IBM I admire.

The story behind its creation is beautiful, and I even felt something like IBM's 'Yamato-damashii' (Japanese spirit) in IBM Plex JP.

You can download the latest version from IBM's GitHub below.
Releases · IBM/plex · GitHub

So, I downloaded it, placed it on my server, and added it! Add the following to style.css.

/* Font loading */
@font-face {
  font-family: 'IBMPlexSansJP';
  src: url('******/IBMPlexSansJP-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
}

@font-face {
  font-family: 'IBMPlexSans';
  src: url('******/IBMPlexSans-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
}

Then, add or replace the code in the body/headings according to each style.css.

It's the best!!

The display of 'I' is especially great.

This is it, the classic IBM 'I'.

So, because I felt problems with Noto Sans, I developed the feeling that I had to change to something else. Thank you, Google! You were a necessary evil. Thank you, Noto Sans!

Finally, I'll leave you with some impactful words quoted from IBM's Think Blog below.

All products IBM has created since the 1920s have aimed to merge technology and humanity. As is clear from this, IBM has always played the role of an intermediary between humans and machines.
The natural and the artificial.
The emotional and the rational.
The classical and the cutting-edge.
--
So, why did IBM make IBM Plex an open-source font?
Mike Abbink states the following:

"There was a lot of discussion about using IBM Plex only internally. On the other hand, we believed that to make IBM Plex part of every experience IBM offers, it needed to be an open-source font. As a result, if shoe stores or coffee shops use IBM's font as a means to convey their identity, that would be wonderful. Those shoe stores and coffee shops are connecting their identity with IBM's identity. There's no benefit in using IBM Plex only for ourselves, after all."

The Story Behind the Birth of the Open Source Font "IBM PLEX"

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