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The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - Printable Version

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The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - ファブリス - 2015-09-24

Let's start with toshiromiballza's suggestion from this post:

ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W3
HiraKakuProN-W3
Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN
Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN W3
ＭＳ Ｐゴシック
MS PGothic
Meiryo UI
TakaoEXゴシック
TakaoExGothic
IPAexゴシック
IPAexGothic
Source Han Sans JP Regular
Source Han Sans JP Normal
Noto Sans Japanese Regular
Noto Sans Japanese DemiLight
Takao Pゴシック
TakaoPGothic
IPA Pゴシック
IPAPGothic
Takaoゴシック
TakaoGothic
IPAゴシック
IPAGothic
VL Pゴシック
VL PGothic
VL ゴシック
VL Gothic
モトヤLマルベリ3等幅
モトヤLマルベリ
MotoyaLMaru W3 mono
MotoyaLMaru
モトヤLシーダ3等幅
モトヤLシーダ
MotoyaLCedar W3 mono
MotoyaLCedar
Droid Sans Japanese
DroidSansJapanese
sans-serif

Things I'd like to do before I can use this on Kanji Koohii:

- separate serif and sans serif : I want serif for the large font sizes. Serif looks much nicer on the flashcards and is more informative since it gives some hints for the direction of individual strokes.

- or.. a "preferably serif" and "preferably sans-serif" versions.

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - ファブリス - 2015-09-24

I think all the "Sans" and "Gothic" fonts are sans-serif.

For a "preferably serif" font stack I could use:

- Windows : add "MS PMincho, ＭＳ 明朝, ＭＳ Ｐ明朝" on top
- OS X : add "Hiragino Mincho Pro, ヒラギノ明朝 Pro W3" (or ProN ?)

What about Android, and Linux ?

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - Bokusenou - 2015-09-24

Thanks for making this into it's own thread! Much easier for people to find.
Looks like they're all sans serif already (most have "gothic" or ゴシック in the font name), although if you don't like the look of rounded sans serif fonts, you might want to take out the Maru/マル ones.
Serif/明朝 fonts will need another font stack.

EDIT: Didn't see your second post. Android doesn't have a default Japanese serif font as far as I know. People can buy モトヤ明朝 in the Play Store, but I'm not sure how popular it is.

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - ファブリス - 2015-09-24

These are used on jisho.org for comparison:

japanese_gothic
"HiraKakuPro-W3", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro W3", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", "ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3", "メイリオ", Meiryo, "游ゴシック", YuGothic, "ＭＳ Ｐゴシック", "MS PGothic", "ＭＳ ゴシック", "MS Gothic", sans, sans-serif

japanese_mincho
"HiraMinPro-W3", "Hiragino Mincho Pro W3", "Hiragino Mincho Pro", "ヒラギノ明朝 Pro W3", "游明朝", YuMincho, "HG明朝E", "ＭＳ Ｐ明朝", "MS PMincho", "MS 明朝", "MS Mincho", serif


Question:
Do serif fonts automatically fall back to their "sans" equivalent if not present?

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - toshiromiballza - 2015-09-24

ファブリス Wrote:I think all the "Sans" and "Gothic" fonts are sans-serif.
Correct.

ファブリス Wrote:(or ProN ?)
Yes, please update it to ProN.

ファブリス Wrote:What about Android, and Linux ?
There are serif fonts for Linux, can't remember the names right now, but Android only has sans-serif fonts (Motoya and DroidSansJapanese). Edit: For Linux there are Kochi, Takao, IPAex and IPA mincho fonts.

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - wareya - 2015-09-25

The terms for japanese typefaces tend to vary a lot. The only consistent borders I can find are between Mincho, Gothic, and Kaisho... But it turns out that almost every display font is Mincho or Gothic.

(Kaisho is a style closely related to Song Imitation style. The only competent free font I can find for it, T Font Kaisho, has incorrect glyphs)

HanaMinB (Gothic) on my machine has incorrect glyphs, but HanaMinA (Mincho) has correct ones.

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - toshiromiballza - 2015-09-25

wareya Wrote:HanaMinB (Gothic) on my machine has incorrect glyphs, but HanaMinA (Mincho) has correct ones.
HanaMin fonts are Mincho fonts, the A and B separates the CJK Unified Ideographs extension A from extension B and above. You can't render CJK Extension A characters (eg. 酋) with HanaMinB, it will get overridden and some other default font will be used, perhaps Meiryo or MS Mincho on Windows.

The ultimate JAPANESE serif and sans-serif web-safe font stack - wareya - 2015-09-25

Aha, so my system's fallback font is broken! Interesting, I'll have to figure out how to configure that.