Recommended fonts

Index » RtK Volume 1

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Reply #1 - 2006 August 13, 2:17 am
wrightak Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

I thought I would start a thread about what fonts people are using. In firefox, I'm currently using MS P明朝 which looks great when you increase the text size to make the characters huge but when you've got a normal text size, you some times have to screw up your eyes. What font do other people use? I think that different fonts will be appropriate in different situations. As I said, 明朝 looks nice when the characters are large but for readability purposes, something simpler might be better. Recommended links to download Japanese fonts would also be great.

Reply #2 - 2006 August 13, 6:09 am
CharleyGarrett Member
From: Cusseta Georgia USA Registered: 2006-05-25 Posts: 303

I like MS Mincho, which has been on my computer all along, without downloading it.  I don't know how, maybe it comes with windows?  Where did you get MS Myocho(?).  Did it just come with your system similarly?

As part of trying to help out with the wiki project for SODs, I downloaded to chinese fonts too.  They came from:

http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/edv/s … _fonts.htm

That site refers one to http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/edv/s … _fonts.htm

...but these are all referals for "chinese fonts". 

I've never actually taken time to search for similar sites for "japanese" fonts".

Last edited by CharleyGarrett (2006 August 13, 6:14 am)

Reply #3 - 2006 August 13, 6:32 am
wrightak Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

I believe another reading for 明朝 is みんちょう so I assume it's the same. I've got a Japanese machine and it came with that. Thanks for the links, I'll check it out.

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Reply #4 - 2006 August 13, 8:06 am
CharleyGarrett Member
From: Cusseta Georgia USA Registered: 2006-05-25 Posts: 303

Sure it is!  What am I thinking?!  Well, obviously, I'm not.  I thought "tomorrow morning" and didn't even think of the Ming dynasty.  Duh!

Last edited by CharleyGarrett (2006 August 13, 8:10 am)

Reply #5 - 2006 August 13, 8:41 am
Pangolin Member
From: UK Registered: 2006-07-23 Posts: 137

There are lots of links here:
http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/F … anese.html

I've installed quite a few of these. Note that they often don't contain all the characters, I presume they have limited themselves to those in general use.

The problem with Mincho is that it doesn't reflect how kanji are written by hand, and some of these other fonts are based on hand-written or brush styles.

The Epson package has some nice fonts (and I think they have all the unicode characters), but unfortunately I can only get two of them to work. The Epson gyousho brush font (which does work on my system) is very impressive, but difficult to read! There is also a less-elaborate hand-brushed font called Sword which is very readable, but the number of characters is more limited.

Reply #6 - 2006 August 13, 3:49 pm
Matthew Member
From: Purgatory Registered: 2006-03-20 Posts: 84

MS Pゴシック (Gothic)

Like "gothic" style fonts with roman characters, it's basically just simple lines, so it scales down about as well as you can hope for in a Japanese font.  Plus it should already be installed on your computer if you're running Windows with the Japanese IME enabled, so you don't have to bother with downloading or installing anything.

Reply #7 - 2008 December 13, 7:46 pm
mentat_kgs Member
From: Brasil Registered: 2008-04-18 Posts: 1671 Website

I just checked nestor's links and just wanned to add that Epson's fonts package is badass.

Reply #8 - 2008 December 13, 8:01 pm
annabel398 Member
From: Austin TX Registered: 2008-08-04 Posts: 80

There are one or two font threads in the "Japanese Writing Systems" section, with lots o' links. I second the thumbs-up on the Epson fonts.

Reply #9 - 2008 December 18, 10:58 pm
rotud New member
From: Bellevue Registered: 2008-08-03 Posts: 1

I recommend Meiryo which comes with Vista or can be downloaded free for XP from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta … laylang=en

This font was designed for reading on computer screens, supports Clear Type at all weight levels, and it blends in well with Latin characters. I don't know how it compares to commercial fonts, but it's vastly superior to MSGothic and MSMincho.

Last edited by rotud (2008 December 18, 11:00 pm)

Reply #10 - 2008 December 19, 2:03 pm
annabel398 Member
From: Austin TX Registered: 2008-08-04 Posts: 80

If Meiro looks blurry to you and you're running Windows, you might be interested in the ClearType Tuner:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle … /tune.aspx

which is a tool that lets you optimize your ClearType settings by picking from samples. This is the web-based one; there's a downloadable version as well.

Reply #11 - 2008 December 19, 2:59 pm
kazelee Rater Mode
From: ohlrite Registered: 2008-06-18 Posts: 2132 Website

nest0r wrote:

I've already tinkered with all that, it still looks blurry, despite all the trouble. Squished and blurry and kind of off-coloured, no matter what settings I used. I'm using a high resolution flat panel. I read that even some of the people that worked on it think Cleartype makes it blurry regardless of settings, so. It's nauseating. ;( I just think Meiryo is ugly, period. The way the strokes are drawn, that is.

Perhaps you should downgrade then. LOL

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