Unicode fonts for Japanese

Question

I am creating a game. I have some UI with text. Recently we wanted to add Japanese language version but I have problem with fonts. I use stb_freetype to rasterize fonts and I su

Answer 1

1. Yes. As a simple example, just look at the differences between MS PGothic and MS PMincho, which should be available if you have Microsoft Word installed.

2. Unfortunately I have no experience with Unicode fonts on OSX or Linux, so I can't help you there.

Answer 2

most fonts doesn't seem to contain Janapese characters, on Windows I've found that Arial Unicode does. But its size is 26 MB, that's much more than our complete game!

Arial Unicode contains a lot more than just Japanese. It's also in general not a very good font: it is made to cover a lot of Unicode code points, but it is missing many features needed to actually render some languages properly. Not to mention it is not freely redistributable.

I suggest looking at the free Japanese fonts used by Linux distributions. For example VLGothic is 3.7MB and compresses down to just 2.2MB, which would be much more palatable. See also: Takao, Motoya, Togoshi.

Does Janapese fonts have different typefaces? I mean, Western fonts have serif, sans-serif or more exotic versions. Does this apply also to Asian fonts?

Certainly. Japanese (and other Han-derived fonts in general) vary widely, just as Latin does. Generally fonts might be categorised as:

• Gothic: typically unstressed, without line-endings, with little sign of the original brushed nature of the characters. Most similar to Latin ‘sans-serif’ fonts—indeed, the name ‘Gothic‘ is taken from exactly that tradition.

  Often used as default screen fonts as they render well in reduced detail. As well as square-ended Gothic Kaku, there's Gothic Maru which uses rounded features, matching well with Latin rounded sans.

• Minchō: has serif-like endings stylised from the brush strokes, and strong vertical stress. Often formal in appearance. Most similar to Latin ‘serif’ fonts, typically paired with a transitional serif design. Often the default Japanese font for word processing, paired with Times New Roman.

• Kyōkasho (‘textbook’): formal handwritten style, clear and readable, but less straight-edged than Mincho. Most similar to a legible Latin pen-written script font; might also usefully be paired with a more characterful serif.

• Kaisho: traditional brushed style, but still regular and legible, somewhat formal. Not usually so good at low screen resolutions. Might be paired with a semi-serif or brushed script Latin face.

• Gyōsho: cursive brushed style, less clear, typically for display purposes. Also Sōsho takes this further, to generally-illegible lengths.

• Display fonts. There are some everyday handwritten-like styles, but typically fewer really wacky novelty fonts. Presumably because the amount of work involved in creating a font to cover the huge number of common Kanji makes it not worth it. You may also find novelty fonts that contain only the kana and Latin (rōmaji) characters, with few or no kanji.

Answer 3

The file size is not the only reason to avoid redistributing Microsoft technology to Linux or Mac!

1.Does Janapese fonts have different typefaces? I mean, Western fonts have serif, sans-serif or more exotic versions. Does this apply also to Asian fonts?

CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) fonts do have different typefaces. Some fonts are more caligraphic and others are more plain. It is roughly analogous to the difference between san-serif and serif. (There is no notion of italics or bold in CJK fonts. I understand that there are conventions for expressing emphasis, but I don't recall what they are.)

You can see these font differences on Windows by comparing Arial Unicode MS with MingLiU or MS Mincho. The Arial version is very "plain" in both Latin characters and CJK idiographs.

As with Latin characters, I believe the distinction in typefaces is purely for visual appeal, and does not strongly imply any difference in meaning.

I can not help you with your second question.

Answer 4

Yeah you need to license a font for distirbution. You can't simply use the one out of your computer...For file size you should just pull the specific code pages. typically arial unicode is $3500 to embedd in a game...however thats the price for all 50,000 characters....

Source: Monotype Imagaing