In other words, should you have the complete set of a particular typeface, you will have, literally, several very similar names in the menu. In the case of Fangzheng and Hiragano type face, we can see the specifications listed directly in each typeface name.Ī Chinese typeface name is made up of the font name + font style + typeface style (if any) + language specification. In the typeface selector menu, you can instantly tell what font AND font style it is. HOW TO UNDERSTAND CHINESE TYPEFACE NAMESĪs you may be immediately aware, Chinese typeface names usually carry much more info than English. In the same manner, Chinese typefaces can also be classified into a few broad categories known as font styles.ī. For instance, there are a few broad categories that typefaces can fall into:. It’s much easier to see it from the perspective of English typography. These apply to a specific typeface, and its variety depend entirely on the typeface itself. Typeface Style 字體樣式: Bold, Italic, Oblique, Thick, Extrabold, Bold Italic, etc. These are what we like to call (the names of) fonts, and typefaces.

For instance, Garamond is a TYPEFACE, and it falls under the category of ‘Old Style’, for instance.įonts aka Typeface 字體: Arial, Comic Sans, Helvetica. No, they are called STYLES, because they represent a tone, if you will, of how a typeface looks like. Let’s define some important concepts I’ll be using here first:-įont Styles 字型格式: These are NOT to be seen as typeface / font.

This will help you to recognise, identify and be more precise when it comes to typeface selection. To open this new series of posts about Chinese type in greater detail, allow me to explain to you how Chinese typography is classified. Most of our Chinese typefaces tend to be few and far in between, apart from the random file names, type names, we find it often a baffling task to make sense of Chinese type.

Chinese font styles