Ming or Song is a category of typefaces used to display

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

s, which are used in the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and Korean languages. They are currently the most common style of type in print for Chinese and Japanese.

Name

The names ''Song'' (or ''Sung'') and ''Ming'' correspond to the Song Dynasty when a distinctive printed style of regular script was developed, and the Ming Dynasty during which that style developed into the Ming typeface style.Kinkido Type Laboratory - Home
→ ●知る: 漢字書体 In Mainland China, the most common name is ''Song'' (the Mainland Chinese standardized Ming typeface in Microsoft Windows being named ''SimSun''). In Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, ''Ming'' is prevalent. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, “''Song'' typeface” () has been used but “''Ming'' typeface” () has increased currency since the advent of desktop publishing. Some type foundries use "Song" to refer to this style of typeface that follows a standard such as the

Standard Form of National Characters The ''Standard Form of National Characters'' or the ''Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters'' () is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Lists There are three lists o ...

, and “Ming” to refer to typefaces that resemble forms found in the

Kangxi dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

. * Chinese: ; Jyutping: Sung3tai2/Ming4tai2 * Japanese: ; rōmaji: Minchōtai * Korean: ** Hangul: ; Hanja: ; Revised Romanization: Myeongjoche ** Hangul: ; Hanja: ; Revised Romanization: Batangche

Characteristics

Characteristics of Ming typefaces include the following: * The basic structure of regular script * Thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes * Triangles at the end of single horizontal strokes, called (, literally "fish scales") in Japanese, comparable to

serif In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...

s. These are a print analog of the slight dot caused by pausing one's brush ( ), the "pause technique", used to reinforce the beginning or ending of a stroke, which is characteristic of regular script. * Overall geometrical regularity Possessing variable line weight and characteristic decorations at the end of lines similar to

s, this type style is comparable to Western serif typefaces, as opposed to

East Asian gothic typeface In the East Asian writing system, gothic typefaces (; ja, ゴシック体, goshikku-tai; ko, 돋움, dotum, ''godik-che'') are a type style characterized by strokes of even thickness and lack of decorations akin to sans serif In typogr ...

s which are comparable to Western sans-serif.

Variations

Often there are different ways to write the same Chinese character; these are collectively referred to as variant Chinese characters. Some of the differences are caused by character simplification, while others are purely orthographic differences such as stroke styling. The styling of the strokes used in old Ming typefaces came from the style used in the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

''. In mainland China, the modern standardized character forms are specified in the '' List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese''. Some characters in the list differ from the Kangxi forms solely because they are Simplified while others differ because they use a different variant or orthography. In Taiwan, the

specifies the modern standardized forms. Unlike the mainland standard, the Taiwan standard uses mostly preexisting character forms but reference back to the style of regular script and reform Ming typefaces based on regular script style extensively, which had attracted criticism from many peoples. After the postwar kanji reforms in Japan, most of the Kangxi style characters were called (old style), while the reformed characters were called , causing newer dictionaries to either incorporate both styles or omit the Kangxi styles. In Korea, most typefaces use the Kangxi forms. There are differences between print and script forms of many Chinese characters, just as there are differences between copperplate and most people's handwriting. Some of these differences are persistent and specific to a style, but others may be no more significant than variations between individual typefaces. None of these variations usually hinder reading.

History

China

The

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...

industry from the Tang Dynasty reached an apex in the Song Dynasty, during which there were three major areas of production: * Zhejiang, where publications imitated the regular script of

Ouyang Xun Ouyang Xun (; 557–641), courtesy name Xinben (), was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, and writer of the early Tang dynasty. He was born in Hunan, Changsha, to a family of government officials; and died in modern Anhui province. Achievements ...

* Sichuan, where publications imitated the regular script of Yan Zhenqing * Fujian, where publications imitated the regular script of Liu Gongquan When Song lost control of northern China to the Jin (金) dynasty, its capital was moved to

Lin'an Linan or Lin'an may refer to the following locations in China: *Hangzhou (), formerly named Lin'an () in the Song Dynasty **Lin'an District (), a district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Towns and Townships * Linan, Fujian, a town in Xianyou County, Fujian ...

(modern Hangzhou), where there was a revival of printing, especially literature from Tang left in what was conquered by the Jin Dynasty. Many publishers were established in Lin'an, including ''Chén zhái shūjí pù'' () established by Chen Qi (), from which publications used a distinct style of regular script with orderly, straight strokes. Modern typefaces of this style are classified as

imitation Song typeface Imitation Song is a style of Chinese typefaces modeled after a type style in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. They are technically a type of regular script typeface. It is the standard typeface used in official government documents texts in ...

s (). In the Ming Dynasty, the straightening of strokes in a reprint of a publication from Lin'an started a shift to what became the basis of the Ming style. File:浙江姓解1.jpeg, A page of a publication from Zhejiang in a regular script typeface which resembles the handwriting of

. File:菊澗小集終頁.jpg, A page of a publication from ''Chén zhái shūjí pù''.

Japan

are the most commonly used style in print in Japan. There are several variations in use, such as the textbook style and the newspaper style. The creator of modern Japanese movable-type printing, Motoki Shōzō (or Motogi), modeled his sets of type after those prevailing in China, having learned an electrolytic method of type manufacturing from the American William Gamble in 1869. Motoki then created, based on Gamble's frequency studies of characters in the Chinese Bible, a full set of type with added Japanese characters; in addition to Chinese and Latin characters, Japanese text uses the syllabaries hiragana and

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fro ...

Korea

In Korean, a similar category of typefaces for the Korean alphabet hangul was called ''myeongjo'' (the Korean reading for the same Chinese characters "") until recently, influenced by the Japanese term. A Ministry of Culture-sponsored standardization of typography terms in 1993 replaced ''myeongjo'' with ''batang'' (""), the Korean word for “foundation” or “ground” (as opposed to “figure”), and is the current term for the typeface.

Ming typefaces in computing

Technically, only

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

can be printed in a Ming typeface. However, most modern typefaces (that is, digital typefaces) often also include kana glyphs in a matching style, usually in a precise style resembling handwriting with a brush. Modern Ming typefaces also incorporate Roman type glyphs for Latin characters, letterlike symbols, and numbers. In its modern role comparable to that of western serif typefaces, both kana and Latin characters are usually part of a complete typeface. Ming typefaces are used officially by the government of China, Japan and Korea.

References

External links

/nowiki> Fonts]typefaces included with Mac OS and Windows
differences between some Ming typefaces
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ming (Typeface) Chinese-language computing Chinese type styles