Ming (typefaces)

The Ming font (Chinese明 体/明 体, pinyin Míngtǐ ) or Song Font ( Chinese宋体/宋体, Pinyin Sòngtǐ ) or Minchōtai (Japanese明朝 体) or Batang ( Kor. 바탕체 ) is a font for the representation of Chinese characters. It is the most widely used font in the pressure of the Chinese, Japanese and Korean -speaking world.

Term

The name of the font refer to the two different dynasties in China, the Song Dynasty (宋朝, Song Chao, 960-1279 ), in which it was created, and the Ming Dynasty (明朝Ming Chao, 1368-1644 ), in which it has been popular. The Japanese name Mincho Minchōtai (明朝 体) is the Japanese pronunciation of the characters. The suffix体/体tǐ, or tai refers to a font.

Features

The font has inter alia the following properties:

  • Thick vertical strokes as opposed to thin horizontal strokes
  • Triangular ornaments at the end of a single horizontal stroke (Japanese鳞uroko )
  • General geometric regularity

Due to the different line thickness and the decorations at the end of the lines can compare this font with Latin serif fonts. The equivalent would be grotesque to the Japanese Gothic fonts (ゴシック 体Goshikku -tai ).

History

China

The pressure grew for the first time in China during the Song Dynasty. At that time, printed on horizontally grained wood because it was easier that way, to carve horizontal lines, these lines were thin. Vertical lines, however, were to carve with more effort and were so thick.

Only in the Ming Dynasty, when funding became more expensive, the price of the wood, the Ming font was popular because it was to carve smaller than the other designs, the regular script.

Japan

In Japanese, also Hiragana, Katakana and the Latin alphabet, in addition to the Chinese characters used. In Japan, there are several variants of the Mincho font, such as the textbook writing (教科书 体Kyōkashotai ) or newspaper style.

Korea

A similar font for Korean Hangul was until recently myeongjo (After the Korean reading of明朝: 명조체 ) called. After a standardization of typographic expression in 1993 the name was replaced by Batang.

  • Font
  • Chinese Writing
Korean language
573778
de