Ming (scripture)

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The word Minchōtai in a Japanese Ming font

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

term

The names of the script refer to the two different dynasties in China, the Song Dynasty ( 宋朝 , sòng cháo , 960–1279), in which it was created, and the Ming Dynasty ( 明朝 , míng cháo , 1368–1644 ) where it became popular. The Japanese name Minchō Minchōtai ( 明朝 体 ) is the Japanese pronunciation of the characters. The suffix 體  /  体 , tǐ or tai denote a font.

features

The font has the following properties, among others:

• Thick vertical bars as opposed to thin horizontal bars
• Triangular decorations at the end of a single horizontal line (jap. 鱗 uroko )
• General geometric regularity

Due to the different line widths and the decorations at the end of the lines, this font can be compared with Latin serif fonts. The equivalent of grotesques would be the Japanese Gothic fonts ( ゴ シ ッ ク 体 Goshikku-tai ).

history

China

Use of a Ming font in a historical text

Printing first developed in China during the Song Dynasty . At that time, horizontally grained wood was used for printing, as it was easier to carve horizontal lines this way, these lines became thin. Vertical lines, on the other hand, could only be carved with more effort and so became thicker.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty , when the price of wood became more expensive, that the Ming font became more popular because it was smaller to carve than the other fonts such as the regular script .

Japan

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

Korea

A similar script for the Korean Hangeul was called myeongjo (after the Korean reading of 明朝 : 명조체 ) until recently . After a standardization of typographical expressions in 1993, the name was replaced by Batang .