The Song script () or Ming script () is a category of serifed typefaces used to display Chinese family of scripts such as traditional and simplified Chinese characters as well as their borrowed (e.g. Japanese kanji and Korean hanja) and radical-derived relatives (e.g. katagana). First invented during the Song dynasty and matured during the Ming dynasty, they are currently the most common printing and text display/editing fonts for Chinese and Japanese language publications.
The former term "Song" is the official terminology used in Mainland China, while the latter "Ming" is used prominently in Taiwan and Hong Kong and is a loanword from post-restoration Japan, as the typefaces are commonly called Mincho tai (Hiragana: ) and Myeongjo che (Hangul: ) — both literally translate to "Ming dynasty font" — respectively in Japanese and Korean texts.
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. 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 traditionally used, but "Ming typeface" () has gained popularity since the advent of desktop publishing (the Traditional Chinese standardized Ming typeface in Microsoft Windows being named MingLiU). Some type foundries use "Song" to refer to this style of typeface that follows a standard such as the Standard Form of National Characters, and "Ming" to refer to typefaces that resemble forms found in the Kangxi Dictionary.
Characteristics
Characteristics of Ming typefaces include the following:
- The basic structure of regular script, with overall geometrical regularity
- Thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes
- Triangular serifs at the end of horizontal strokes, called in Japanese, comparable to many Western typefaces. These are a print analog of the bulged end () caused by the writer briefly pausing the ink brush to reinforce the beginning or ending of a stroke, which is characteristic of handwriting the regular script and the calligraphic semi-cursive script (In contrast, the gothic typefaces, commonly seen on road signs in China, have neatly squared stroke ends similar 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.
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 Standard Form of National Characters 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 industry from the Tang dynasty reached an apex in the Song dynasty,