Japanese gothic typeface 

goshikkutai written in the same font.
Typeface goshikkutai
Category sans serif
Variations Godik-che

Gothic typefaces (Japanese: ゴシック体, Goshikku-tai; Korean: 고딕체; Godik-che) are a type style characterised by strokes of even thickness, reduced curves, and lack of decorations, akin to sans serif styles in Western typography. It is the second most commonly used style of printed Japanese characters, after Minchō.

Contents

Characteristics

Similar to Ming and Song fonts, the Gothic style was designed for printing, but Gothics are also designed for clarity. They are commonly used in headlines, signs, and video applications.

Classifications

The name "Gothic"

In English, Gothic is an outmoded typographic term for sans-serif. It was so named because the type color of early sans serif typefaces were thought to be similar to that of the blackletter or “gothic” script.

The term “gothic” is now rare in English, having been largely replaced by "sans serif", though it is still found in the names of some typefaces such as "Century Gothic". However, it is still the standard term in Japan for typefaces lacking the equivalent of serifs. These additions, seen in Minchō typefaces, are called uroko (fish scales) in Japanese.

In Korean, godik ("gothic") was used to describe sans-serif-like typefaces until recently. Following a Ministry of Culture-sponsored standardization of typographic terms in 1993, the Korean word dodum ("mount", "stand out") was introduced to replace godik and is now the more popular term. (Although Windows Vista now ships with Malgun Gothic font which replaces Dodum and Gulim fonts.)

In Chinese, gothic typefaces are called “Hei” (black); this is probably derived from blackletter in the same way. However, since the adjective "black" in English describes a typeface with heavy font weight, heavy serif typefaces are also called Hei in Chinese, which causes confusion. Coincidentally, SimHei has heavier font weight than MS Gothic, Dotum, Gulim; while Microsoft YaHei is heavier than Microsoft JhengHei and Meiryo, which also serve to perpetuate the misconception. In professional use, bold font is called 'thick' typeface (Chinese: 粗体).

Gothic typefaces in computing

In Japanese computing, the use of gothic typefaces is common, with a number of default system fonts being gothic. Also, many Korean computing environments use Gulim which includes soft curves but is similar to gothic by default. In contrast, many Chinese computing environments use Song (serif) typefaces by default instead.

In Chinese versions of Microsoft Windows, the default interface fonts are seriffed (MingLiU and SimSun), which is not consistent with the sans-serif styling use in most other (including East Asian) regions of the product. Starting in Windows Vista, the default interface fonts in all regions are changed to sans-serif styles, which uses Microsoft JhengHei in traditional Chinese environment, Microsoft YaHei in simplified Chinese environment.

Japanese gothic typefaces commonly seen in computing include:

Chinese gothic typefaces commonly seen in computing include:

Korean gothic typefaces commonly seen in computing include:

Typefaces intended for global language environment include:

See also

External links