• Free Chinese Font Download
• Chinese Font For Windows 10
• Traditional Chinese Fonts For Mac Computers
• Free Chinese Fonts For Windows

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(traditional) Zi Ku Tang Hai Zang Kai Ti Font Details Zi Ku Tang Hai Zang Kai Ti (字酷堂海藏楷体) is a calligraphy Chinese font that you can download for free. The characters are in traditional Chinese but the character.

Discover and customize the font Chinese Calligraphy and other similar fonts, ready to share in Facebook and Twitter. Typographic info for the SimSun font family. Licensing and redistribution info. Font redistribution FAQ for Windows; License Microsoft fonts for enterprises, web developers, for hardware & software redistribution or server installations. A sans serif typeface with 7 styles, available from Adobe Fonts for sync and web use. Adobe Fonts is the easiest way to bring great type into your workflow, wherever you are. For information regarding other uses of Source Han Sans Traditional Chinese, see copyright and license details for Source Han Sans TW ExtraLight, Source Han Sans TW. Chinese Fonts free download - Script and Calligraphy Fonts, Fonts Manager, NJStar Chinese Word Processor, and many more programs.

Script Basics

The Chinese script is a logographic script structured so that each character
represents a single concept; characters are then combined
to form compound words.
Note: The script does also have a phonetic component.

Although there are several distinct varieties (or 'dialects') spoken in China including Mandarin and Cantonese (Hong Kong),they can all read many of the same 'written words' because the script is more based on meaning, not on sound.

See the links below for more information

Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Pinyin

There are several variants of the the Chinese script used in different contexts.

1. Chinese Traditional is the older form of the script and is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other locations outside of China, including various 'Chinatowns' in the West. Chinese Traditional characters are more complex and more numerous.
2. Chinese Simplified was developed in Mainland China (and adopted in Singapore) as a way of simplifying the older system in order to increase literacy. As part of the of the simplification, several Traditional characters were collapsed into one character in Simplified. Although it is relatively easy to convert from Chinese Traditional to Chinese Simplified, the reverse is not always true. As a result, most systems support both Traditional and Simplified Chinese in parallel.
3. Pinyin is the term used to refer to the system of writing Chinese words in the Latin (English) alphabet. This was developed in the 1950’s in Mainland China to help increase literacy.

Example Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese

The table below shows how the name for Mandarin Chinese changes between scripts and even nationalities. Note though that the characters in the form from China are the same in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

Language/Dialects

See the Other Language/Dialects section for information on forms like Cantonese and Wu.

Test Sites

If you have your browser configured correctly, the Web sites above should display the correct characters. If you have difficulties, see list below for font and browser configuration instructions.

• Simplified Chinese – BBC News Chinese Language
• Traditional Chinese – Yahoo Taiwan News

If these sites are not displaying correctly, see the Browser Setup page for set up information.

Font Recommendations

Both Windows and Mac (and mobile platforms) provide a set of Japanese fonts, but more decorative versions may be found through font vendors or font download sites.

Traditional Chinese Fonts by Platform

• Windows – MingLiU, PMingLiU, Microsoft JhengHei
• Mac OS X – AppleLiGothiic Medium, Li Hei Pro, Apple LiSung, BiauKai, LiSongPro
• Mac System 9 – Taipei, others

Simplified Chinese Fonts by Platform

• Windows – SimSun, NSimSun, SimHei, Microsoft YaHei, others
• Mac OS X – Hei, STHeiti Light and Regular, STFangsong, STKaiti, STSong, Kai
• Mac System 9 – Beijing, others

Activate Input/Typing Utilities

Different Input Options

In Windows, Macintosh/iOS and Droid, input options for both Simplified and Traditional Chinese are available.

You can also activate different input options for each script. Typical options include

• Phonetic/Pinyin – Users can type a syllable in pinyin and then select the correct character.
• By Radical/Stroke – This allows a user to search and enter characters by radical or stroke forms.
• Handwriting – Some systems allow users to write a character on a trackpad.
• Additional standards may be supported.

Activate Input Utilities (Windows and Mac)

Yabla How to type Chinese using Pinyin gives detailed instructions for activating Chinese pinyin input on both Windows and Macintosh as well as iPhone and Droid.

You can also view generic documentation for

Tone Marks in Pinyin

Macintosh

If you activate the Extended (ABC) Keyboard on the Macintosh, the following codes allow you to type different accent codes.

Windows

A more limited set of accent codes are if the Windows International keyboard is activated. The long mark (macron) is not available there.

Web Development

Historical Encodings

Unicode (utf-8) which corresponds to GB18030 (mandated in the People’s Republic of China) is the preferred encoding for Web sites, but the following older encodings may be encountered.

• Use Unicode (utf-8) whenever possible
• Simplified Chinese Historic Encodings:gb18030, gb2312, gbk, Others
• Traditional Chinese Historic Encodings:big5, euc-tw, Others

Language Tags

Language Tags allow browsers and other software to process Chinese text more efficiently. Below are the recommended codes for different scripts

• Chinese:zh (the most generic tag, but rarely used)
• Mandarin Chinese, Simplified Script: zh-Hans is preferred, but zh-CN may be found on older sites.
• Mandarin Chinese, Traditional Script: zh-Hant or zh-Hant-TW (Taiwan) is preferred zh-TW
• Pinyin (Mandarin):zh-Latn-pinyin for Mandarin. If the text is not Mandarin,use one the dialect codes below.
• Cantonese (Hong Kong):zh-HK

Vertical Text

See the Vertical Text page for information on vertical Chinese text

Other Chinese Languages/Dialects

About Chinese Dialects/Sinitic Languages

Different regions of China speak in varieties which are traditionally called 'dialects', but they are so far apart that spealers from different regions may not understand each other. Linguists usually consider these dialects to be separate related languages and sometimes use the term 'Sintic languages'.

The standard form of modern spoken Chinese is called Mandarin Chinese, but other forms include Cantonese/Yue (Hong Kong), Wu (Shanghai) and Hakka.

Language Codes

For these varieties, there are currently two standards available, the IANA standard which adds 'variety' tags to the base zh tag or the SIL ISO-639-3 standard which treats dialects as separate languages.

Note: A — indicates no IANA or ISO-639-3 code registered.

* Min includes Fuzhou, Hokkein, Amoy, Taiwanese

Script and Language Tag

Most non-Mandarin Chinese documents are written in either Traditional Chinese (or Simplified Chinese with additional characters), pinyin or some other Western phonetic form. To distinguish the forms, one can use a script tags like wuu-Latn-pinyin (Wu Chinese in pinyin) or wuu-Hant (Wu Chinese in Traditional Chinese)

Links on Chinese Dialects

• China Language Com – Out of Singapore. Detailed information in Hakka and Cantonese

Links

Chinese Computing

Windows

• Pinyin Joe – Includes updates on Windows 7 and Windows Vista
• How to display and edit Chinese on English Windows systems – includes e-mail, Dreamweaver, etc.
• Chinese Windows How To – Initial Setup instructions

Macintosh

Mobile

• Chinese How To: Smartphones – Includes Droid, Blackberry, Windows, iOS

Linux/Unix

• Pinyin Joe – Includes updates on Ubuntu Linux
• Linux Chinese How To – Guide to Linux set up and common Linux/Unix problems. Out of Taiwan.
• www.linux.org.tw – In Chinese

Chinese Language

Script Basics

Chinese Dialects

• China Language Com – Out of Singapore. Detailed information in Hakka and Cantonese

Web Development Tips

• Reading and Writing Chinese Characters and Pinyin on the Web Using Unicode – Tips for writing Chinese text in Unicode.
• Creating
  Chinese Web Pages (Chinese Computing) – Covers general guidelines

Technical Issues

• Encodings on Chinese Web Pages – part of a PHP tutorial

Unicode and Multilingual File Conversion, Font and Keyboard Utilities for Macintosh OS X Computers

Introduction

Mac OS X 10 did not originally include support for as many languages and scripts as Mac OS 9. Mac OS X 10.1 supported Central European, Cyrillic and Japanese, and Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese were made available as downloads. Mac OS X 10.2 introduced support for Arabic, Devanagari, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew and Thai scripts. Mac OS X 10.3 introduced support for Armenian, Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and Cherokee scripts.

Character Palette

Character Palette is a character map for Unicode 3.2 (including supplementary planes) that is supplied with Mac OS X 10.2. It is available on the Keyboard menu, not in the Applications folder. Character Palette can arrange characters by Unicode range, or display them in a table. It can show you a catalogue of the characters in a font, and a list of the fonts that contain a selected character. Characters can be inserted into another application by double-clicking them, or by dragging them, or by selecting them and then clicking the “Insert” button.

Yi Syllables from NSimSun-18030, in Character Palette under Mac OS X

Character Palette can also display Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese by radical or by category.

CharView

CharView is a utility that allows you to select Unicode characters from a tabular display and insert them into a document. It is activated by clicking the “C” at the top left of the screen (or a small floating icon). The characters are displayed in a series of tables, with an option to restrict the characters to those in a particular Mac encoding. Pointing at a character enlarges it and displays its hexadecimal code points. The size of the window can be changed by dragging its bottom right corner, and this also zooms the characters.

Latin Extended-B and IPA characters from Gentium, in CharView under Mac OS X

There is an option to insert characters in HTML as numeric character references (e.g. ™).

CharView is produced by ALX Software and costs US $10 to register. More information and an unregistered version (in which not all characters can be selected) are available from the CharView Web page.

Cyclone

Cyclone is a utility that can convert plain text files to and from a variety of Unicode, ISO, Windows, Macintosh and DOS encodings. It is basically a user interface for the Text Encoding Converter (TEC) that is part of the Mac OS X operating system.

For more information and to download a free copy, go to the Cyclone Web site. Cyclone is produced by Tomasz Kukielka.

FontChecker

FontChecker is a utility that allows you to see all of the BMP Unicode characters in any font that works with Mac OS X, including OpenType fonts and the new Data Fork Suitcase fonts. For each character, the Unicode name and HTML, decimal, hexadecimal and UTF-8 codes are displayed. Characters can be dragged into documents in other programs, in either Unicode or UTF-8 encoding.

The Show Font Info... item on the Font menu shows you where the font file is located, and how many characters are present in each Unicode range. Double-click a range, and FontChecker will show you the characters.

FontChecker is shareware, and registration costs US $15.00. For more information and to download a copy, go to the WunderMoosen Mac OS X Products page.

Font Explorer

Font Explorer is a utility that allows you to see all of the BMP Unicode characters in any font that works with Mac OS X, including OpenType fonts and the new Data Fork Suitcase fonts. Single characters and text strings can be copied and pasted into other applications.

Font Explorer is produced by Alexandre Trottier and is freeware. For more information and to download a copy, go to the EasySoft Creations Web site.

Language Kits

Apple does not supply Language Kits for Mac OS X 10, but for some purposes it requires Mac OS 9 Language Kits to be installed. These allow you to view and (in some cases) edit text in WorldScript-aware applications from one or more of the following language families: Arabic (Arabic or Persian), Cyrillic (Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian), Central European (Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak), Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

The Language Kits install fonts, when Mac OS X detects a compatible font from one of the Language Kits it activates a Script Bundle that adds a keyboard and/or extra fonts.

PopChar X

PopChar X is a utility that allows you to select Unicode characters from a tabular display and insert them into a document. It does not show in the dock, and does not have its own title bar; it is activated by clicking the “P” at the top left of the screen. Clicking the “U” button switches PopChar X into Unicode mode. The characters are displayed in their Unicode ranges. Pointing at a character displays its decimal and hexadecimal code points.

Greek and Cyrillic characters from Lucida Grande, in PopChar X under Mac OS X

There is a menu to allow you to move to any of the supported Unicode ranges.

Unicode range menu in PopChar X, under Mac OS X

There is also an HTML mode, that inserts numeric character references (e.g. ™) or character entity references (e.g. Ø).

PopChar X is produced by Macility and costs US $29 for a single licence. More information and a demonstration version (in which not all characters can be selected) are available from the PopChar X Web page.

Simredo Character Set

Simredo is a Unicode text editor that is written in Java and is intended for use with Windows and Linux, but also runs (with some limitations) under Mac OS X. It includes a Character Set utility (available on the Other Functions menu) that has some cosmetic problems with Mac OS X, but that can display the characters in any font, including Open Type (*.otf) and Data Fork Suitcase (*.dfont) fonts.

Characters from Lucida Grande Data Fork Suitcase font, in Simredo under Mac OS X

The display is divided into 256 pages, each showing 256 positions. The < and > buttons move the display by one page (256 characters); the << and >> buttons move the display by 16 pages (4096 characters).

More information about Simredo and a free download are available from the Simredo 3.3 - Java Unicode Editor Web site.

Free Chinese Font Download

Ukelele

Ukelele provides a graphical interface for creating or modifying Unicode keyboard layout files for Mac OS X 10.2 onwards. It allows you to start from scratch, or to modify an existing keyboard. Characters can be dragged from the Character Palette, or from other programs that can display the characters that you want to use.

Dragging a Deseret character from the Character Palette to a keyboard layout

Chinese Font For Windows 10

More information about Ukelele and a free download are available from the Ukelele — Mac OS X Keyboard Layout Editor Web page.

UnicodeChecker

UnicodeChecker is a utility that provides information about all of the Unicode characters, including the supplementary planes and those characters introduced in version 4. It scans all of the available fonts, and displays the characters for which it finds suitable glyphs. You can search for a character by its name or by its decimal or hexadecimal code point. You can select a Unicode range to display. Characters can be copied or dragged into other applications. You cannot select a font, or view the characters in a particular font.

Characters from the Unicode Gothic range

UnicodeChecker also allows you to identify a character by copying it from another application, pasting it into the Glyph window and pressing Enter.

UnicodeChecker is available for free download from the earthlingsoft Web site.

Unicode Font Info

Unicode Font Info is a character viewer that can show any of the characters in the Unicode BMP for any font that is installed and available to Mac OS X.

Cyrillic characters from Lucida Grande, displayed by Unicode Font Info

The display is divided into 256 pages, each showing 256 positions. From the Navigation window, you can jump to a particular Unicode range or to the next page that contains a character. Characters can be copied from the small Codes window, and pasted into other applications.

Unicode Font Info is produced by Andrew Thompson. More information and a free download are available from the Lord Pixel's Unicode Font Info Web page.

Unicode Keyboards

Unicode Keyboards for Mac is a Web page that generates Unicode-compatible keyboard layout files for Mac OS X 10 (and Mac OS 9). The page gives instructions on the format of the source text that has to be typed or pasted into a text box. Clicking the “Create Resource” button then generates a file that is downloaded to your Mac.

The Web page includes instructions for installing the keyboard layout file.

Unicode Keyboards for Mac is produced by Alex Eulenberg.

Traditional Chinese Fonts For Mac Computers

Free Chinese Fonts For Windows

Copyright © 2001–2004 Alan Wood
Created 26th December 2001 Last updated 23rd December 2004