What are some varied, free web fonts good for Hiragana and Katakana
February 3, 2023 11:17 AM Subscribe
For helping people learn Japanese characters I'd like to add the option to show them in some varied fonts. But I don't know much about which fonts/styles would be most useful.
Years ago, when I was failing to learn Japanese, I made a simple site for testing your knowledge of hiragana and katakana. It still works, although I'm no longer learning, and know little about Japan myself.
One user recently suggested adding the option to display the characters in different fonts, because this can make them look very different. It would be useful to learn with these different appearances. I'd like to add this, with a small number of fonts, but I'd like to choose the most useful ones.
So, I'm looking for a handful of web fonts that are free, and are representative of the styles that would appear in different kinds of media in Japan. I'm not sure where to start, given I don't consume any Japanese media. Any thoughts from those of you who do?
Years ago, when I was failing to learn Japanese, I made a simple site for testing your knowledge of hiragana and katakana. It still works, although I'm no longer learning, and know little about Japan myself.
One user recently suggested adding the option to display the characters in different fonts, because this can make them look very different. It would be useful to learn with these different appearances. I'd like to add this, with a small number of fonts, but I'd like to choose the most useful ones.
So, I'm looking for a handful of web fonts that are free, and are representative of the styles that would appear in different kinds of media in Japan. I'm not sure where to start, given I don't consume any Japanese media. Any thoughts from those of you who do?
Google has several if that will work for you - narrow the language selection to 'Japanese'
Google Fonts- Japanese
posted by matcha action at 1:45 PM on February 3, 2023
Google Fonts- Japanese
posted by matcha action at 1:45 PM on February 3, 2023
Best answer: Sorry, on rereading I think I didn't answer your question -- it's been a while since I've read very much writing in Japanese but to my eyes, from that list something like Zen Old Mincho looks like a fairly typical choice you might see in a manga (although now that I'm thinking about it I'm not sure if manga are hand-lettered or if they use a font), with maybe something like Zen Antique and a sans-serif like Noto Sans Japanese as alternates that you might see on signs or in a magazine article
posted by matcha action at 1:56 PM on February 3, 2023
posted by matcha action at 1:56 PM on February 3, 2023
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Not web fonts but maybe a place to start searching from
posted by okonomichiyaki at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2023