Chinese typefaces/calligraphy:
We study the typographic styles of the West and translate these into their equivalent style for use in the East!
Chinese or Japanese typography may not always be the same as Roman, eg Tate Chu Yoko and Wari-Chu apply to Chinese and Japanese. The Roman ellipsis is three dots (…) whereas the Chinese one is six dots (……). There are differences in either way!
There is a wide range of Chinese typefaces available, but the same typeface varies between font supplier. Therefore, the possibility of misalignment or inaccuracies could occur when Roman and Chinese setting is mixed, eg baseline, unless known and set by skilled compositors, typesetters, typographers or graphic designers may vary.
It is not always possible to match Chinese typefaces to all Roman, but there are certain rules which apply, such as Sans Serif or Serifs, Script and Old Classic…etc.
Choosing and recognizing typefaces
To be able to choose the appropriate typeface for the job, one must first know something about how typefaces are constructed and classified.
Each face has its own personality, and typefaces are described by typographers in the same hallowed tones used by connoisseurs to talk about wine. Garamond is said to be quiet; Bodoni sparkles. [Claude Garamond (1480–1561), a Parisian publisher, leading type designer].
Each has its place in the graphic designer's toolkit: for a bank's annual report, for example, you may wish to use a well established "classic" face like Garamond to convey tradition and solidity; a music magazine aimed at young people will look better with a fashionable type like Futura. Some typefaces are chosen for practical reasons. Newspapers tend to use faces with large x-heights and open counters, because the ink spread on low grade paper would fill in less robust faces.
Serif or Sans Serif?
The most obvious distinguishing feature of a typeface is whether it has a serif or not. Serifs are marks or flourishes around the extremities of letters, on the baseline and at the top, usually at right angles to the direction of the stroke. They help to make type more readable, and take several different forms: bracketed, with a smooth curved "fillet" between the serif and tem; slab, with sharper corners and almost the same thickness as the stem; hairline; or wedge. Take the following examples from the Goudy Old Style font. First an example of Serif type:
A typeface without serifs is called sans serif, or just sans, and looks like:
Other issues include Earmarks, Text typography, Readability and Legibility. Take a look at the range of our Chinese typefaces in PDF format.
Chinese character and Roman alphabet word formation
Roman letters form words and can be hyphenated when reaching the end of a line. On the other hand, in order to accommodate the wording, you need to know where in the language or word, you should break the Chinese character to the next line and when it should be kept together. See the illustration below.
The colour-coded Chinese texts indicate which characters need to be positioned next to each other to form words. Those highlighted as a block of colour also indicate that the characters all need to be kept together as it is the same word and therefore should not be split over two lines.
Horizontal writing scripts justified left and left align summaries
Generally, traditional horizontal Chinese publication is set to justified left with two character spaces at the beginning of a new paragraph. Nowadays, it could sometimes not follow the rules and types are arranged by following the actual design or layout.
For justified left contexts that strictly follow the traditional setting will normally need to edit the texts to get it correct. This could be very time consuming. For left align, on the other hand, it is easier to adjust.
Conclusion:
Typesetting, choosing an appropriate Chinese typeface is only one of the key issues! The real devil is in the detail — the need to study, understand the language structure and know HOW TYPE is ARRANGED and CALCULATED! For example, all languages may have the same meaning, yet, could be wrongly expressed when the culture is different. Typesetting is the same theory. A poorly done job could last longer than the thrill of a bargain!
For type to remain consistent within a document, our typesetters will complete a style sheet or type specification before starting a job. This will define the size, typeface, and measure of the body type, captions, headlines, and so on, to ensure that we always provide the best results for you.