Take time to understand the text before you design it. While by no means comprehensive, this primer should help Western designers avoid stealing too many Japanese sheep. In Part Two of this series, I will address additional type issues, including analphabetic glyphs and the role of English in Japanese design. In this first installment, I will discuss basic typeface classification and white-space characteristics, explain some of the options and limitations of web-based Japanese typography, and make a few suggestions for creating attractive, legible type.
#WHAT LANGUAGE IS MS GOTHIC FONT SERIES#
This two-part series offers a primer on Japanese typography for Western-trained designers. Some typographic parameters that we’ve manipulated to great effect are no longer available, but are replaced by exciting new ones.
Many of the typographic rules we’ve learned and broken must be restated or discarded as irrelevant. Japanese typography, especially for the web, can induce a similar experience for Western-trained designers. Neither is particularly flattering or accurate, but they reflect the disorienting and uncanny similarities with and differences from their own culture that provide years of surprise for even the most jaded expatriate. I’ve heard foreigners compare their first experience in Japan to everything from Disneyworld to The Planet of the Apes. Technology and approaches change quickly so some of the information and ideas expressed here may be out of date. This article was originally published in 2004.
0 kommentar(er)
