GenWan Min TW is a free Song font for Traditional Chinese by ButTaiwan, on GitHub. It draws 29,986 Chinese characters, and the English alphabet, in 5 weights, 200–600. 源雲明體, built on Source Han Serif, in Taiwan's standard character forms.
天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
01 / Characters
Characters of everyday words
The characters Chinese readers learn first, set in GenWan Min TW.
Traditional characters 漢字
Each with its pinyin and meaning
- 永yǒng · eternal
- 天tiān · sky
- 日rì · sun
- 月yuè · moon
- 山shān · mountain
- 水shuǐ · water
- 火huǒ · fire
- 木mù · tree
- 金jīn · gold
- 土tǔ · earth
- 風fēng · wind
- 雲yún · cloud
- 雨yǔ · rain
- 花huā · flower
- 春chūn · spring
- 人rén · person
- 心xīn · heart
- 愛ài · love
- 夢mèng · dream
- 龍lóng · dragon
- 馬mǎ · horse
- 鳥niǎo · bird
- 魚yú · fish
- 飛fēi · fly
- 門mén · gate
- 國guó · country
- 東dōng · east
- 學xué · learn
- 書shū · book
- 字zì · character
02 / Text
As running text
The opening of Lu Xun’s My Old Home (1921), in Traditional characters.
我冒了嚴寒，回到相隔二千餘里，別了二十餘年的故鄉去。時候既然是深冬；漸近故鄉時，天氣又陰晦了，冷風吹進船艙中，嗚嗚的響，從篷隙向外一望，蒼黃的天底下，遠近橫著幾個蕭索的荒村，沒有一些活氣。
我冒了嚴寒，回到相隔二千餘里，別了二十餘年的故鄉去。時候既然是深冬；漸近故鄉時，天氣又陰晦了，冷風吹進船艙中，嗚嗚的響，從篷隙向外一望，蒼黃的天底下，遠近橫著幾個蕭索的荒村，沒有一些活氣。
我冒了嚴寒，回到相隔二千餘里，別了二十餘年的故鄉去。時候既然是深冬；漸近故鄉時，天氣又陰晦了，冷風吹進船艙中，嗚嗚的響，從篷隙向外一望，蒼黃的天底下，遠近橫著幾個蕭索的荒村，沒有一些活氣。
03 / Weights
5 weights
200–600
- ExtraLight · 200天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- Light · 300天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- Regular · 400天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- Medium · 500天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- SemiBold · 600天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
04 / Facts
What it covers
- Characters
- 29,986
- More than the 13,053 of Big5, the standard set
- Set
- Traditional
- As Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau write
- Weights
- 5
- 200–600
- Vertical text
- Yes
- Vertical forms of its own, OpenType’s vert
- Font file
- 21.7 MB
- Its Regular, from its maker’s repository
- Licence
- OFL 1.1
- Free for commercial use
Designed by ButTaiwan and published on GitHub, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
LatinIt draws the English alphabet too, as in its name:GenWan Min TW
- Noto Serif TC17,677 characters8 weights
- Noto Serif HK17,678 characters8 weights
- Cactus Classical Serif54,713 characters1 weight (400)
- Chiron Sung HK31,584 characters8 weights
- UoqMunThenKhung7,932 characters1 weight (400)
- GenYo Min TW29,986 characters7 weights
All 47 Chinese fonts →The Song (Ming) fonts for Simplified Chinese →Japanese, Chinese and Korean fonts →
06 / Questions
Questions about GenWan Min TW
Answered from its licence and its font file
Is GenWan Min TW free for commercial use?
Yes. GenWan Min TW is under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 , which allows commercial use at any scale: print, websites, apps, videos and logos, for clients and in products. What it forbids is selling the font file on its own.
How do I download and install GenWan Min TW?
FontKind doesn’t host GenWan Min TW’s files: it comes free from ButTaiwan’s repository on GitHub . On its repository there, choose Code, then Download ZIP, and unzip the file. On Windows or a Mac, double-click each font file and choose Install, then restart any app that was open.
Is GenWan Min TW Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Traditional: GenWan Min TW draws the Traditional forms written in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, 29,986 characters in all. For the other set, see the Song (Ming) fonts for Simplified Chinese.
How do I use GenWan Min TW on a website?
GenWan Min TW’s font file is large for a web page: 21.7 MB for the Regular file alone. So cut it down to the characters your pages use, a step called subsetting, and serve it as WOFF2: the SIL Open Font License allows that, under a name of your own if the font reserves its name.
Can GenWan Min TW set vertical text?
Yes: GenWan Min TW’s file has vertical forms, the OpenType vert feature, so in a vertical line its commas, full stops and brackets turn and move as they should. On a web page, CSS writing-mode: vertical-rl sets a block vertically; Word, InDesign and Illustrator have vertical text of their own.
Can I use GenWan Min TW in a game or an app?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License lets you build GenWan Min TW into a game, an app or an e-book, sold or free, with no separate licence to buy, as many paid fonts require. Ship its licence with the font files, and don’t sell the font on its own.
How many weights does GenWan Min TW have?
GenWan Min TW comes in five weights: ExtraLight (200), Light (300), Regular (400), Medium (500) and SemiBold (600).
Does GenWan Min TW have English letters?
Yes: GenWan Min TW draws all 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Chinese and English can stay in one font.
Who designed GenWan Min TW?
GenWan Min TW was designed by ButTaiwan.
What fonts are similar to GenWan Min TW?
The most used Traditional Chinese Song fonts besides GenWan Min TW are Noto Serif TC, Noto Serif HK and Cactus Classical Serif. See every Song (Ming) font for Traditional Chinese.