Iansui is a free Kai font for Traditional Chinese by But Ko, on Google Fonts since 2024. It draws 10,342 Chinese characters, and the English alphabet, in one weight (400).
天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
01 / Characters
Characters of everyday words
The characters Chinese readers learn first, set in Iansui.
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 / Facts
What it covers
- Characters
- 10,342
- More than Big5’s 5,401 everyday characters
- Set
- Traditional
- As Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau write
- Weights
- 1
- One weight, Regular (400)
- Vertical text
- Yes
- Vertical forms of its own, OpenType’s vert
- Font file
- 9.0 MB
- Its Regular: Google serves it in slices
- Licence
- OFL 1.1
- Free for commercial use
Designed by But Ko. On Google Fonts since 2024, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
LatinIt draws the English alphabet too, as in its name:Iansui
- LXGW WenKai TC17,885 characters3 weights
- LXGW WenKai Mono TC17,885 characters3 weights
- Bpmf Zihi Kai Std13,436 characters1 weight (400)
- Bpmf Iansui8,371 characters1 weight (400)
- Naikai Font28,643 characters5 weights
All 47 Chinese fonts →The Kai fonts for Simplified Chinese →Japanese, Chinese and Korean fonts →
05 / Questions
Questions about Iansui
Answered from its licence and its font file
Is Iansui free for commercial use?
Yes. Iansui 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 Iansui?
FontKind doesn’t host Iansui’s files: it comes free from Google Fonts . On its page there, choose Get font, then Download all, and unzip the file: it holds a single font file. On Windows or a Mac, double-click each font file and choose Install, then restart any app that was open.
Is Iansui Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Traditional: Iansui draws the Traditional forms written in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, 10,342 characters in all. For the other set, see the Kai fonts for Simplified Chinese.
How do I use Iansui on a website?
Through Google Fonts: its stylesheet cuts Iansui into about a hundred small files by character, and a browser downloads only those holding the characters a page shows, never the whole 9.0 MB Regular file. To host it yourself, 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 Iansui set vertical text?
Yes: Iansui’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 Iansui in a game or an app?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License lets you build Iansui 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 Iansui have?
Iansui comes in one weight, Regular (400). Ask for bold and most apps thicken the letters themselves: a faux bold, not a drawn one.
Does Iansui have English letters?
Yes: Iansui draws all 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Chinese and English can stay in one font.
Who designed Iansui?
Iansui was designed by But Ko. It has been on Google Fonts since November 2024.
What fonts are similar to Iansui?
The most used Traditional Chinese Kai fonts besides Iansui are LXGW WenKai TC, LXGW WenKai Mono TC and Bpmf Zihi Kai Std. See every Kai font for Traditional Chinese.