Traditional Chinese · Hei (sans serif)黑體
IBM Plex Sans TC
IBM Plex Sans TC is a free Hei font for Traditional Chinese by IBM, on GitHub. It draws 17,702 Chinese characters, and the English alphabet, in 7 weights, 100–700.
天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
01 / Characters
Characters of everyday words
The characters Chinese readers learn first, set in IBM Plex Sans TC.
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
7 weights
100–700
- Thin · 100天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- 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
- Bold · 700天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
04 / Facts
What it covers
- Characters
- 17,702
- More than the 13,053 of Big5, the standard set
- Set
- Traditional
- As Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau write
- Weights
- 7
- 100–700
- Vertical text
- Yes
- Vertical forms of its own, OpenType’s vert
- Font file
- 5.2 MB
- Its Regular, from its maker’s repository
- Licence
- OFL 1.1
- Free for commercial use
Designed by IBM and published on GitHub, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
LatinIt draws the English alphabet too, as in its name:IBM Plex Sans TC
- Noto Sans TC17,681 characters9 weights
- Noto Sans HK17,681 characters9 weights
- Chocolate Classical Sans31,695 characters1 weight (400)
- Chiron Hei HK31,662 characters8 weights
- LXGW Marker Gothic13,170 characters1 weight (400)
- GenYo Gothic TW30,019 characters6 weights
All 47 Chinese fonts →The Hei fonts for Simplified Chinese →Japanese, Chinese and Korean fonts →
06 / Questions
Questions about IBM Plex Sans TC
Answered from its licence and its font file
Is IBM Plex Sans TC free for commercial use?
Yes. IBM Plex Sans TC 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 IBM Plex Sans TC?
FontKind doesn’t host IBM Plex Sans TC’s files: it comes free from IBM’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 IBM Plex Sans TC Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Traditional: IBM Plex Sans TC draws the Traditional forms written in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, 17,702 characters in all. For the other set, see the Hei fonts for Simplified Chinese.
How do I use IBM Plex Sans TC on a website?
IBM Plex Sans TC’s font file is large for a web page: 5.2 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 IBM Plex Sans TC set vertical text?
Yes: IBM Plex Sans TC’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 IBM Plex Sans TC in a game or an app?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License lets you build IBM Plex Sans TC 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 IBM Plex Sans TC have?
IBM Plex Sans TC comes in seven weights, from Thin (100) to Bold (700).
Does IBM Plex Sans TC have English letters?
Yes: IBM Plex Sans TC draws all 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Chinese and English can stay in one font.
Who designed IBM Plex Sans TC?
IBM Plex Sans TC was designed by IBM.
What fonts are similar to IBM Plex Sans TC?
The most used Traditional Chinese Hei fonts besides IBM Plex Sans TC are Noto Sans TC, Noto Sans HK and Chocolate Classical Sans. See every Hei font for Traditional Chinese.