Traditional Chinese · Hei (sans serif)黑體
Noto Sans HK
Noto Sans HK is a free Hei font for Traditional Chinese by Google, on Google Fonts since 2019. It draws 17,681 Chinese characters, and the English alphabet, in 9 weights, 100–900. The same design as Adobe's Source Han Sans HC, which Adobe and Google drew together.
天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
01 / Characters
Characters of everyday words
The characters Chinese readers learn first, set in Noto Sans HK.
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
9 weights
100–900 · one variable file
- 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
- ExtraBold · 800天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
- Black · 900天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒
04 / Facts
What it covers
- Characters
- 17,681
- More than the 13,053 of Big5, the standard set
- Set
- Hong Kong
- Traditional, in Hong Kong’s own forms
- Weights
- 9
- 100–900, in one variable file
- Vertical text
- Yes
- Vertical forms of its own, OpenType’s vert
- Font file
- 11.4 MB
- Its variable file: Google serves it in slices
- Licence
- OFL 1.1
- Free for commercial use
Designed by Google. On Google Fonts since 2019, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
LatinIt draws the English alphabet too, as in its name:Noto Sans HK
- Noto Sans TC17,681 characters9 weights
- Chocolate Classical Sans31,695 characters1 weight (400)
- Chiron Hei HK31,662 characters8 weights
- LXGW Marker Gothic13,170 characters1 weight (400)
- IBM Plex Sans TC17,702 characters7 weights
- 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 Noto Sans HK
Answered from its licence and its font file
Is Noto Sans HK free for commercial use?
Yes. Noto Sans HK 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 Noto Sans HK?
FontKind doesn’t host Noto Sans HK’s files: it comes free from Google Fonts . On its page there, choose Get font, then Download all, and unzip the file: it holds one variable file for every weight, and a static folder with a file per weight: install one set or the other, not both. On Windows or a Mac, double-click each font file and choose Install, then restart any app that was open.
Is Noto Sans HK Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Traditional, as Hong Kong writes it: Noto Sans HK follows Hong Kong’s own forms of the characters where they differ from Taiwan’s, 17,681 characters in all. For the other set, see the Hei fonts for Simplified Chinese.
How do I use Noto Sans HK on a website?
Through Google Fonts: its stylesheet cuts Noto Sans HK into about a hundred small files by character, and a browser downloads only those holding the characters a page shows, never the whole 11.4 MB variable 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 Noto Sans HK set vertical text?
Yes: Noto Sans HK’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 Noto Sans HK in a game or an app?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License lets you build Noto Sans HK 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 Noto Sans HK have?
Noto Sans HK comes in nine weights, from Thin (100) to Black (900). Its file is variable: it takes any weight from 100 to 900.
Does Noto Sans HK have English letters?
Yes: Noto Sans HK draws all 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Chinese and English can stay in one font.
Who designed Noto Sans HK?
Noto Sans HK was designed by Google. It has been on Google Fonts since March 2019.
What fonts are similar to Noto Sans HK?
The most used Traditional Chinese Hei fonts besides Noto Sans HK are Noto Sans TC, Chocolate Classical Sans and Chiron Hei HK. See every Hei font for Traditional Chinese.