Zhuque Fangsong is a free Song font for Simplified Chinese by TrionesType, on GitHub. It draws 11,292 Chinese characters, and the English alphabet, in one weight (400). Fangsong, the imitation-Song style of Chinese official documents: Song's structure with slanted strokes.
天地玄黄 宇宙洪荒
01 / Characters
Characters of everyday words
The characters Chinese readers learn first, set in Zhuque Fangsong.
Simplified characters 汉字
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
- 风fēng · wind
- 云yún · cloud
- 雨yǔ · rain
- 花huā · flower
- 春chūn · spring
- 人rén · person
- 心xīn · heart
- 爱ài · love
- 梦mèng · dream
- 龙lóng · dragon
- 马mǎ · horse
- 鸟niǎo · bird
- 鱼yú · fish
- 飞fēi · fly
- 门mén · gate
- 国guó · country
- 东dōng · east
- 学xué · learn
- 书shū · book
- 字zì · character
02 / Text
As running text
The opening of Lu Xun’s My Old Home (1921).
我冒了严寒，回到相隔二千余里，别了二十余年的故乡去。时候既然是深冬；渐近故乡时，天气又阴晦了，冷风吹进船舱中，呜呜的响，从篷隙向外一望，苍黄的天底下，远近横着几个萧索的荒村，没有一些活气。
我冒了严寒，回到相隔二千余里，别了二十余年的故乡去。时候既然是深冬；渐近故乡时，天气又阴晦了，冷风吹进船舱中，呜呜的响，从篷隙向外一望，苍黄的天底下，远近横着几个萧索的荒村，没有一些活气。
我冒了严寒，回到相隔二千余里，别了二十余年的故乡去。时候既然是深冬；渐近故乡时，天气又阴晦了，冷风吹进船舱中，呜呜的响，从篷隙向外一望，苍黄的天底下，远近横着几个萧索的荒村，没有一些活气。
03 / Facts
What it covers
- Characters
- 11,292
- More than the 6,763 of GB 2312, the standard set
- Set
- Simplified
- As mainland China and Singapore write
- Weights
- 1
- One weight, Regular (400)
- Vertical text
- Yes
- Vertical forms of its own, OpenType’s vert
- Font file
- 8.4 MB
- Its Regular, from its maker’s repository
- Licence
- OFL 1.1
- Free for commercial use
Designed by TrionesType and published on GitHub, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
LatinIt draws the English alphabet too, as in its name:Zhuque Fangsong
05 / Questions
Questions about Zhuque Fangsong
Answered from its licence and its font file
Is Zhuque Fangsong free for commercial use?
Yes. Zhuque Fangsong 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 Zhuque Fangsong?
FontKind doesn’t host Zhuque Fangsong’s files: it comes free from TrionesType’s repository on GitHub . Open its release there and download the font files. On Windows or a Mac, double-click each font file and choose Install, then restart any app that was open.
Is Zhuque Fangsong Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Simplified: Zhuque Fangsong draws the Simplified forms written in mainland China and Singapore, 11,292 characters in all. For the other set, see the Song (Ming) fonts for Traditional Chinese.
How do I use Zhuque Fangsong on a website?
Zhuque Fangsong’s font file is large for a web page: 8.4 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 Zhuque Fangsong set vertical text?
Yes: Zhuque Fangsong’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 Zhuque Fangsong in a game or an app?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License lets you build Zhuque Fangsong 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 Zhuque Fangsong have?
Zhuque Fangsong comes in one weight, Regular (400). Ask for bold and most apps thicken the letters themselves: a faux bold, not a drawn one.
Does Zhuque Fangsong have English letters?
Yes: Zhuque Fangsong draws all 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Chinese and English can stay in one font.
Who designed Zhuque Fangsong?
Zhuque Fangsong was designed by TrionesType.
What fonts are similar to Zhuque Fangsong?
The most used Simplified Chinese Song fonts besides Zhuque Fangsong are Noto Serif SC and ZCOOL XiaoWei. See every Song (Ming) font for Simplified Chinese.