Chinese, Japanese and Korean: the three languages written, wholly or in part, with Chinese characters. Japanese adds its two kana, hiragana and katakana; Korean writes mostly in Hangul, its own alphabet built into syllables.

Can one font cover Chinese, Japanese and Korean?

Some do, Source Han Sans and its twin Noto Sans CJK among them, but the same character is drawn a little differently in each place: a Japanese 直 is not a Chinese one. So such a font comes in an edition for each language, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Hong Kong, and this section lists each edition under its language.

Are these Japanese, Chinese and Korean fonts free for commercial use?

Yes, all 174: 171 under the SIL Open Font License and 3 under the Apache License, which let you use a font in print, on the web, in apps, videos and logos, for clients and in products, at no cost. What they forbid is selling the font file on its own. Each font’s page links its licence file.

Why are CJK font files so large?

A Latin font draws a few hundred letters. A Japanese font draws its kana and 6,000 to 13,000 kanji, a Chinese font 7,000 to 30,000 characters, and a Korean font its 11,172 Hangul syllables. That is why these pages show every font as a picture the lab drew from its file, never the file itself.

How do I use a Chinese, Japanese or Korean font on a website?

A Chinese, Japanese or Korean font holds thousands of characters, often 5 to 20 MB. From Google Fonts it comes cut into a hundred or so small files, and a browser loads only those with the characters a page shows. A font from its maker’s repository should be cut down to the characters you need before you serve it: the OFL allows that, under a name of your own if the font reserves its name.

Japanese, Chinese
and Korean fonts

The fonts made for the three languages written with Chinese characters: 76 for Japanese, 47 for Chinese and 51 for Korean, 138 from Google Fonts and 36 from their makers’ own repositories, 171 under the SIL Open Font License and 3 under the Apache License. Every card shows the font itself, its name and a line in its own script, drawn from its own file: the page loads none of the fonts it shows.

Free fonts: 174; 76 Japanese, 47 Chinese, 51 Korean
Commercial use: 174 of 174; 171 OFL, 3 Apache 2.0
On Google Fonts: 138; Served cut into small files: a page loads only its characters
From their makers: 36; On GitHub: LXGW, atelierAnchor, IBM, Kil Hyung-jin and more

01 / Styles across the three

One style, three names

The same kinds of letter run through all three languages under different names. Each count leads to its section of the language’s page.

SerifJapaneseMincho明朝体17Simplified ChineseSong (Ming)宋体3Traditional ChineseSong (Ming)明體7KoreanMyeongjo명조8
Sans serifJapaneseGothicゴシック体21Simplified ChineseHei黑体2Traditional ChineseHei黑體8KoreanGothic고딕15
RoundedJapaneseMaru Gothic丸ゴシック7Simplified ChineseYuan (rounded)圆体1Traditional ChineseYuan (rounded)圓體5Korean—
BrushJapaneseBrush毛筆3Simplified ChineseCalligraphy书法4Traditional Chinese—KoreanBrush붓글씨4
HandwritingJapaneseHandwriting手書き7Simplified Chinese—Traditional Chinese—KoreanHandwriting손글씨7
DisplayJapanesePop and displayポップ19Simplified ChineseDisplay美术字5Traditional ChineseDisplay美術字1KoreanDisplay제목12
PixelJapanesePixelドット2Simplified ChinesePixel像素1Traditional ChinesePixel像素2KoreanPixel픽셀3
Regular scriptJapanese—Simplified ChineseKai楷体2Traditional ChineseKai楷體6Korean—
CodingJapanese—Simplified Chinese—Traditional Chinese—KoreanCoding코딩2

02 / Most used

Most used

The most used fonts of each language: Google Fonts’ ranking first, then the open fonts most starred on GitHub.

03 / Questions

Before you use one

What people ask before they set a page in one of these fonts.

What does CJK mean?: Chinese, Japanese and Korean: the three languages written, wholly or in part, with Chinese characters. Japanese adds its two kana, hiragana and katakana; Korean writes mostly in Hangul, its own alphabet built into syllables.
Can one font cover Chinese, Japanese and Korean?: Some do, Source Han Sans and its twin Noto Sans CJK among them, but the same character is drawn a little differently in each place: a Japanese 直 is not a Chinese one. So such a font comes in an edition for each language, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Hong Kong, and this section lists each edition under its language.
Are these Japanese, Chinese and Korean fonts free for commercial use?: Yes, all 174: 171 under the SIL Open Font License and 3 under the Apache License, which let you use a font in print, on the web, in apps, videos and logos, for clients and in products, at no cost. What they forbid is selling the font file on its own. Each font’s page links its licence file.
Why are CJK font files so large?: A Latin font draws a few hundred letters. A Japanese font draws its kana and 6,000 to 13,000 kanji, a Chinese font 7,000 to 30,000 characters, and a Korean font its 11,172 Hangul syllables. That is why these pages show every font as a picture the lab drew from its file, never the file itself.
How do I use a Chinese, Japanese or Korean font on a website?: A Chinese, Japanese or Korean font holds thousands of characters, often 5 to 20 MB. From Google Fonts it comes cut into a hundred or so small files, and a browser loads only those with the characters a page shows. A font from its maker’s repository should be cut down to the characters you need before you serve it: the OFL allows that, under a name of your own if the font reserves its name.