Are these Japanese fonts free for commercial use?

Yes, all 76: 73 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.

What fonts do anime and manga use?

Manga sets the words in its speech balloons in Gothic kanji beside heavier, Mincho-like kana, a mix Japanese calls antique: Shippori Antique is a free font of that style. Titles and logos are usually drawn for the work itself; the free faces closest to them are the heavy pop fonts in the Pop and display section, such as Dela Gothic One, RocknRoll One and Reggae One.

Do Japanese fonts include English letters?

All 76 fonts here also draw the 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Japanese and English can stay in one font. In many the Latin is a design of its own, drawn to sit beside the kana.

What is a kana-only font?

A face that draws hiragana and katakana but no kanji: 10 of the fonts here are such, most of them display faces. A browser sets the kanji of a text in another font, so they suit short words in kana, titles and logos. Their cards show the Iroha, a poem that uses every kana once.

How do I use a Japanese font on a website?

A Japanese 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 fonts

76 free fonts for Japanese, filed by style: Mincho, Gothic, Maru Gothic, Brush, Handwriting, Pop and display and Pixel. 66 from Google Fonts and 10 from their makers’ own repositories, 73 under the SIL Open Font License and 3 under the Apache License. Each card shows the font in a line of Miyazawa Kenji: kanji, hiragana and katakana.

日本語 · Nihongo

The line on every card

The opening of Miyazawa Kenji’s The Polano Square, a line Japanese type specimens often show. A face without kanji shows the start of the Iroha, the poem that uses every kana once.

Free fonts: 76; 66 on Google Fonts, 10 from their makers
Commercial use: 76 of 76; 73 OFL, 3 Apache 2.0
English letters: 76 of 76; Draw all 52 letters of the alphabet
Weights: 38 of 76; Come in two weights or more

02 / All 76

Every Japanese font

Ordered by use: Google Fonts’ ranking first, then the open fonts most starred on GitHub.

Mincho 明朝体

The serif of Japanese: thin horizontals, thick verticals and a small triangle where a stroke ends, as a brush leaves it. Novels, newspapers and anything formal are set in Mincho. · 17 fonts

Gothic ゴシック体

The sans serif: strokes of one weight with square ends. Signs, screens, interfaces and headlines. · 21 fonts

Maru Gothic 丸ゴシック

Gothic with every stroke end rounded off: soft and friendly, for children’s books, packaging, apps and casual signs. · 7 fonts

Brush 毛筆

Written with a brush, as calligraphers write: for titles, menus, New Year cards and anything traditional. · 3 fonts

Handwriting 手書き

Pen, pencil and marker hands, from the careful strokes of school textbooks to quick notes. · 7 fonts

Pop and display ポップ

Heavy, playful and decorated faces for titles: the look of anime logos, manga covers and kawaii packaging. Most of them draw their own Latin too. · 19 fonts

Pixel ドット

Built from square dots, as kanji were on the screens of early computers and game consoles. · 2 fonts

03 / Questions

Before you use one

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

What is the difference between Mincho and Gothic?: They are the serif and the sans serif of Japanese. The serif of Japanese: thin horizontals, thick verticals and a small triangle where a stroke ends, as a brush leaves it. Novels, newspapers and anything formal are set in Mincho. The sans serif: strokes of one weight with square ends. Signs, screens, interfaces and headlines.
Are these Japanese fonts free for commercial use?: Yes, all 76: 73 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.
What fonts do anime and manga use?: Manga sets the words in its speech balloons in Gothic kanji beside heavier, Mincho-like kana, a mix Japanese calls antique: Shippori Antique is a free font of that style. Titles and logos are usually drawn for the work itself; the free faces closest to them are the heavy pop fonts in the Pop and display section, such as Dela Gothic One, RocknRoll One and Reggae One.
Do Japanese fonts include English letters?: All 76 fonts here also draw the 52 letters of the English alphabet, so a line that mixes Japanese and English can stay in one font. In many the Latin is a design of its own, drawn to sit beside the kana.
What is a kana-only font?: A face that draws hiragana and katakana but no kanji: 10 of the fonts here are such, most of them display faces. A browser sets the kanji of a text in another font, so they suit short words in kana, titles and logos. Their cards show the Iroha, a poem that uses every kana once.
How do I use a Japanese font on a website?: A Japanese 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.

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