Google Fonts Chinese (Traditional vs Simplified )
Do you know that Google Fonts already providing Chinese Character for a period of time? Frankly speaking, I just know that today.
But do you know there is actually Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese inside Chinese and how could you tell them apart so you could make a better decision(Since using a wrong font could make some of the Chinese character could not be displayed properly)?Here is a quick tutorial.
You could follow what I will show you, but it’s OK if you do not follow since I will include screen capture for you.
So, please click the link to go to Google Fonts first and pick Chinese(Simplified), and then copy and paste below text to one of the text fields, which displaying what the characters will looks like in that particular font family. After that press the “Apply to all fonts” button.f
Below is actually a poetry from a poet named Su Shi(蘇軾)in Sung Dynasty
(Traditional Chinese Version)
蘇軾《定風波》
莫聽穿林打葉聲，何妨吟嘯且徐行。
竹杖芒鞋輕勝馬，誰怕？一簑煙雨任平生。
料峭春風吹酒醒，微冷，山頭斜照卻相迎。
回首向來蕭瑟處，歸去，也無風雨也無晴。
Then you will see something like below, and the square mean that particular font family could not display that particular character, so it seems like Noto Serif SC and Noto Sans SC support more Traditional Chinese characters even they are Simplified Chinese fonts.
So, what about the other way? Simplified Chinese in Traditional Chinese font, what would they look like?
Simplified Chinese Version
苏轼《定风波》
莫听穿林打叶声，何妨吟啸且徐行。
竹杖芒鞋轻胜马，谁怕？一蓑烟雨任平生。
料峭春风吹酒醒，微冷，山头斜照却相迎。
回首向来萧瑟处，归去，也无风雨也无晴。
This time we change the language to traditional Chinese, then do the same copy and paste and apply to all.
This time we find that the supported characters in these 2 Traditional Chinese font are much less than Simplified Chinese that we just tried, even these 2 fonts are also Noto Sans and Noto Serif.
In conclude, we know that currently if you want to support both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, you should actually use Noto Sans SC or Noto Serif SC.
However, you still have to consider about what kind of font family is best for your design, and if you ask me, I think all Simplified Chinese is much uglier than Traditional Chinese. I was born and being raised in Hong Kong, and I know both Traditional and Simplified Chinese, I could tell you what is beautiful Chinese characters what is not.
OK, see you again next time!
