You probably use a lot of different software tools created for learning. But have you ever considered a font to be one of them? Many people never think about where fonts come from, who creates them, or why new ones are developed—fonts tend to be in the background. Yet, they’re an absolutely crucial part of our everyday lives in and out of the classroom. Without fonts, how would we type a paper? Or send a text? How could we even use a calculator?

Just like any other software, big font projects go through a long and complex process (we’re talking years) to become software, from research to ideation to design to development… and then they need to be continuously updated as needs and technology change. The Google Fonts team is solely dedicated to developing, commissioning, acquiring, and maintaining a diverse library of some of the best designs by the top type designers and foundries across the world. Today, there are over 1,500 open-source Google Fonts available to everyone, no matter who you are or where you live.   

One of the latest additions to Google Fonts is a new superfamily by the Typetogether foundry called Playwrite. Playwrite was designed to help students learn handwriting and is customized into specific fonts for over 40 countries (so far). Try them out in Google Workspace/Google Classroom, or download them to your desktop from Google Fonts. 

Created for the classroom, from lots and lots of research

José Scaglione of Typetogether points out that, “Writing creates an invisible connection with language and also serves in terms of motoric development, cognitive development, and creativity. Typing on a computer is not the same as actually writing things by hand. This is actually proven. You have to sort of summarize things in your head before you write something down, so you retain it in your memory much better.”

And most education systems seem to agree. Even with the growing abundance of digital tools available to educators and students today, schools around the world continue to see the value in teaching kids how to write by hand. But, as they conducted research for a custom font commissioned by a UK-based education company, Scaglione and his co-founder Veronika Burian discovered handwriting education is inconsistent across the world. The methodology and tools for learning vary region to region, country to country, state to state, and even school to school. Some districts invest in privately owned pedagogies with strict standards and practices, while others stick to old-hat methods and rely on outdated tools. Others leave it up to teachers to create their own methods and source their own resources. As a result, many students aren’t getting the foundation they need. Burian remembers hearing that “students are still often expected to write their work by hand. Since handwriting is unique, like fingerprints, this is a way of verifying that what they wrote is actually theirs. But they’re running into a lot of problems—especially later on in middle school—because they can't hold their pen properly. They get cramps. They can't write legibly, quickly, and so on.”

So, motivated by a need for better tools, and fascinated by the regional variations in handwriting and how it’s taught, Burian and Scaglione decided to take their research further. They launched an extensive, 18-month study, “Primarium,” on the state of primary school handwriting education in over 40 countries. All use the Latin alphabet and span the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Not only did the research inform the design for the Playwrite fonts, but it’s also a living resource for better understanding handwriting education in primary schools. It examines the styles and methodologies of each region in depth, from current models to the history behind how they came to be.  

PRIMARIUM IS A LIVING RESOURCE FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE STATE OF HANDWRITING EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Customized for the handwriting styles of 40 countries… and counting.

The Primarium research revealed not only major differences in methodology and tools across different regions, but also stylistic differences in handwriting. For example, in France, students learn a unique, upright cursive style, while in Finland they learn a simplified print style with a slight slant. You can read all about the different styles of different regions—and how they formed—on the Primarium site.

FRENCH (LEFT) AND FINNISH (RIGHT) HANDWRITING EXAMPLES

Given these findings, a one-size-fits-all font design wouldn’t work. So, while Playwrite is meant to be one, cohesive design idea, the team has built customization into each country’s version to honor their regional preferences. 

You should be able to start using your country’s Playwrite font right away, without having to change what you teach. (Today, there are fonts available for 40 countries, but more will roll out in the near future.)

Want to learn more about fonts and how to use them? Check out Google Fonts Knowledge.

About Typetogether

Veronika Burian born in Czech Republic, is a product and type designer running the international indie foundry TypeTogether with partner José Scaglione since 2006, today with twelve employees working around the world. She graduated from FH München, Germany, in Industrial Design and holds a MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, UK. Veronika is one of the organizers of the Alphabettes mentorship program, co-chairwoman of the GRANSHAN project, co-curator/organizer of TypeTech MeetUp, and guest lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Design NTNU in Norway. 

José Scaglione is a graphic designer, typeface designer, and co-founder of the independent type foundry TypeTogether with Veronika Burian, where they have published numerous award-winning type families. He teaches typography at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is frequently invited to lecture about typography and to lead workshops on typeface design at international conferences and academic institutions. José co-authored the book Cómo Crear Tipografías: Del Boceto a la Pantalla, and collaborated with Jorge de Buen Unna on his book Introducción al Estudio de la Tipografía.

The Zen Fonts collection is the largest set of Japanese fonts on Google Fonts

Different kinds of scripts are used to write in Japanese

Understanding the culture of Japanese fonts

Japanese fonts have unique features and systems that aren’t seen in other Asian scripts. To understand, evaluate, develop, and release quality fonts for partners and users, the Google Fonts team needed to learn about and respect this unique typography culture. As a typography consultant, I developed a new evaluation criteria for Google Fonts that included all the important characteristics of good Japanese fonts.

Japanese is a complicated script

Japanese is a melting pot of scripts! There are five scripts most commonly used today in Japan. The first can be traced back more than a thousand years to China, when Japanese people borrowed Chinese characters to write their language. These Chinese characters are called “Kanji” in Japan. In the 1100s, the Japanese developed much simpler forms of letters called Kana. There are two sets of Kana, Hiragana, and Katakana; Hiragana is used for Japanese words, while Katakana is an alternative to Hiragana used for foreign or unfamiliar words. Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana were used together to write Japanese text for hundreds of years. In recent centuries, Japanese people also adopted Arabic numerical figures and the Latin script, which is commonly used for English or other European languages—similar to many other places around the world. The very best Japanese fonts support all these writing systems, but many excellent Japanese fonts may have limited or zero Kanji characters.

What a big character set!

Compared to Latin fonts made for European language users, Japanese fonts with Kanji typically contain a huge number of characters—the biggest common standard for Japanese character sets spans over 23,000 glyphs. Not only do Japanese typeface designers have many glyphs to draw, but they must also handle many different kinds of character sets. There are also various different standards for categorizing.   

Kanji sets: Adobe, JIS, Jōyō, and educational Kanji

The Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) system, with its four levels, is a popular way to categorize Kanji characters. “Name Kanji” are used specifically for names of places and people, and each of the JIS levels has a different selection of them. “Educational Kanji” is the smallest Kanji set, which includes Kanji that are taught in elementary schools, divided into 6 levels. “Jōyō” means “usual usage” and refers to the 2,136 Kanji that are used in official documents or news broadcasts, which people learn up until the end of high school. 

Many Japanese fonts support Adobe’s Japanese character sets. The Adobe Japan 1-3 set (with 9,354 glyphs) is perhaps the most common, while the Adobe-Japan 1-6 set is the biggest. 

These are related to the JIS levels, such as the Adobe-Japan 1-3 character set matching the JIS level 2. These contain all the Kanji used in everyday life, plus some more specific, yet common ones. Adobe-Japan 1-6 supports all four levels of JIS Kanji and enables texts for any occasion in Japan.

• JIS Level 1:  With a foundation of 2,965 characters, this level includes the “educational Kanji” and “Jōyō Kanji” groups.
  
  

• JIS level 2: With the addition of 3,390 Kanji to the Level 1 set, Level 2 covers all the most commonly used characters in everyday Japanese life. It also matches the Adobe-Japan 1-3 character set.
  
  

• JIS Level 3: This matches Adobe-Japan 1-4 with an additional  1,259 characters, but is a midway to a wider range of Kanji expression; many recently-developed Japanese fonts cover either JIS level 2 or 4.
  
  

• JIS Level 4: This is the JIS Kanji classification level with the biggest character set. Most of the 2,436 Kanji included here are rarely seen in daily life but are still needed for formal publications and government-related texts to address specific words or names.

The higher the JIS level is, the more often complicated and rare Kanjis are included

Japanese fonts with the different kinds of character sets available on Google Fonts

Alternative Kanji glyphs

Kanji can have alternative glyphs and there are two perspectives on the need for this.

Current Kanji letterforms in digital fonts are different from what we write with a pen and a brush. They often use more simple structures, which are easier to design as fonts, but harder for readers to understand as the actual anatomy of the Kanji letterforms may be unclear—especially to learners. An alternative Kanji glyph design trend is to add brush-like characteristics to the letterform designs, which is known as a “humanist” style. These design details allow readers to see more familiar Kanji forms and may enable children to learn Kanji more easily. 

There are several alternative glyphs for the older form of Kanji, mostly used for publications, official documents, or intended design. Even though it’s an “old form”, these Kanjis are still seen on many occasions.

Common alternative Kanji glyphs

Japanese Subordinate Latin (top) compared to Times New Roman (bottom)

What the Japanese library means to the design community

This project to expand the Google Fonts library to better support Japanese users was not just about expanding the fonts themselves. Adding new Japanese fonts to the global font platform demonstrates Google’s recognition of Japanese fonts and culture. Today, in Japan and Korea, many fonts are only available in-country and are not available for purchase or subscription abroad. Through Google Fonts, users from all over the world can now access and use Japanese fonts, and they have a new opportunity to meet and experience the beauty of this unique language.

About the author
Min-Young Kim is a UI/UX & typography consultant based in Tokyo, with a focus on trilingual Korean-Japanese-Latin multiscript typography. While not yet a typeface designer herself, Min has developed a career in the font business as a type project manager, and started her own studio “Em Dash” in 2020. She has recently worked with Google Fonts on Japanese and Korean font development projects, Adobe Creative Cloud on East-Asian UX research & design, and was invited to the jury of the D&AD Awards 2021 for type design, and presented at AtypI Tokyo. With a deep understanding of typography, Min is dedicating her life to diversifying the potential of fonts in various products and environments, and hopes more people can find the fun in choosing and using type. @mintoming