SimSun, JhengHei, PMingLiu (Legible Chinese)

[taiwanshaun]

I've been experimenting with a number of traditional Chinese fonts on my computer, but I still have yet to figure out what the optimal font is for comfortable reading. Particularly when using Firefox, I'm constantly encountering characters which are barely legible, the strokes so close together that parts of the character look like black smudges. This is frustrating to me, because I'm always having to zoom in and out of certain sections of websites.

I'm using a laptop running Windows XP, so recently, I decided to switch to Microsoft JhengHei, which is a ClearType Chinese font; however, it still seems to have this problem.

I'm using Stylish, a Firefox plugin, which allows me to set the font for certain websites.

Could anybody suggest an optimal character set (Traditional Chinese), font size, and settings for reading? I'd also be willing to purchase a commercial font set, if it worked well. The set could also be Simplified, as long as it included Traditional as well, since I do all my reading in Traditional.

I looked into a company called DynaComware HK, but without any frame of reference, I'm not sure if their character sets would work for me. They seem to have a lot of different fonts, both simplified and traditional.

If anybody is interested in the things that I've been using, here are the links:

Stylish (Firefox User Interface Customization)

https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/2108

Microsoft YaHei Font (Simplified ClearType Font)

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=350

Microsoft JhengHei Font (Traditional ClearType Font)

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/Fonts/family.aspx?FID=368

DynaComware HK (Commercial Chinese Fonts)

http://www.dynalab.com/language/en-US/DynaShop/Traditional_Chinese.aspx

Thanks for your help!!

-- Taiwan Shaun

[Daan]

Particularly when using Firefox, I'm constantly encountering characters which are barely legible, the strokes so close together that parts of the character look like black smudges.

I'm an avid Firefox user myself, but I don't think I've encountered this problem that often. Could you provide a screenshot or something so we can get an idea of what you're looking at? What pages do you get this problem on?

My personal preferred fonts are Kaiti and Simsun, but I don't think those would be the ones you are looking for.

[gato]

Here's an interesting discussion of various Chinese font options:

http://typophile.com/node/42433

Chinese Typography and Graphic Design

SimSun, I think, should be the most legible for reading on the computer screen. All the fonts that have "Hei" are blocky fonts with heavier lines. I think they would be even less legible for reading at smaller font sizes. They are more appropriate for making big posters.

[Hofmann]

I personally don't like Ming typefaces in small sizes on screen. I don't think you'll get much better than JhengHei or YaHei.

I'm using Firefox 3.5.6 on Windows 7. I have the NoSquint plugin installed so I can permanently change the font size for any website. My default typeface for Traditional Chinese is Microsoft JhengHei. Here is a screenshot of a Wikipedia article with text size magnified to 120%.

Here is the same thing using Microsoft YaHei.

This post might be helpful.

Edited January 3, 2010 at 01:56 AM by Hofmann

[gato]

The attached is the same Wikipedia page displayed in Firefox with the default SimSun font. It seems clearer than any Hei fonts at smaller font sizes.