? 2011/11/2 12:00, Sergiu Dumitriu ??:
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Q1: Should Kai or Ming be used as the default export font for Chinese?
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I'm far from being an expert here, but my opinion is that the Kai
variant, with it's handwritten look, is better suited for printed
material. Still, PDFs are also used on screen, be that a large
computer monitor or a handheld device, and on screen the legibility of
the Ming variant is better. One option that I like is to use Kai for
normal text and Ming for tt/code elements, as a kind of monospace.

As a Chinese, I strongly recommend *song* , the most poluar font, and we
seldom use ming in official documents...

Reading on Wikipedia I got the impression that there isn't a clear distinction between Ming and Song, and some refer to the same thing with both terms. Looking at the list of CJK fonts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CJK_fonts none of the fonts that have Song in their name are under an open source friendly license, so they can't be redistributed. Please take a look at the sample PDF and see if it is acceptably similar to Song: http://jira.xwiki.org/secure/attachment/23886/ming-over-freefont.pdf
According to the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_%28typefaces%29
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The names Song (or Sung) and Ming correspond to the Song Dynasty <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Dynasty> when a distinctive printed style of regular script <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script> was developed, and the Ming Dynasty <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty> during which that style developed into the Ming typeface style.^[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_%28typefaces%29#cite_note-kinkido-0> In Mainland China, the most common name is Song (the Mainland Chinese standardized Ming typeface in Microsoft Windows <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows> being named SimSun). In Hong Kong <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong>, Taiwan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan>, Japan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan> and Korea <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea>, Ming is prevalent. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, "Song typeface" (??) has been used but "Ming typeface" (??) has increased currency since the advent of desktop publishing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_publishing>. Some type foundries <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_foundry>^[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_%28typefaces%29#cite_note-1> use "Song" to refer to this style of typeface that follows a standard such as the Standard Form of National Characters <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Form_of_National_Characters>, and "Ming" to refer to typefaces that resemble forms found in the Kangxi dictionary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_dictionary>.
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Ming and Song (or Sung) is different indeed, and Song is popular in Mainland China while Ming is popular in HK, TW, or JP and so on. They are similar, however, Song has more sharp angles or corners than Ming, while Ming has smooth ones, illustrated in the following two pictures(Ming and Song):

Actually, there seems to be both Ming and Song available according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arphic_Public_License#Arphic_Public_License
But I cannot find where to download the fonts...
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