和文の組版

Typesetting

I have a large selection of Japanese fonts suitable for most purposes. If you are looking for a particular style of Japanese lettering, please take a look through my guide to Japanese typefaces (PDF file). This introduces the main categories of Japanese typefaces, although I have several more besides the ones shown in this document. I also have Japanese word processing software that supports common Japanese features such as the following:

(Rubi example)

Rubi: Small phonetic characters that are sometimes used to indicate the pronunciation of unusual kanji. The word actually derives from the English "ruby", which is an old printer's term used to describe the small type used for this purpose. Also known as furigana.

(Tategaki example)

Tategaki: Although these days it is common to find Japanese documents written according to the Western convention of left-to-right and top-to-bottom (called "yokogaki"), the traditional top-to-bottom and right-to-left "tategaki" style is still widely used, especially in novels and newspapers. When writing in this way, it is important to adjust the positioning of punctuation marks, rubi characters, etc.

Hanging punctuation: In printed documents, Japanese is normally fully justified between the left and right (or top and bottom) margins. However, to avoid wrapping punctuation marks to the beginning of a line, it is permissible in some cases to add a punctuation mark in a position where it hands over the margin at the end of a line (as in the tategaki example above).

(Gaiji example)

Gaiji: These are characters not normally available in Japanese fonts. For example, the author Ogai Mori (1862-1922) used to write his name using the characters shown on the left. However, the character in the middle (which means "seagull") has changed over the years and no longer belongs to the set of standard characters approved by the JIS. As a result, it is not available in ordinary Japanese fonts.

Delivery

I can deliver finished works electronically in vector and bitmap formats such as EPS and TIFF files, or by post as camera-ready copies. If you would like to discuss your project, please visit my contact page and tell me about your requirements.