<pre><code>There is however no mandated connection between the encoding system
and the font used to display the characters
</code></pre>

<p>considering the situation: an utf-8 encoded plain text file (*.txt), how do it display on the computer, is depend on the user, not the author.</p>

<p>in stkaiti:<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/0RhgZ.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0RhgZ.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>in hanzipen tc:<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Ooney.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Ooney.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>in songti tc:<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/jX1cx.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/jX1cx.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>the same content can be displayed by different fonts, to give different impression.</p>

<pre><code>font and encoding are usually tied together for practical reasons
</code></pre>

<p>in pre-unicode era, as i remember, on mac os, all big-5 encoded text is defaulted to display initially by the system font "taibei"; while shift jis encoded text would use the font "osaka". in modern days (utf-8), mac / windows are smart enough to choose the font automatically, to display each code point.</p>

<p>for chinese character, the concepts "serif", "sans serif", "script" are, inapplicable.</p>

<p>for this question, i would suggest you read the book "CJKV Information Processing", published by o'really; which is informative &amp; authoritative: </p>

<p><a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596514471.do" rel="noreferrer">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596514471.do</a></p>

<p>they provided the 1st chapter in pdf:</p>

<p><a href="ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/examples/nutshell/cjkv/pdf/CJKVInfoProc.Chap1.pdf" rel="noreferrer">ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/examples/nutshell/cjkv/pdf/CJKVInfoProc.Chap1.pdf</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-18T10:29:30.313Z
2016-11-18T10:29:30.313Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>I'd like to know what relationship ties those terms. According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_encoding" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wikipedia</a>, </p>

<p>"There is however no mandated connection between the encoding system and the font used to display the characters; font and encoding are usually tied together for practical reasons".</p>

<p>Yet, I do not fully grasp what that means.</p>

<p>Is there a systematic comparison between the different strokes that the main typefaces apply to chinese characters?</p>

<p>Is the regular script sans-serif? what typeface does wikimedia use for regular script?</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/pfjUs.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pfjUs.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<characters><fonts>
character encoding, script, typeface/font
# character encoding, script, typeface/font

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-11-18)

I'd like to know what relationship ties those terms. According to [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_encoding),

"There is however no mandated connection between the encoding system and the font used to display the characters; font and encoding are usually tied together for practical reasons".

Yet, I do not fully grasp what that means.

Is there a systematic comparison between the different strokes that the main typefaces apply to chinese characters?

Is the regular script sans-serif? what typeface does wikimedia use for regular script?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/pfjUs.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/pfjUs.png)

**Tags:** characters, fonts


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-11-18. Score: 5

There is however no mandated connection between the encoding system
and the font used to display the characters

considering the situation: an utf-8 encoded plain text file (*.txt), how do it display on the computer, is depend on the user, not the author.
in stkaiti:
in hanzipen tc:
in songti tc:
the same content can be displayed by different fonts, to give different impression.
font and encoding are usually tied together for practical reasons

in pre-unicode era, as i remember, on mac os, all big-5 encoded text is defaulted to display initially by the system font "taibei"; while shift jis encoded text would use the font "osaka". in modern days (utf-8), mac / windows are smart enough to choose the font automatically, to display each code point.
for chinese character, the concepts "serif", "sans serif", "script" are, inapplicable.
for this question, i would suggest you read the book "CJKV Information Processing", published by o'really; which is informative & authoritative: 
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596514471.do
they provided the 1st chapter in pdf:
ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/examples/nutshell/cjkv/pdf/CJKVInfoProc.Chap1.pdf


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