Chinese Character Etymology and Script Styles

Xah Lee, 2011-01-12, …, 2012-04-17

Here's the basic history of character forms.

Year	Name	English Name	Sample
≈1300 BCE	甲骨文	Oracle bone script
≈1000 BCE	金文	Chinese bronze inscriptions
400 BCE	篆(zhuàn)書	Seal script
200 BCE	隸(lì)書	Clerical script
200 BCE	行書	Semi-cursive script
200 BCE	草書	Cursive script
200 CE	楷(kǎi)書	Regular script
200 CE	繁軆字	Traditional Chinese characters
1956 CE	簡軆字	Simplified Chinese characters

The above are about Chinese script's history. A “script” is a system/style of writing. Script is not about font/typeface. Font and typeface are related to printing.

Basics of Chinese Typeface Names and Stroke Style

Typefaces is related to printing. For Chinese typefaces, basically all are variant of the Regular Script (楷軆 (Kai)).

• Brush stroke ⇒ 楷軆 (Kai).
• Print style (simple squarish/blocky stroke) ⇒ {宋體 (Song), 仿宋體 (Imitation Song), 明體 (Ming)}
• Bold/Heavy style (heavier variant of Song/Ming) ⇒ 黑 (Hei).

In general, if you want a font with variable strokes as if written by a brush, look for a font name that contains “Kai” (楷軆). Otherwise, for normal readable text, use Song or Ming (宋體, 仿宋體, 明體). These are like regular script but more simple straight lines so it's more clear on computer screen. Font names with “Hei” is usually a heavier variant of Song.

For font comparison, see: Chinese Fonts Comparison; 中文字體比較.