CJK Font Considerations for Chinese, Japanese, Korean
CJK typography has different rules than Latin typography. Here is what I have learned designing for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean audiences. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean typography operates under constraints that Latin typography does not, and applying Latin assumptions to CJK text produces broken layouts and poor readability. After working on several multilingual sites that serve CJK audiences, I have learned that CJK typography deserves its own design decisions, not a fallback from the Latin system. Here are the considerations that matter most. Font Size and Density CJK characters are denser than Latin letters because each character carries more semantic weight and the strokes fill more of the em box. A CJK font at sixteen pixels is visually larger and heavier than a Latin font at the same size, which means the comfortable reading size for CJK is often slightly smaller than for Latin. I typically set CJK body text at fifteen to sixteen pixels, where I might set Latin body text at seventeen to eighteen. Setting CJK at Latin sizes makes the text feel oversized and the line length too short. Line Height and Spacing CJK text needs more line height than Latin text, because the characters are taller relative to the em box and the eye needs vertical space to track lines of dense characters. I set CJK line height between one point seven and one point eight, where I might set Latin line height at one point five.