Substitute Fonts Needed When Non-Embedded
When a CJK font (or any other font type) is embedded within a PDF document, Qoppa’s PDF rendering engine will use this font to render the text in the document. This guarantees that the document will render the same regardless of the operating system.
When rendering a PDF document where CJK fonts are NOT embedded (see Referenced CJK fonts), Qoppa’s PDF rendering engine will try and find CJK fonts on the system and use these.
CJK Font Categories
In Qoppa PDF software, CJK substitute fonts are organized into 7 categories:
| Category | Description | Sample |
| Chinese Sans Serif | Gothic style font | 軟體及網際網路 |
| Chinese Serif | Ming style font | 軟體及網際網路 |
| Chinese Simplified | Either style of simplfied Chinese | 软件＋互联网 |
| Japanese Sans Serif | Gothic style font | 望の方は |
| Japanese Serif | Mincho style font | 望の方は |
| Korean Sans Serif | Dotum / Gothic style font | 유럽, 소프트웨어 |
| Korean Serif | Batang / Myeongjo style font | 유럽, 소프트웨어 |
A non-embedded PDF font provides enough information for Qoppa to determine which CJK category is desired for the text. This information is used to select a substitute font.
CJK Substitute Fonts Per Operating System
We have examined recent versions of Windows, OSX and Linux to understand which CJK fonts are provided with the operating system. From this information, we have developed prioritized font lists for each environment. Qoppa software will look for the fonts and will select the first one that is found as the default substitute font for that CJK category.
Default CJK Fonts in Windows
Qoppa’s PDF rendering engine will use the following CJK fonts that ship with Windows:
Chinese Sans Serif: Microsoft JhengHei
Chinese Serif: PmingLiu, MingLiu, SimSun
Chinese Simplified: SimSun, NsimSun, Microsoft YaHei
Japanese Sans Serif: Meiryo, MS PGothic, MS Gothic, Yu Gothic Regular
Japanese Serif: MS PMincho, MS Mincho, SimSun, NSimSun
Korean Sans Serif: Malgun Gothic, Dotum, Gulim
Korean Serif: Batang, Gungsuh, Malgun Gothic
Notes:
For Windows we considered Windows 7 and Windows 10.
When upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, we have observed that a number of CJK fonts (ex. MS Gothic, MS Mincho, Dotum, Batang, etc.) are actually removed. These fonts can be restored by installing various language support options in the Windows 10 settings.
Malgun Gothic” is the only Korean font installed by default with Windows 10. So, this sans serif font is at the end of the serif fonts list as a fallback if other fonts are not found.
Default CJK Fonts on the Mac
Qoppa’s PDF rendering engine will use the following CJK fonts that ship with Mac:
Chinese Sans Serif: Apple LiGothic Medium, PingFang TC, STHeiti
Chinese Serif: LiSong Pro, Biau Kai, STSongti-TC
Chinese Simplified: STSong, STFangsong
Japanese Sans Serif: Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro W3, Apple Gothic, Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro W4, Osaka
Japanese Serif: Hiragino Mincho Pro W3, PCMyungjo
Korean Sans Serif: Apple Gothic, AppleSDGothicNeoR00
Korean Serif: Appley Myungjo, PCMyungjo, PilGi
Notes:
For Macintosh we considered OSX v10.7 (Snow Leopard) to v10.11 (El Capitan)
Default CJK Fonts in Linux and Unix
Chinese Sans Serif: UMingTW, UMingHK, Source Han Sans TW, DroidSan sFallback
Chinese Serif: UMingTW, UMingHK, Source Han Sans TW, DroidSans Fallback
Chinese Simplified: WenQuanYiMicroHei, WenQuanYiZenHei, DroidSans Fallback, Source Han Sans CN
Japanese Sans Serif: Droid Sans Japanese, Takao PGothic, VL-Gothic-Regular, WenQuanYiMicroHei
Japanese Serif: Droid Sans Japanese, Takao PGothic, VL-Gothic-Regular, WenQuanYiMicroHei
Korean Sans Serif: Nanum Gothic, Nanum Barun Gothic
Korean Serif: Nanum Myeongjo
Notes:
For Linux we considered Fedora (20 & 23), Debian (7 & 8), Mint (17.0 & 17.2) and Ubuntu (14.04 & 15.04) – each distro ships with a different set of fonts. The font lists for Linux are configured to select reasonable substitute fonts, IF those fonts are installed.
The base install of Ubuntu 16.04 has Google’s _Noto Sans CJK_ fonts – these fonts do not work well with Java. You will need to install other Linux CJK font packages.
Read this entry regarding finding and installing CJK font in Linux.
Customizing CJK Fonts
The logic described above should find reasonably good substitute CJK fonts in the Windows and OSX environments where the O/S developers (Microsoft and Apple, respectively) include a variety of CJK fonts with each operating system version.
On other platforms or to overwrite the behavior above, customers can set their own CJK fonts to be used by Qoppa Software rendering engine. See Customizing CJK Fonts.
