Adobe Source Han (also known as Google Noto CJK) font family converted to TrueType format.

Adobe Source Han (also known as Google Noto CJK) is an open-source computer font family created by Adobe and Google, suitable for Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean typesetting.

The problem is, these fonts were originally released in OpenType-CFF fornat, which is not well supported in many buggy applications, including Microsoft Word and LibreOffice. Kaigen Fonts is the project to convert them into TrueType format, increasing its compatibility with those buggy applications.

The conversion is not lossless. OpenType-CFF uses cubic Bézier curves while TrueType uses quadratic ones, resulting a slightly changed shape after converting. Furthermore, you will lose all OpenType features available in the original fonts including localization support, vertical writing support and dynamic compositing 𰻞 (biáng) using 「⿺辶⿳穴⿰月⿰⿲⿱幺長⿱言馬⿱幺長刂心」.

Click releases to download the latest release.

This repository contains the following typefaces:

They are converted from:

• Source Han Sans, version 2.002

• Source Han Serif, version 1.001

• Source Han Mono, version 1.002

The Japanese version has an additional “J” suffix, which does not exist in the original font files. This is because the original version features OpenType localization support, you simply select “Source Han Sans / Serif / Mono” and the computer matches your language settings automatically; while the converted version loses this ability, the additional “J” suffix reminds you to select the correct version for your language.

I have to rename the fonts because Adobe forbids any derived work from being called “Source”.

The name “Kaigen” is a Japanese romanization of 「懐源^[1]」(“nostalgia of the source”), which is a word play deriving from the Chinese name of the original font, “思源” (“drink water and think of its source; —gratitude for source of benefit”^[2]).

KaiGen Gothic is another project doing the same thing, but unmaintained for years, without disclosure of any build script or conversion program. Kaigen Font project aims to be the continuation of KaiGen Gothic project, with the build script and conversion toolchain open-sourced.

These fonts differs slightly in its name, so you can install both of them to your computer.

You can build Kaigen Fonts on your own from the original Source Han Fonts.

Make sure you have plenty of RAM (16 GiB will work), plenty of disk space (5 GiB will work) and plenty of time (several minutes for a single font file).

See Jamesits/docker-otfcc-dev. You may need this if you don't want to mess up with multiple version of Node.js on your machine.

• Install Node.js >=8.0

• Install otfcc

• Install otfcc-cubic2quad

• Execute the build.sh script, with the input file name as a single argument

• Gather the output file in the current working directory

You may want to use a for-loop to iterate through all *.otf files.

Copyright © 2014-2017 Adobe Systems Incorporated (http://www.adobe.com/), with Reserved Font Name ‘Source’. Source is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

Copyright © 2017-2021 Star Brilliant (https://github.com/m13253/kaigen-fonts), James Swineson, Dingyuan Wang, extratype.

This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. This Font Software is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the SIL Open Font License for the specific language, permissions and limitations governing your use of this Font Software.

[1]: 北周‧庾信《徵調曲》「落其實者思其樹，飲其流者懷其源。」

[2]: Lin Yutang’s Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage