w3c
Script styles and typefaces?
https://w3c.github.io/clreq/#four_commonly_used_typefaces_for_chinese_composition :
There are four main typefaces in use for Chinese characters:
I think Song, Kai, Hei, and Fangsong are more like script styles than typefaces, because each of them contains many variations, and each of these variations is a typeface (see https://w3c.github.io/clreq/#fig-song for example).
fwiw, alreq these days refers to this kind of thing as 'writing styles' (see https://w3c.github.io/alreq/#h_writing_styles)
correct, those should not be called as "typefaces". "Writing styles" is good for me.
But wasn't Fangsong a specific type of type face following the characteristic of certain calligraphist from ancient time that follow the writing style of his time?
https://www.w3.org/International/articles/typography/fontstyles.en.html and https://www.w3.org/TR/typography/#fonts use the term "font styles".
Just a note on that. Alreq continues to use the term 'writing styles', but it seemed to me when i wrote the article that 'font styles' felt more intuitive, so i used that term. It does, of course, need to be distinguished from the CSS concept of 'font-style', but i thought it still worked OK. I'm not aware of any industry terminology that is widespread. Titus and i had a similar discussion before settling on 'writing style' for alreq (some years ago, now).
I think "Writing style" in arabic writing is more similar to the like of Big Seal Script in CJK from various nations in warring state period, instead of the different writing types of Fangsong and such.
There is a problem: a font is one of the implementations of a typeface, so using "font style" may cause ambiguity, because it confuses the concepts of different levels. "Types of typefaces" may be a better term.
@eisoch's suggestion: "We should have a W3C-wide, script-independent term for this concept, preferably defined in a W3C-wide glossary, and preferably avoid the word 'font' (for the same reason as https://github.com/w3c/clreq/issues/275#issuecomment-2809272520 )."
After trying various alternatives with the help of Co-Pilot AI, how about 'typeface style' ?
Typeface style refers to the distinct visual characteristics of a typeface, including its weight, width, contrast, and decorative elements. It determines the overall aesthetic and readability of text. Typeface styles can range from serif, sans-serif, script, display, and monospaced, each serving different design and functional purposes
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface#Style_of_typefaces (there's a short subsection on Chinese)
May 19, 2025 Meeting: Eric was more inclined to "typeface genre", but he did not object to "typeface style", and neither did anyone else, so the final result was to use "typeface style".
@eisoch's suggestion: "We should have a W3C-wide, script-independent term for this concept, preferably defined in a W3C-wide glossary, and preferably avoid the word 'font' (for the same reason as #275 (comment) )."
Working on this in https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/174 .