[KS] Middle Korean fonts (Thorsten Traulsen)

[James B. Lewis]

Dear All,

You have been more than helpful. Ross alerted me to a couple of fonts I 
have yet to install, but most importantly, to Noto; Chun Jihoon reminded 
me of HCR Batang; Barbara pointed me to New Gulim; Robert reminded me a 
nightmare that I had (until now) repressed; Thorsten alerted me to New 
Batang; and Frank warned me about the danger of monopoly capital and 
brought me back to Noto. Indeed, Noto Serif KR is elegant (and open 
source), with apologies to those who have trouble seeing serif fonts.

I want to thank you all and any others who still may contribute to my 
plea for help.

On a personal note, I have been waiting years for Middle Korean to 
become as easy to input and produce as Modern Korean. I still have fond 
memories of HWP (2.0?) and what was then its miraculous production of 
Korean (modern and Middle) all together with Japanese, Chinese, and 
English, all in one text, without spacing problems.

Yours,

Jay Lewis

______________________________

On 30/07/2025 04:51, Frank Hoffmann wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Just a logistical note about the Middle Korean font issue--an aspect 
> to keep in mind when choosing which font to use (and not just for 
> Middle Korean):
>
> If you only care about the print version of a book or journal, 
> whatever font works for you is fine. But if you're forward‑looking and 
> considering digital access across various media, you really want to 
> avoid Microsoft Windows system fonts such as New Gulim or HCR Batang 
> (that were also mentioned here). Even if they include the 
> Extended‑A/Extended‑B Jamo blocks (for Middle Korean), you cannot 
> legally embed or export these fonts to other systems (Mac/Linux) 
> because they are licensed by Microsoft. In addition, they may simply 
> vanish in a couple of years when Microsoft ships a new OS. Avoid 
> proprietary Korean‑system fonts for the same reason if you want to 
> create a truly future‑proof "product" that anyone can read without 
> going through some complex transfer in 5, 10, or 15 years on a new 
> digital medium. In that regard, the Noto fonts--updated regularly and 
> now released under the SIL Open Font License--provide the latest 
> encodings. (Update them if you still have an old edition, and download 
> the current version directly from https://fonts.google.com/noto/fonts, 
> not from a 3rd party source that may have reposted them, to avoid 
> getting an old release.) They are cross‑platform compatible and 
> available in multiple styles; I believe Noto Serif CJK KR was 
> mentioned, which works especially nice, visually, in the body text 
> and/or if mixed with western language fonts. Whatever other fonts 
> might be designed later will very likely all be upward‑compatible with 
> Noto (which isn't the case with these Microsoft fonts).
>
>
> Best,
> Frank
>
>
> _______________________________
> Frank Hoffmann
> https://koreanstudies.com 

-- 
Dr. James B. Lewis
Associate Professor of Korean History, University of Oxford
Fellow of Wolfson College
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
1 Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE
United Kingdom
https://www.ames.ox.ac.uk/people/james-b-lewis
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