Word 步骤 in Source Han Sans error

[chrisw4704033]

I recently started to work for a company that deals with Traditional Chinese text. Source Han was amazing find and I am excited to use it. When using the font I notice that the word 步骤 in Source Han Sans does not show up correctly. To make things a little confusing the word shows up correctly in Source Han Serif. Is there something wrong with Source Han Sans and the word 步骤?

Also, Noto Sans CJK TC works fine with this word, which is google's font for Source Han Sans.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Please indicate the exact font that you are using, because while you indicated that you are using a Noto Sans CJK font with all 65,535 glyphs, Noto Sans CJK TC, I suspect that you are using a region-specific subset font for Source Han Sans, probably Source Han Sans TW. The issue is with U+9AA4 骤, which is specific to Simplified Chinese, and whose glyph is present only in the region-specific subset fonts for Simplified Chinese, meaning those with the name Source Han Sans CN. I am sure that U+9A5F 驟 is present in the font that you are using, because it is the Traditional Chinese form that comes from Big Five Level 1 and CNS 11643 Plane 1. The easiest solution is to make sure that you're using a font that includes all 65,535 glyphs, such as Source Han Sans TC, and I can virtually guarantee that 步骤—and 步驟—will appear correctly.

If the fonts are being served via Typekit, which I strongly suspect is the case, the reason why Source Han Serif works is because its fonts include all 65,535 glyphs. The Source Han Sans fonts that are being served are the region-specific subset fonts, which have significantly fewer glyphs. When Source Han Sans is updated to Version 2.000 later this year, the fonts served via Typekit will include all 65,535 glyphs. For now, you will either need to use the Simplified Chinese fonts, or download and install the fonts with the full (65,535) glyph set from the open source project on GitHub.

[chrisw4704033]

Ken,

Thank you for answering back. I was using Source Han Sans TW and it was from Typekit. That explains why the word was not show up correctly. I am glad that they will be updating it soon, but for now I will have to use the font form GitHub.

Cheers,

Chris

[Guest]

You can download the individual fonts from here​​, or grab the SourceHanSansTC.zip file from here to get all seven weights.