The story
モリサワのBIZ UDゴシックは、教育やビジネス文書作成などに活用できるよう、より多くの方にとって読みやすく使いやすいように設計されたユニバーサルデザインフォントです。読みやすさとデザインバランスに優れた、すっきりとしたUDゴシック書体で、漢字の省略できるハネやゲタを取ることで、文字をクリアに見せています。大きめな字面でも文字としてのかたちのバランスを損ねないよう、フトコロなどの空間を細かく調整しています。かなは漢字に比べてやや小ぶりに作られており、細いウエイトで長文を組むとほどよい抑揚が生まれます。 BIZ UD Gothic is a universal design typeface designed to be easy to read and ideal for education and business documentation. It is a highly legible and well-balanced design sans serif. In order to make the kanji more clear and identifiable, the letterforms are simplified by omitting hane (hook) and geta (the vertical lines extending beyond horizontal strokes at the bottom of kanji). Counters and other spaces are finely adjusted so that the overall balance of the type is not impaired even with the use in relatively large size. The kana are made slightly smaller than the kanji to give a good rhythm and flow when setting long texts in the lighter weights.
UDGothic includes full-width kana. UDPGothic includes proportional-width kana.
To contribute to the project, visit github.com/googlefonts/morisawa-biz-ud-gothic
Morisawa BIZ Universal Design (UD) Japanese fonts added to Google Fonts and Google Workspace
As part of our larger effort to make great type accessible in more languages, Google Fonts is pleased to announce that the Japanese type foundry Morisawa has made 2 BIZ Universal Design (UD) font families available on Google Fonts, under the SIL Open Font License. These Gothic and Mincho designs, available in regular and bold weights and proportional and full width styles, are now also available in Google Workspace.
“Having these fonts available in Japan allows Google Education to align with the most widely used fonts in education publishing in Japan,” said Stuart Miller, Head of Marketing for Google Education in Asia Pacific (APAC). “This makes it easier for partners to collaborate with Google Education. It also ensures a more consistent, inclusive, delightful experience for the millions of teachers and students that use Google tools.”
Drawing on extensive end-user evaluation, the BIZ UD typefaces were developed using the principles of universal design (UD) to ensure legibility (the ease of differentiating individual characters) and readability (the ease of reading text overall). BIZ UD fonts are especially suited for conveying text accurately—for example, in educational settings, corporate communication environments, and other places that use ICT.
To learn more, read Morisawa BIZ Universal Design (UD) Japanese fonts added to Google Fonts and Google Workspace.