Stylogeny combining Renaissance Book Typography × Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

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Style combination · Pairs well

Renaissance Book Typography × Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

Its Western counterpart: both fix one justified text block in a proportioned page with deep margins, so set a Ming face and a Garalde side by side in a bilingual book and let each keep its own grid.

From the research on Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho)

Mix them and make something Renaissance Book Typography Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

ATLASRenaissance Book × Song–Ming Woodblock
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography, their arrangement from Renaissance Book Typography, the finish from Renaissance Book Typography. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Renaissance Book Typography Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho)

Type from Renaissance Book Typography
Colour from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography
Form from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography
Composition from Renaissance Book Typography
Surface from Renaissance Book Typography

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Renaissance Book Typography

Atlas

EB Garamond; Renaissance Book Typography used Jenson's roman and Griffo's roman

Text · Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography

The page and letter of the East Asian book. Song block cutters copied the regular script of Tang masters; from the mid-16th century Ming cutters straightened it into a knife-made letter of thin horizontals, thick verticals and triangular stroke ends. Equal square characters run in right-to-left vertical columns in a ruled frame folded at a central column. As metal type in Shanghai and Nagasaki it became Mincho, Myeongjo and the standard CJK text face. Frame, rules and fold column belong to the woodblock page; type keeps the letter, the square and, in Japan and Taiwan, the vertical column.

Shippori Mincho; Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography used Song block-cut regular script after Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan and Ming-style Songti / Mingti, the straightened 'craftsman's' letter, mature by the Wanli era

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography, with a counter-accent from Renaissance Book Typography. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Renaissance Book Typography Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho)

  • #f1e9d6 ground · 36%
  • #16130f ink · 14%
  • #b5342b accent · 18%
  • #d6c49c accent · 14%
  • #b8973f accent · 10%
  • #2e3d5c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f1e9d6;
  --ink: #16130f;
  --accent-1: #b5342b;
  --accent-2: #d6c49c;
  --accent-3: #b8973f;
  --accent-4: #2e3d5c;
  --font-display: "EB Garamond", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho): Have any Chinese, Japanese or Korean text set and proofread by a fluent reader: Song, Mincho and Myeongjo fonts draw some characters differently for each locale, and pseudo-characters, mirrored glyphs or random hanzi used as texture read as nonsense or worse. Pages of Buddhist sutras and other scripture carry devotional text; do not crop them into decoration.

04

The two styles

An aged cream book cover reads “THE GARDEN OF REASON” above a symmetrical illustration of a fruit-bearing tree flanked by two birds and flowering plants. Black leafy vines, rust-red flowers, and ochre leaves fill a rectangular ornamental border. c. 1460–1600 · Southern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe Renaissance Book Typography The printed book as shaped by humanist Italy and France: roman and italic types modelled on humanist handwriting, a single justified text block set in harmonious proportions within generous margins, and woodcut initials, borders and printer's devices as the only ornament. Its page became the default model of the Western book for the next five centuries. A vintage-style bookstore poster has large black Japanese characters stacked vertically in a central panel, with smaller vertical lettering along both sides. Black ruled borders, red four-petal motifs, diamonds and dots decorate a textured cream background. c. 960–present · East Asia Song–Ming Woodblock Book Typography (Songti / Mincho) The page and letter of the East Asian book. Song block cutters copied the regular script of Tang masters; from the mid-16th century Ming cutters straightened it into a knife-made letter of thin horizontals, thick verticals and triangular stroke ends. Equal square characters run in right-to-left vertical columns in a ruled frame folded at a central column. As metal type in Shanghai and Nagasaki it became Mincho, Myeongjo and the standard CJK text face. Frame, rules and fold column belong to the woodblock page; type keeps the letter, the square and, in Japan and Taiwan, the vertical column.

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