Kanji Edit Kit 2.5

Kanji Edit Kit 2.5

Japanese TrueType font creation tool

A 2-byte font editing tool for creating original Japanese TrueType fonts for Mac OS and Windows

Features

Create original Japanese TrueType fonts for Mac OS and Windows. Turn 1-byte fonts made in Fontographer into 2-byte fonts, or turn Illustrator outline data into fonts. Generate full fonts with Latin characters, kana, and kanji, as well as 2-byte kana fonts, fonts with original gaiji, and gaiji fonts for Windows (EUDC). PDF embedding can be enabled. Fonts you create can be sold and distributed royalty-free under set conditions.

Overview

Three tools — Kanji Designer, Roll-Up Tool, and BASS-Packer — let you create original Japanese TrueType fonts.

Kanji Designer — a glyph editor for creating 1-byte TrueType fonts. Converts EPS data made in Illustrator into (1-byte) TrueType fonts.

Roll-Up Tool — rolls 1-byte TrueType fonts up into what is called BASS data.

BASS-Packer — generates Japanese TrueType fonts for Mac OS and Windows from BASS data. You can set font information such as the font name, typeface name, and copyright information.

In detail

How Japanese fonts are structured, and Kanji Edit Kit

A Japanese font’s character set is built on about 7,000 characters: proportional and fixed-width alphanumerics, JIS symbols, hiragana, katakana, and JIS Level 1 and Level 2 kanji. Adding system gaiji (Apple standard system gaiji or NEC gaiji), IBM extended characters, and NEC-selected IBM extended characters completes the standard character set for each OS. Some fonts also add their own characters (so-called user gaiji) in unused (undefined) code areas.

Kanji Edit Kit divides this large character set into 1-byte TrueType fonts of 94 characters per JIS row or 188 characters per Shift_JIS row (called slot data in Kanji Edit Kit), and finally assembles them into a single Japanese font.

You can build a full set equivalent to a commercial font, or a font of just kana or just gaiji. Design all the alphanumerics at a fixed width and you can make a monospaced font.

How production works

Font creation with Kanji Edit Kit is done on the Macintosh. Kanji Edit Kit includes a glyph editor called Kanji Designer. You can draw glyphs in it, or import EPS files made in the Illustrator you already know. And because slot data are 1-byte TrueType fonts, you can also use 1-byte font tools such as Fontographer, the well-known Latin font editor.

Once the slot data you need are ready, roll them up with Roll-Up Tool into BASS data — think of it as a bundle of glyph data. BASS data does not work as a font yet: BASS-Packer adds the information a font needs and finishes it as a TrueType font for Mac OS or Windows. BASS-Packer sets the font name, font information, PDF embedding settings, and more.

Platform-dependent characters

Japanese TrueType fonts for Mac OS and Windows usually differ in part of their character sets. These “platform-dependent characters” cause garbled text. Mac OS TrueType fonts normally use Apple standard system gaiji, but you can make them NEC gaiji, as on Windows. They normally lack IBM extended characters, but you can include them.

By making the platform-dependent parts identical on both OSes, Kanji Edit Kit lets you create Japanese fonts with the same character set. However, depending on the specifications of each OS, printer driver, application, and input method, results may not be completely identical. Also, the area assigned to NEC-selected IBM extended characters (the same as the IBM extended characters) on Windows cannot be used on Mac OS, so this part cannot be made identical.

Selling and distributing original fonts

You may sell or distribute the original fonts you create, royalty-free, provided you agree to the conditions.

Conditions Font data created with Kanji Edit Kit carries the information “Generated by Kanji Edit Kit 2.5.” When selling or distributing, please state in a ReadMe file or similar that the font was created with Kanji Edit Kit. If you wish these conditions to be waived, please contact us.

A request When you start selling or distributing, please let us know — an email is fine. We may introduce your font on our website, and it helps us develop and provide better font tools. We would also appreciate a link to our website.

Package contents

CD-ROM: – Kanji Designer 1.0.1 – Kanji design sheet – ART2EPS1 2.0.1 – Templates for Kanji Designer (JIS / Shift_JIS) – Templates for Fontographer (JIS / Shift_JIS) – Roll-Up Tool Mac 1.53 J – BASS-Packer 2.5 – Character code list (Shift_JIS) – UniDict Lite for Kanji – Type 1 plug-in – Font creation manual – Slot character code table

Requirements

• Macintosh or Power Macintosh running KanjiTalk 7.1 to Mac OS 9.2.2
• 8 MB or more memory
• About 20 MB free disk space

TrueType fonts created with this product can be used on Mac OS X, but depending on the specifications of applications such as word processors and graphics software, platform-dependent characters, and gaiji in the fonts may not display correctly.

For upgrades from Kanji Edit Kit 1.0/2.0, see here. Fontographer users, see here.

Notes

• There is no function for importing existing fonts.
• There are no hinting or bitmap functions.
• Characters assigned to undefined areas may not be usable.
• Kanji Designer may not handle fonts with very complex designs.
• Glyph designs may be distorted when converting from Type 1 to TrueType.
• TrueType fonts created with this product can be used on Mac OS X, but depending on application specifications, platform-dependent characters, and gaiji may not display correctly.
• Product specifications and prices are subject to change without notice.