Previously, I raised the question: “Why does the same character appear with either one-dot or two-dot ‘Shinnyo’ radical depending on the font?” To answer this question, the main reason is the difference in the standards being referenced (of course, this can also depend on the typeface design guidelines, but I’ll skip that part for now).

The character “辻” listed in the 1990 edition of the Japanese character code standard “JIS X 0208” uses the one-dot “Shinnyo” radical. The character ‘辻’ listed in the 2004 edition of “JIS X 0213” uses the two-dot “Shinnyo” radical. In today’s typical environment, most fonts refer to the newer 2004 version, so the character “辻” with the one-dot “Shinnyo” radical is rarely seen anymore. Fonts with an “N” in the font family name, such as “TP Mincho StdN,” “StdN,” “ProN,” “Pr6N,” etc. are compliant with the 2004 JIS standard.

However, in fact, the fonts provided by Type Project, for example, include both the two-dot and one-dot “Shinnyo” radicals for the character “辻.” The font used in the illustration is “AXIS Round 50 StdN,” but both are displayed. This is where concepts such as “glyph” and “CID” come into play. More information on this will be introduced next time.

(mm)