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ave you ever wondered
where computer fonts like
HTimes New Roman and Arial
come from? These commonly used
English fonts are produced by font
designers using computer software.
In the Google Fonts library platform,
there are only 12 sets of Chinese
typographies or just one per cent of
the whole free and open-source font
family. The rest are mostly English
typography. With increasing interest
in Chinese and Cantonese culture
in Hong Kong, font designers find
demand for traditional Chinese and
Cantonese fonts has grown.
Eddie Yuen Hing-cheong de-
signed Hard Gothic（硬黑體） Eddie Yuen Hing-cheong, designer of traditional Chinese font Hard
in 1997. He learnt how to draw and Gothic (硬黑體), sells his font sets on his website. (Photo courtesy of
design fonts with software himself. Eddie Yuen Hing-cheong)
“ like DDED had to draw Cantonese

I think it is impossible to survive as a characters using illustration software
instead of directly typing them out.
full-time individual font designer in He now can just type Cantonese
characters using the set of fonts that I
Hong Kong. designed, which is more convenient,”
he says.
” Similar to Yuen, Roy Chan Ching-
hin, owner of Moodmen Font, which
It took him four years to finish the family. I think it is impossible for a is an online shop selling products
typeface as he needed to design 5,000 full-time font designer in Hong Kong with artistic character designs, also
traditional Chinese digital fonts. to survive,” he adds. observes growing demand for tradi-
“I was inspired by Choi Kai-yan, a But Yuen decided to revamp his tional Chinese font sets with Canton-
famous font designer. I have become font design after learning that his ese words in the city.
interested and even fallen in love font design was used by DDED, a
with traditional Chinese character local comic artist, in his comic book
designs. I find that there are so many in 2016. He finished revamping his
possibilities for traditional Chinese font design in 2018 and added more
characters designs,” he says. traditional Chinese characters to his
Yuen’s traditional Chinese font design.
with bold and straight strokes was “I added Cantonese characters like
put on sale in 2002 for $300 per set. 「㗎 」 and 「 」in my design to
He gave up selling his font design meet stronger demand for fonts for
three years later because of his busy typing Cantonese,” Yuen says.
work as a door plate manufacturer to Yuen finds adding Cantonese
maintain his living. He only sold 40 characters to his font design has
sets of fonts making a few thousand brought convenience to users who
dollars in the end. create artworks using computer Comics by DDED, a local comic
“I also have to take care of my kids software. artist who uses Yuen’s font de-
and make a living to take care of my “Before my revamp, comic artists
sign.