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Format East Asian characters

Learn how to format text in East Asian languages.

Illustrator provides a variety of options for formatting East Asian characters. For example, you can set Asian Open Type font attributes, use Tate-chu-yoko, Aki, Warichu, Mojisoroe, Mojikumi, Kinsoku, Burasagari, and Kurikaeshi Moji Shori. In addition, you can combine Asian and Roman fonts and create composite fonts.

Display East Asian type options

By default, Illustrator hides East Asian type options in the Character panel, Paragraph panel, OpenType panel, and Type menu.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Type (macOS).

  2. Select Show East Asian Options, and click OK.

    You can also control how font names are displayed (in English or in the native language) by selecting or deselecting Show Font Names in English.

Note:

Your operating system must support the languages in which you wish to work. Contact your system software manufacturer for more information.

Set Asian OpenType font attributes

Asian OpenType fonts may include a number of features that aren’t available in current PostScript and TrueType fonts. In addition, Asian OpenType fonts provide alternate glyphs for many characters.

  1. Select the characters or type objects to which you want to apply the setting. If you don’t select any text, the setting applies to new text you create.
  2. Select an Asian OpenType font from Type > Font. OpenType fonts display the  icon.

  3. Navigate to Window > Type > OpenType, and set any of the following options:

    • Proportional Metrics: Kerning is according to the proportional metrics of the font.
    • H or V Style: Switches hiragana fonts, which have different glyphs for horizontal and vertical such as contracted sounds, double consonants, and phonetic indexes.
    • Roman Italics: Changes half-width alphanumerics to italics.

Replace Asian characters with a different glyph form

  1. Select the characters you want to replace.
  2. Navigate to Type > Glyphs and choose an option from the Glyphs menu. If you don’t see the following options, select Show East Asian Options in the Type preferences. If an option is disabled, the glyph form is not available for the current font:

    • Traditional Forms: Replaces the selected characters with traditional forms.
    • Expert Forms: Replaces the selected characters with their expert forms.
    • JIS 04 Forms: Replaces the selected characters with JIS 04 forms.
    • JIS 90 Forms: Replaces the selected characters with JIS 90 forms.
    • JIS 78 Forms: Replaces the selected characters with JIS 78 forms.
    • JIS 83 Forms: Replaces the selected characters with JIS 83 forms.
    • Monospaced Full-Width Forms: Changes the glyphs of the selected Latin characters to monospace zenkaku (full width).
    • Monospaced Half-Width Forms: Changes the glyphs of the selected Latin characters to monospace half width.
    • Monospaced Third-Width Forms: Changes the glyphs of the selected Latin characters to monospace third width.
    • Monospaced Quarter-Width Forms: Changes the glyphs of the selected Latin characters to monospace quarter width.
    Note:

    To revert an alternate glyph to its default form, select it and choose Revert To Default Forms from the Glyphs panel menu. You cannot use this method to revert alternate glyphs that were applied using a character style.

Specify how leading is measured in Asian type

  1. Select the paragraphs you want to adjust.
  2. Navigate to Window > TypeParagraph, and choose a leading option from the Paragraph panel menu.

    • Top-to-Top Leading: Measures the spacing between lines of type from the top of one line to the top of the next line. When you use top‑to‑top leading, the first line of type in a paragraph is aligned flush with the top of the bounding box.
    • Bottom-to-Bottom Leading: For horizontal type, measures the space between lines of type from the type baseline. When you use bottom-to-bottom leading, space appears between the first line of type and the bounding box.
    Note:

    The leading option you choose does not affect the amount of leading between lines, only how the leading is measured.

Rotate half-width characters in vertical text

The direction of half-width characters, such as Roman text or numbers, changes in vertical text. By default, half-width characters are rotated individually. If you don’t want half-width characters to rotate, select Standard Vertical Roman Alignment from the Character panel menu (Window > TypeCharacter).

Roman text before and after rotation
Roman text before and after rotation

Use Tate-chu-yoko

Tate-chu-yoko (also called Kumimoji and Renmoji) is a block of horizontal type laid out within vertical type lines. Using Tate-chu-yoko makes it easier to read half-width characters such as numbers, dates, and short foreign words in vertical text.

Numerals without Tate-chu-yoko (left) compared to numerals rotated with Tate-chu-yoko (right)
Numerals without Tate-chu-yoko (left) compared to numerals rotated with Tate-chu-yoko (right)

  1. Select characters and choose Tate-chu-yoko from the Character panel menu (Window > Type Character).  If the Tate-chu-yoko option isn’t showing, you need to select Show East Asian Options in the Type preferences.

  2. Select Tate-chu-yoko settings from the Character panel menu and select one of the following:

    • Up/Down: Specifies a positive value to move the text up and a negative value to move it down.
    • Left/Right: Specifies a positive value to move the text to the right and a negative value to move it to the left.

    Select Show Options from the Character panel menu and then select Tsume, or Set the tracking for the selected characters in the Character panel to adjust the character spacing for Tate-chu-yoko.

Use Aki

Aki is the white space before or after a character. Usually, fixed spacing is applied between the characters based on the Mojikumi setting for a paragraph. You can change the Mojikumi setting for special characters using the Insert Aki option in the Character panel. For example, to add a space before an opening parenthesis, use the Insert Aki (Left) option.

Parenthesis without Aki (left) compared to parenthesis with Aki (right)
Parenthesis without Aki (left) compared to parenthesis with Aki (right)

  1. Select the characters that you want to adjust with the Type tool, and navigate to the Character panel (Window > Type > Character).

  2. To add Aki before or after a character, choose the amount of Aki you want to add from the Insert Aki (Left)  or Insert Aki (Right)  drop-down in the Character panel. For example, if you specify 2-bu, half of a full-width space is added, and if you specify 4-bu, a quarter of a full-width space is added.

  3. To compress the Aki between characters, specify a percentage for Tsume . The higher the percentage, the narrower the Aki between characters.

    Character without Tsume (left) compared to character with Tsume (right)
    Character without Tsume (left) compared to character with Tsume (right)

If you don’t see the Insert Aki or Tsume options, select Show East Asian Options in the Type preferences.

Use Warichu

The Warichu option in the Character panel menu decreases the typeface size of selected text to a percentage of the original and stacks the type—horizontally or vertically, according to the orientation—on multiple lines.

Vertical and horizontal text with Warichu
Vertical and horizontal text with Warichu

  1. Select text and choose Warichu from the Character panel menu.

  2. Select Warichu Settings from the Character panel menu, and set the following:

    • Lines: Specifies the number of lines of text in which Warichu characters will appear.
    • Line Gap: Determines the distance between the lines of Warichu characters.
    • Scale: Sets the size of Warichu characters as a percentage of the size of the parent text.
    • Alignment: Specifies the alignment of Warichu characters. For example, in a vertical frame grid, selecting Top aligned will align the beginning of the Warichu characters at the top of the frame. The alignment proxy shows how the Warichu text appears relative to the parent text.
    • Line Breaking Options: Specifies the minimum number of characters required before and after the line breaks to start a new line.

Align Asian characters with Mojisoroe

Mojisoroe is the alignment of characters in Asian type. When a line of text contains different sizes of characters, you can specify how to align text to the largest characters in the line: to the top, center, or bottom of the em box (right, center, and left for vertical frames), to the Roman baseline, or to the top or bottom of the ICF box (right or left for vertical frames). ICF (Ideographic Character Space) is the average height and width used by the font designer to design the ideographic characters that comprise a font.

Character alignment options
Character alignment options

A. Small characters aligned to the bottom B. Small characters aligned to the center C. Small characters aligned to the top 

In the Character panel menu, choose an option from the Character Alignment submenu:

  • Roman Baseline: Aligns the small characters in a baseline to the large character.
  • Em Box Top/Right, Em Box Center, or Em Box Bottom/Left: Aligns the small characters in a line to the specified position of the large character’s em box. In vertical text frames, Em Box Top/Right aligns the text to the right of the em box, and Em Box Bottom/Left aligns the text to the left of the em box.
  • ICF Box Top/Right and ICF Box Bottom/Left: Aligns the small characters in a line to the ICF specified by the large characters. In vertical text frames, ICF Box Top/Right aligns the text to the right of the ICF, and ICF Box Bottom/Left aligns the text to the left of the ICF.

Use Mojikumi

Mojikumi specifies Japanese text composition for spacing of Japanese characters, Roman characters, punctuation, special characters, line start, line end, and numbers. You can also specify paragraph indents.

The existing character spacing rules in Illustrator follow the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) specification, JISx4051‑1995. You can select from the predefined Mojikumi sets provided by Illustrator.

Furthermore, you can create specific Mojikumi sets. In a new Mojikumi set, you can edit the settings for spacing that you use a lot, such as the spacing between a period and subsequent opening parenthesis. For example, you might create an interview format in which you want to have an em dash before a question, and answers enclosed in parentheses.

Select a Mojikumi set for a paragraph

  1. In the Character panel, set Set the kerning between characters to zero.

  2. In the Paragraph panel, choose one of the following options in the Mojikumi Set drop-down: 

    • None: Turns off the use of Mojikumi.
    • YakumonoHankaku: Uses half-width spacing for punctuation.
    • GyomatsuYakumonoHankaku: Uses full-width spacing for most characters except the last character in the line.
    YakumonoHankaku (left) and GyomatsuYakumonoHankaku (right)
    YakumonoHankaku (left) and GyomatsuYakumonoHankaku (right)

    • GyomatsuYakumonoZenkaku: Uses full-width spacing for most characters and the last character in the line.
    • YakumonoZenkaku: Uses full-width spacing for punctuation.
    GyomatsuYakumonoZenkaku (left) and YakumonoZenkaku (right)
    GyomatsuYakumonoZenkaku (left) and YakumonoZenkaku (right)

Create a Mojikumi set

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Type > Mojikumi Settings.

    • Choose Mojikumi Settings from the Mojikumi Set drop-down in the Paragraph panel.

  2. Select New in the Mojikumi Settings dialog.

  3. Enter a name for the new Mojikumi set, and specify the existing set on which the new set will be based.

  4. Choose % or bu in the Units drop-down in the Mojikumi Settings dialog.

  5. Specify Minimum, Desired, and Maximum values for each line setting.

    The Minimum value is used to compress lines for Kinsoku (specify a value less than the Desired value). The Maximum value is used to spread lines for fully justified text (specify a value greater than the Desired value).

    Depending on the character type, you can specify the same values for Minimum, Desired, and Maximum if you don’t want to change the spacing.

Note:

When you compose Japanese text with a lot of half-width spaces or Roman parentheses, problems relating to text composition increase. It is recommended that you avoid using Roman parentheses, and use full-width parentheses for Japanese composition. Use Roman parentheses only when using relatively long English sentences in Japanese text, or when a more serious problem results if you don’t use Roman parentheses.

Work with Mojikumi sets

In Mojikumi Settings , do any of the following:

  • To export a set, select Export. Illustrator saves the file in MJK format.

  • To import a set, select Import, and select an MJK file.

  • To delete a set, select it from the Name drop-down and then select Delete. All the text to which the deleted Mojikumi set was applied will return to the default settings.

    You cannot delete predefined Mojikumi sets.

Use Kinsoku

Kinsoku Shori specifies line break rules for Japanese text. Characters that cannot be placed at the beginning or end of a line are known as Kinsoku characters. Illustrator has hard Kinsoku sets and soft Kinsoku sets. Soft or weak kinsoku sets omit long vowel symbols and small Hiragana characters. You can use the existing sets, or add or delete Kinsoku characters to create new sets.

You can also define hanging characters for hanging Japanese punctuation and define characters that cannot be split when a line is exceeded.

You can specify whether to push in or push out text so that Kinsoku characters are not placed inappropriately.

Select Kinsoku settings for a paragraph

In the Paragraph panel, choose an option from the Kinsoku Set drop-down:

  • None: Turns off the use of Kinsoku.
  • Soft/Hard: Prevents selected characters from appearing at the beginning or at the end of a line.

Create a Kinsoku set

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Type > Kinsoku Shori Settings.

    • Choose Kinsoku Settings from the Kinsoku Set drop-down in the Paragraph panel.

  2. In the Kinsoku Shori Settings dialog, select New Set.

  3. Enter a name for the Kinsoku set, and specify the existing set on which the new set will be based.

  4. To add a character to a field, select the field, and do one of the following:
    • Enter a character in the Input box, select Direct Entry, and select Add.

    • Specify the code system (Shift JIS, JIS, Kuten, or Unicode), enter the code, and select Add.

    To delete a character from a field, select the character and select Delete.

  5. To check the code for the character currently added to the Input box, select Shift JIS, JIS, Kuten, or Unicode.

Use Kinsoku sets

In the Kinsoku Shori Settings dialog, do any of the following:

  • To export a Kinsoku set, select Export. Illustrator saves the file in KSK format.

  • To import a Kinsoku set, select Import, and select a KSK file

  • To delete a Kinsoku set, choose the Kinsoku set you want to delete from the Kinsoku Set drop-down, and then select Delete Set.

    You cannot delete predefined Kinsoku settings.

Specify a Kinsoku line-breaking option

Kinsoku Shori or Mojikumi must be selected to use the following line-breaking options.

From the Paragraph panel menu, choose Kinsoku Shori Type and then choose one of the following methods:

  • Push In FirstMoves characters up to the previous line to prevent prohibited characters from ending or beginning a line.
  • Push Out First: Moves characters down to the next line to prevent prohibited characters from ending or beginning a line.
  • Push Out Only: Always moves characters down to the next line to prevent prohibited characters from ending or beginning a line. A push-in is not attempted.

Set Bunri-Kinshi on and off

When you select Bunri-Kinshi, the characters specified in the Bunri-Kinshi section of the Kinsoku Shori Settings dialog will not be split.

In the Paragraph panel, choose Bunri-Kinshi from the panel menu.

Note:

This option is only available when Kinsoku Shori is on.

Specify a Burasagari option

Burasagari lets single‑byte periods, double‑byte periods, single‑byte commas, and double‑byte commas fall outside the paragraph bounding box.

  1. In the Paragraph panel, choose Burasagari from the panel menu.

  2. Choose an option from the submenu:
    • None: Turns off hanging punctuation.
    • Regular: Turns on hanging punctuation without forcing ragged lines to the bounding box edge.
    • Force: Forces punctuation outside the bounding box by spreading lines that end within the bounding box and end with one of the hanging characters.

    Burasagari options are not available when Kinsoku Set is set to None.

Use Kurikaeshi Moji Shori

You can control how repeated characters in Japanese text are handled using the Kurikaeshi Moji Shori option in the Paragraph panel. By default, a repeat character mark substitutes the second character when two identical characters follow one after the other. When you select Kurikaeshi Moji Shori , both characters are displayed if they are separated by a line break.

Text without Kurikaeshi Moji Shori option (left) compared to text with Kurikaeshi Moji Shori option (right)
Text without Kurikaeshi Moji Shori option (left) compared to text with Kurikaeshi Moji Shori option (right)

  1. Using the Type tool, select a paragraph of text to which you want to apply repeated character processing. 

  2. In the Paragraph panel, select Kurikaeshi Moji Shori from the panel menu.

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