DTP strategy for complex-script languages
Chinese 中文, Japanese 日本語, Korean 한국어, Arabic العربية: the Asiatis guide to mastering the DTP challenges of these scripts.
By Asiatis • Asia DTP experts since 2000
Specifics by script
Chinese 中文
- • Simplified (大陆) vs Traditional (台灣)
- • 30-40% more compact than French
- • Fonts: Noto Sans SC/TC, Source Han
Japanese 日本語
- • Three scripts: kanji/hiragana/katakana
- • Vertical reading possible (tategaki)
- • Fonts: Noto Sans JP, Hiragino
Korean 한국어
- • Hangeul: syllabic blocks
- • ~10% expansion vs French
- • Fonts: Noto Sans KR, Malgun Gothic
Arabic العربية
- • RTL (right to left)
- • Contextual ligatures
- • Fonts: Adobe Arabic, Noto Sans Arabic
Recommended InDesign workflow
- Composer: use the Adobe Paragraph Composer for CJK.
- CJK grid: enable the character grid for perfect alignment.
- GREP scripts: automate punctuation and spacing replacements.
- Preflight: check for missing fonts and unsupported glyphs.
Asiatis has a DTP team dedicated to Asian languages. See our technical translation service.
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