Web font service “FONTPLUS” releases new function to adjust “space” when Japanese punctuation marks are consecutive

SB Technology Corp. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, President ＆ CEO: Shinichi Ata, hereinafter referred to as SBT) has announced that SBT 's web font service ``FONTPLUS'' will include Japanese punctuation marks, parentheses, etc. Starting today, we have added a new function to web fonts that allows you to narrow or widen the spacing between characters depending on the context when ``Yakumono'' occur consecutively. Customers who are currently using FONTPLUS can use it at no additional cost.

Default in browser (top) and with chws enabled (bottom)

■Background of provision

In Japanese typesetting, when punctuation marks, parentheses, and other punctuation marks occur consecutively, character spacing is usually performed to close or widen the spaces between the characters depending on the context. However, in the current web, this character filling process cannot be achieved using standard methods, and this is one of the challenges for Japanese web typography. To solve this problem, FONTPLUS has developed a web font that incorporates the OpenType features "chws (Contextual Half-width Spacing)" and "vchw (Vertical Contextual Half-width Spacing)." chws/vchw is a function that adjusts the space when Japanese punctuation marks are consecutive in a specific combination in horizontal and vertical text, respectively.

■Corresponding punctuation combinations

Opening brackets + opening brackets

Punctuation marks + opening brackets

Closing brackets + opening brackets

Closing brackets + punctuation marks

Closing brackets + closing brackets

Punctuation marks + closing brackets

Closing brackets + middle dots/middle dots + opening brackets

Closing brackets + Japanese character spacing/Japanese character spacing + beginnings

■How to use

To use the chws/vchw functionality, simply add a parameter to the JavaScript snippet and specify it as the value of the <font-feature-settings> property in the corresponding location using CSS.

Click here for details on fonts that are compatible with this feature and how to use them.
https://fontplus.jp/usage/services/chws-vchw

SBT will continue to actively improve FONTPLUS services and promote further development of web typography.

• *The company names, product names, and service names mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of our company or each company or organization.