Mincho

Mincho, or Minchōtai (明朝体), is a major category of Japanese serif typefaces used for body text in printed and digital materials. It is the Japanese counterpart to Western serif fonts, designed to resemble traditional Ming dynasty and early European serif styles that influenced Japanese typography during modernization. The name reflects its historical lineage and distinguishes it from sans-serif Gothic types.

Characteristics of Mincho include noticeable contrast between thick vertical strokes and thinner horizontal strokes, and the presence of serifs or finishing hooks at the ends of strokes in kanji and kana. The digitized forms often maintain clear stroke separation and a formal, bookish appearance. Kana characters in Mincho fonts tend to be more calligraphic, while kanji retain defined structure and modest variation among weights and glyphs. Substyles range from high-contrast, newspaper-friendly variants to lower-contrast designs optimized for screens.

Usage and examples: Mincho is widely used for long passages in books, newspapers, official documents, and websites where a formal, readable look is desired. It commonly accompanies sans-serif Gothic fonts for page hierarchy, with Mincho reserved for body text and headings or UI elements in some layouts. Notable Mincho fonts include MS Mincho and MS PMincho (widely distributed with Windows), as well as other families such as Noto Mincho and Hiragino Mincho Pro, which are used across different platforms and languages.

See also: Japanese typography, Ming typefaces, serif and sans-serif in Japanese design.