BIZ UDPMincho

The P stands for proportional. In BIZ UDMincho every kana sits in the same full-width square, the traditional way; in this UDPMincho each kana gets only the width its shape needs, closer to how Latin letters are spaced, and a line of Japanese tightens up for it.

Both come out of Morisawa’s universal design program, developed with Type Bank and tested on real readers, with school papers and business documents as the target. The starting point was a Mincho from the Morisawa library with thicker horizontals than the style normally has. Thin horizontals are where a Mincho is weakest. They fade on a screen or a sign, and for readers with low vision. On top of that the voicing marks, dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜), were drawn bigger, and the faces and counters of the characters were opened up without letting the forms go slack.

Google added it in March 2022, and Google Education said then that the BIZ UD fonts match the ones Japanese educational publishers use most.

Regular and Bold, 11,741 characters, with Greek, Cyrillic and a long run of IPA phonetic letters beside the Latin. For a worksheet or a contract it is a careful choice. A magazine spread would want more than 2 weights.