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CSS: Font-Variant-East-Asian – East Asian Text Features

The font-variant-east-asian property in CSS provides advanced typographic control for East Asian text. This property allows developers to use specific typographic features commonly found in East Asian writing systems, such as traditional and simplified forms, ruby annotations, and proportional or monospace variants. These features enhance the readability and visual appeal of East Asian text, ensuring it is presented correctly and beautifully.

East Asian text features are essential for preserving the linguistic and cultural integrity of languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. By using the font-variant-east-asian property, developers can tailor their web content to better support these languages, providing a more authentic and user-friendly experience. In this article, we will explore the font-variant-east-asian property in detail, starting with a basic setup and moving on to practical examples demonstrating its usage.

Basic Setup

Before we dive into the details of the font-variant-east-asian property, let’s set up a basic example to demonstrate its functionality. We’ll create a simple HTML structure with some CSS to define our text elements.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Font-Variant-East-Asian Example</title>

    <style>

        .text {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            font-size: 16px;
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
            background-color: #f0f0f0;
        }

    </style>

</head>
<body>

    <div class="text">
        This is a sample text with the default font-variant-east-asian.
    </div>

</body>
</html>

In this code, we define a <div> element with the class text. The CSS sets the font-family to Arial and the font-size to 16px. This basic setup provides a foundation for exploring the font-variant-east-asian property.

Understanding the font-variant-east-asian Property

The font-variant-east-asian property in CSS allows you to control various typographic features specific to East Asian text. The property can take several keyword values to specify different East Asian typographic styles. The syntax for font-variant-east-asian is:

element {
    font-variant-east-asian: value;
}

Where value can include:

  • normal: The default value, displaying text in its normal style.
  • jis78, jis83, jis90, jis04: Uses specific JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) variants.
  • simplified: Uses simplified Chinese characters.
  • traditional: Uses traditional Chinese characters.
  • full-width: Uses full-width glyphs.
  • proportional-width: Uses proportional-width glyphs.
  • ruby: Uses glyphs intended for ruby annotations (small annotations above or beside East Asian text).

Practical Examples of font-variant-east-asian

Let’s explore practical examples of using the font-variant-east-asian property in different scenarios.

Using Traditional Chinese Characters

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Font-Variant-East-Asian Example</title>

    <style>

        .text-traditional {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            font-size: 16px;
            font-variant-east-asian: traditional;
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
            background-color: #f0f0f0;
        }

    </style>

</head>
<body>

    <div class="text-traditional">
        這是一段使用繁體中文的示例文本。
    </div>

</body>
</html>

In this example, the font-variant-east-asian property is set to traditional for the .text-traditional class. This ensures that the text is displayed using traditional Chinese characters, which are more complex and detailed than simplified characters.

Using Simplified Chinese Characters

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Font-Variant-East-Asian Example</title>

    <style>

        .text-simplified {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            font-size: 16px;
            font-variant-east-asian: simplified;
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
            background-color: #e0e0e0;
        }

    </style>

</head>
<body>

    <div class="text-simplified">
        这是一段使用简体中文的示例文本。
    </div>

</body>
</html>

In this example, the font-variant-east-asian property is set to simplified for the .text-simplified class. This ensures that the text is displayed using simplified Chinese characters, which are simpler and easier to write compared to traditional characters.

Using Full-Width Glyphs

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Font-Variant-East-Asian Example</title>

    <style>

        .text-full-width {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
            font-size: 16px;
            font-variant-east-asian: full-width;
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
            background-color: #d0d0d0;
        }

    </style>

</head>
<body>

    <div class="text-full-width">
        This is a sample text using full-width glyphs.
    </div>

</body>
</html>

In this example, the font-variant-east-asian property is set to full-width for the .text-full-width class. This ensures that the text is displayed using full-width glyphs, which are typically used in East Asian typography for a more uniform appearance.

Combining Font Variants with Other Properties

The font-variant-east-asian property can be combined with other font properties to achieve more sophisticated typographic effects. Let’s see an example where we combine font variants with other font settings.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>CSS Font-Variant-East-Asian Example</title>

    <style>

        .text {
            font-family: 'Verdana', sans-serif;
            font-size: 18px;
            font-variant-east-asian: ruby;
            font-weight: bold;
            font-style: italic;
            margin: 10px;
            padding: 10px;
            background-color: #c0c0c0;
        }

    </style>

</head>
<body>

    <div class="text">
        これはルビ付きのサンプルテキストです。
    </div>

</body>
</html>

In this example, the .text class combines font-variant-east-asian: ruby; with font-weight: bold; and font-style: italic;. This ensures that the text is styled with ruby annotations, bold weight, and italic style, creating a distinctive and readable typographic style.

Conclusion

The font-variant-east-asian property in CSS is a versatile tool for applying various East Asian typographic features to text, such as traditional or simplified characters, full-width or proportional-width glyphs, and ruby annotations. By using this property, developers can enhance the visual appeal and readability of East Asian text, creating a more engaging and polished look. The font-variant-east-asian property offers a range of values that cater to different typographic needs specific to East Asian writing systems.

Experimenting with different East Asian text features and combining them with other font properties allows for the creation of sophisticated and visually engaging webpages. The examples provided in this article serve as a foundation, encouraging further exploration and creativity in using the font-variant-east-asian property to design responsive and user-friendly webpages.

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