Water is added to the shallow bowl, while the writer moves the inkstick in a circular motion to form dark, liquid ink. A writer then grinds the dry ink stick against an "inkstone," a polished and often decorative piece of stone with a shallow bowl carved into one end. Ink is kept as a solid, dry stick until ready for use.
The basic ingredients for ink are pine soot or lampblack and glue (as a binding agent) with any other miscellaneous additives, such as gold flakes, musk, and camphor.
The brush was used in conjunction with ink, a permanent black pigment that could not be washed out after being applied. Brush-point size depends upon its use in executing different styles of characters. The holder is made of bamboo, and the tip is made of wolf, rabbit, or goat hair. The brush pen was used as early as the seventh or sixth century B.C.E. These inscriptions range from a few to as many as five hundred characters. On bronzes, inscriptions were cast on sacrificial vessels, ritual bells, and seals. The words were carved with a stylus, some were written with brush and ink made of lampblack or cinnabar. Dated from around 1400-1200 B.C.E, the inscriptions on bones and shells-called "oracle bones"-recorded divination used by the Shang royal house. However, emphasis points are – at least to my knowledge – used only rarely and it may be difficult to typeset them depending on the software you use.The earliest writings in China were found on ox scapulae, tortoiseshells, and bronzes during the Shang dynasty. For emphasis of single words, you could use a heavier font (粗体, bold) or you could use emphasis points, which are small dots placed under (or in vertical typography to the right of) the relevant characters. However, switching between fonts is probably only a good idea if you start a new paragraph, because it may be difficult for the reader to recognise the font change. The fonts below are „Songti SC“ (which I like better than the older „STSong“), „Kaiti SC“ and „STFangsong“ that all ship with the current macOS and are designed by Changzhou SinoType Technology Co., Ltd.įrom top to bottom: Songti, Kaiti, Fangsongti. So, it is actually up to you to choose a nice combination. To my knowledge, a Kaiti style is used more often than Fangsongti in Chinese printed matter (at least in books).Īll these styles are available from very different vendors. I personally like the latter, but because the Kaiti style is heavier, it will be probably more likely be perceived as different than the Fangsongti style which is not that heavy.
Given that you main body font is 宋体 (Songti, the equivalent to a serif font for Latin characters probably), it is a good idea to use another style like 楷体 (Kaiti) or 仿宋体 (Fangsongti). Of course, it is possible to slant characters, but – as you state – this is not a very professional solution. Chinese script has no concept of “italics”.
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