LUCY PURVIS 张淑蓉



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2025
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FREQUENCY : FONT



[2025]


Subcategories:data visualization, thesis, non-latin script

This project is an examination of Hanzi, Hangeul, and Kanji fonts. I started by finding resources that calculated the most frequently utilized characters or syllables for each writing system before manually typesetting the first 10,000 characters or syllables for each. 
        With these 10,000 character walls of text, I designed a simple poster format and typeset 7,000 of the characters per writing system per poster before finding 40 different, distinct fonts each for Hanzi, Hangeul, and Kanji. I then made 3 sets of 40 posters, one for each writing system, with each poster using a different font for that language.
        I documented the font name and the first 10 characters or syllables that were not accounted for, instead appearing as “tofu”. I wanted to see the relationship between frequency of use and whether or not the font designers created glyphs for the characters. These 120 posters are a compilation of my findings, and are meant to be viewed together.


Chinese character frequency



Korean syllables



Kanji frequency