Tangut Yinchuan v. 16.003 is a font for the Tangut script that supports the full set of Tangut characters defined in Unicode version 16.0 (Tangut, Tangut Supplement, Tangut Components code charts). It is based on a font named XXZT (西夏字体 in Chinese) that was designed by Prof. Jǐng Yǒngshí 景永时 of the Beifang Ethnic University (北方民族大学) in Yinchuan. The original font was used for typesetting the revised 2nd edition of the Tangut-Chinese dictionary Xià-Hàn Zìdiǎn 夏漢字典 (Beijing, 2008) by Prof. Li Fanwen 李范文.
The original font (XXZT) was remapped to Unicode code points and extended to cover all Unicode Tangut ideographs and components by Andrew West and Michael Everson. We have also made numerous glyph changes, most of which are documented in Unicode Technical Note 42 (Tangut Character Additions and Glyph Corrections by Andrew West and Viacheslav Zaytsev) and WG2 N4588 (Tangut glyph corrections by Andrew West, Viacheslav Zaytsev, Sun Bojun, Michael Everson). This modified font is used for Tangut ideographs and Tangut components in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 code charts. Tangut Yinchuan is a fork of the code chart font.
Tangut Yinchuan includes 2,812 Tangut characters in Supplementary Private Use Area-A, in the range U+F0000 through U+F1611, as documented in Tangut_Variants.html. At a future date I intend to replace all or most of the PUA characters with ideographic variation sequences, and register a BabelStone Tangut collection in the Ideographic Variation Database.
This font has been made available for free download and use with the permission of Prof. Jing Yongshi, who reserves the copyright to the font. This font may not be modified, sold or redistributed for profit without the express permission of the copyright holders. If you use this font in a publication you are requested to acknowledge Prof. Jing Yongshi's copyright of the font.
The font is maintained by Andrew West, and any feature requests or bug reports should be directed to Andrew West by email.
Sample of Tangut Yinchuan font showing the preface to the Homophones
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 9.000 | 2017-01-01 | First public release. Supports Unicode 9.0, including 6,125 Tangut ideographs at U+17000 through U+187EC; 755 Tangut components at U+18800 through U+18AF2; and the Tangut iteration mark at U+16FE0. |
| 9.001 | 2017-03-19 | Two glyph corrections. Also added support for vertical text layout. |
| 10.000 | 2017-12-12 | Numerous glyph corrections. |
| 11.000 | 2018-04-02 | Added five Tangut ideographs added to U+187ED through U+187F1 in Unicode version 11.0. Various glyph corrections. |
| 11.001 | 2018-08-01 | Various glyph improvements. Added Han ideographs for numbers etc. sometimes used in Tangut texts. |
| 12.000 | 2019-03-01 | Added six Tangut ideographs added to U+187F2 through U+187F7 in Unicode version 12.0. Various glyph corrections and improvements. |
| 13.000 | 2020-03-04 | Added six Tangut ideographs added to U+18D00 through U+18D08 in Unicode version 13.0 (see WG2 N5064). Added 13 Tangut components added to U+18AF3 through U+18AFF in Unicode version 13.0 (see WG2 N4851 and WG2 N5064). Various glyph corrections (see WG2 N5126). |
| 13.001 | 2020-06-01 | Glyph corrections for nearly 1,500 Tangut ideographs and 72 Tangut components, as described in this document (WG2 N5134 = L2/20-166); glyph improvements for nearly 500 other Tangut ideographs and components. |
| 13.002 | 2020-07-07 | Additional glyph corrections and improvements. Improved underline and strikethrough placement. |
| 13.003 | 2020-10-27 | Improved support for kerning and vertical layout of punctuation marks (test page). |
| 13.004 | 2020-11-10 | Added all Latin characters required for representing reconstructed readings of Tangut characters (as a fallback in the absence of a more appropriate Roman font). |
| 13.005 | 2021-07-26 | Improved glyphs for 202 Tangut ideographs, 7 Tangut components, and 20 PUA characters with the 𘡯 component. |
| 14.000 | 2021-08-06 | Corrections of dlng and slang values in the Meta table. |
| 14.001 | 2021-10-14 | Some additional PUA characters. |
| 15.000 | 2022-09-22 | 93 additional PUA characters for Tangut variants. Added characters for Counting Rod Numerals, including ZWJ ligatures for tens and digits one through five. |
| 15.001 | 2023-02-03 | Glyph changes to 15 components and 380 ideographs to better reflect the actual glyph forms given in primary sources such as Homophones (𗙏𘙰) and Sea of Writing (𘝞𗗚) : straighten the left leg of 𘡀, 𘡔, 𘡘, 𘢹, 𘢼, 𘢽, 𘣂, 𘣫, 𘣿, 𘤫, 𘥁, 𘥴, 𘦰, 𘩈, and 𘪒 in all cases; and straighten the left leg of 𘠐, 𘠭, 𘡢, and 𘃙 when it is not open on the left side. |
| 15.002 | 2023-04-26 | Added three unencoded characters from the Golden Light Sutra at F0630..F0632 (see @BabelStone on Twitter). Glyph corrections for 17105, 172A4, 17BD1, 17BD2, 17BD3, 17EF9, 18136, and 18171, as documented in WG2 N5206. |
| 15.003 | 2023-06-01 | Glyph corrections for 17121, 17782, 17961, 17C51, 17D0B, 17EC9, 180DF, 1829E, 188A2, 189FD; additional variant characters in the PUA; and additional PUA components. |
| 15.100 | 2023-07-04 | Added five new IDS characters for Unicode 15.1. |
| 15.101 | 2023-07-24 | Added one PUA character. |
| 15.102 | 2023-08-07 | Added two PUA characters. |
| 15.103 | 2023-10-15 | Added one PUA character. Glyph corrections for U+17121, U+17C51, U+17D0B, and U+180DF. |
| 16.000 | 2024-07-04 | Added one PUA character. |
| 16.001 | 2024-07-10 | Added 1,448 additional PUA characters for original glyph forms shown in Li Fanwen's 2008 dictionary; removed several duplicate PUA characters; corrected the glyphs for some PUA characters. Added a page documenting the PUA characters in Tangut Yinchuan. Modified the glyphs for 182C6..182C8 () to use Tangut Component 401 (), as this would seem to be the correct glyph form. |
| 16.002 | 2024-07-15 | Added 348 additional PUA characters used in Han Xiaomang's 2021 dictionary, and made a few glyph corrections for PUA characters. |
| 16.003 | 2024-07-17 | Added 1 additional PUA character. |
For use on your computer or mobile device please download and install the TTF file by clicking on "Download Tangut Yinchuan" below. The WOFF and WOFF2 files are for web hosting use only, and are not required by most users. The 'Inverse' font is a version of the font with inverse glyphs (white glyphs on black background).
