Microsoft YaHei (微软雅黑 in Chinese) is a typeface designed for typesetting the Chinese language in the Simplified Chinese script. It is a “gothic” (sans serif) style with slight flaring to some of its curved strokes; the strokes are otherwise monoline (that is, little or no contrast between thick and thin strokes), especially in the lighter weights. Microsoft YaHei is designed to be readable at small sizes onscreen, and is appropriate for body text as well as titles and headings.
Microsoft YaHei UI is a version of the typeface that has been optimized for use in user interfaces, with alternate character design and reduced line height.
Microsoft YaHei was designed by senior type designer Li Qi of the Founder Electronics type foundry in 2004, with font hinting (adjustments for rendering the characters onscreen) by Monotype Imaging. Microsoft YaHei has three weights, Light, Regular, and Bold, with no italic styles. In addition to Simplified Chinese characters, the font includes Japanese hiragana and katakana, Korean Hangul, bopomofo, telegraph month symbols, numerals and characters in circles and parentheses, and capitals and lowercase letters for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets, derived from the Segoe typeface.
