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Katakana Fonts

Japanese writing consists of a mix of three different scripts: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.

Katakana, the more angular looking of the two syllabic or Kana (Hirigana and Katakana) scripts, was derived from cursive forms of Kanji. As a syllabary, it can be considered a parallel model of Hiragana. Each Kana supports different, but equivalent symbols for the same sounds. Whereas Hiragana is used for grammatical elements, Katakana is most commonly used for foreign words and names, onomatopoeic expressions, as well as telegrams.

While the Kana syllabaries were developed in the 9th century AD, their forms and usage were fixed in 1900. Either syllabary can be effectively used alone for writing Japanese, though the common custom is to write in a mix of Kana and Kanji. The syllabic nature of Kana, as well as its order, suggest some early influence from Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism. Either syllabary can be used as furigana, small annotations next to a Kanji character which hint at meaning or pronunciation.

The Katakana font can be found in the non-Latin font library offered by Monotype Imaging®.

Monotype Imaging Inc. 847-718-0400