While the standard "MingLiU" font covers the most commonly used Traditional Chinese characters, the "ExtB" version is a supplemental font. It specifically contains characters that are less common, such as: Rare surnames and place names. Archaic characters used in historical documents. Specialized terminology used in classical literature. Technical Specifications
| Feature / Detail | Information | | :--- | :--- | | | MingLiU-ExtB, PMingLiU-ExtB, 新細明體-ExtB, 細明體-ExtB | | PostScript Name | PMingLiU-ExtB | | Typical Filename | mingliub.ttc (a TrueType Collection file) | | File Size | Approximately 5 MB to 32.2 MB, depending on the version | | Character Sets | CodePage 950 (Traditional Chinese for Taiwan and Hong Kong) and HKSCS . The ExtB version contains 42,711 characters from the Unicode Extension B block. | | Latest Version | 7.00 or 7.03 (released around 2017) | | Copyright / Vendor | © DynaComware Corp. / DynaLab | | Glyph Metrics | Units per EM: 1024 Vertical Ascent: 820 Vertical Descent: -204 | | Supported Code Pages | 1252 (Latin 1), 950 (Chinese: Traditional chars for Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR) |
style, characterized by thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokes. It features triangular ornaments (serifs) at the ends of strokes, making it highly readable for body text and headlines. Encoding & Coverage: The "ExtB" in its name refers to Unicode Extension B mingliuextb font
| Font Name | File Name | Key Features | Primary Use Case | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | mingliu.ttc | Standard fixed-width Traditional Chinese serif font. Includes support for Big5, HKSCS, and Unicode 2.0 characters. | General-purpose display and printing of Traditional Chinese text where character width consistency is desired. | | PMingLiU | mingliu.ttc | Proportional-width version of MingLiU. Latin characters are narrower, making text more natural and readable. | The default system font for Traditional Chinese versions of Windows, ideal for general documents, web browsing, and user interfaces. | | MingLiU-ExtB | mingliub.ttc | Extension of MingLiU, supports rare and historical CJK characters found in Unicode Extension B and C, totaling over 42,000 characters. | Specialized use cases like academic research, historical text digitization, and advanced linguistic work requiring rare characters. | | PMingLiU-ExtB | mingliub.ttc | Proportional-width version of MingLiU-ExtB. | Offers a more natural text flow for documents requiring the rare characters found in the Extension B set. | | MingLiU_HKSCS | mingliu.ttc | Tailored for the Hong Kong S.A.R. character set. Includes Hong Kong-specific supplementary characters and Cantonese pronunciation guides. | Official and commercial documents in Hong Kong that require government-standardized characters. | | MingLiU_HKSCS-ExtB | mingliub.ttc | Extends MingLiU_HKSCS with rare and historical characters, including those needed for certain Hong Kong legal and historical contexts. | Highly specialized documents in Hong Kong requiring both the HKSCS standard and rare Extension B characters. |
If your system displays unreadable blocks (often called "tofu") instead of Chinese characters, MingLiU-ExtB may be disabled or uninstalled. To activate it on modern Windows systems, follow these native steps: While the standard "MingLiU" font covers the most
In the early days of digital computing, fonts only supported a few thousand characters. However, the Chinese language contains over 50,000 ideographs. The Unicode Consortium created "Extensions" to map these rarer characters.
The entire MingLiU font family is a veritable institution in the world of Traditional Chinese typography. The font was originally commissioned by Microsoft and created by DynaComware Corp. (formerly known as DynaLab), a company that has been a leading provider of digital fonts in Asia for decades. The design is not purely original but is famously inspired by the "Hon Mincho" typeface from Japan, adapted and refined for use with Traditional Chinese characters. Specialized terminology used in classical literature
MingLiU-ExtB: The Essential Guide to This Specialized Chinese Font
The most frequent issue users encounter with MingLiU-ExtB is the appearance of (empty rectangles like ⨅ or boxes containing question marks). This happens when a browser, text editor, or operating system tries to read an Extension B character but cannot find a font file mapped to Plane 2. How to Fix Missing Character Display: