Although Ajimin has the flavor of hot metal type, it is not intended to be a revival, but a new typeface for display purposes. Like Bodoni, its vertical strokes are clear and heavy and its horizontal strokes are precise and thin. Its elements possess strength and stability.
This typeface is designed to be used in larger type sizes (for posters, for example), although it’s legible in smaller sizes. As the type size increases, the elegance of each stroke element becomes more visible.
The original form of Ajimin Min, “Shijuku Katsuji” in the size of Shogo, was introduced in Yasaburo Kuwayama’s book: Lettering Design (1969). He wrote, “This is one of the most popular typefaces being sold today, and many designers like to use this typeface for newspaper/magazine advertisement and titles for brochures. There are many typefaces that closely resemble this design.”
Keinosuke Sato’s book Hiragana (I) referred to this typeface as “Tokubuto-Mincho-tai Midashi-yo Shogo of Kinsei-sha”. And it was released as “Minyu Mincho” by Shaken, who wrote of their version: “A typeface in the direct line of that of the Tokyo Tsukiji Type Foundry has been reproduced as a phototypesetting font under the name of Minyu-sha.”
Ajimin Min/EB is a revival based mainly on Shijuku Katsuji.
This font includes top 1,000 kanji characters chosen from character frequency tables made by newspaper companies, publishing houses and linguistic research institutes, plus 206 kana characters and punctuation marks.
Ajimin has the flavor of hot metal type and, like Bodoni, its vertical strokes are clear and heavy and its horizontal strokes are precise and thin. Its elements possess strength and stability. Ajimin is a unique Mincho-style display typeface. Ajimin Modern’s elements are more sharply designed, but that sharpness is balanced by the richness and elegance of the design. Ajimin’s biggest feature is its 10 kana variations, ranging from running-hand-like designs, to revivals of designs from the age of hot metal type, to modern style kana. These variations make Ajimin useful for a wide range of purposes.
As with everything from Adobe Fonts, you can use these fonts for:
Design Projects
Create images or vector artwork, including logos
Website Publishing
Create a Web Project to add any font from our service to your website
PDFs
Embed fonts in PDFs for viewing and printing
Video and Broadcast
Use fonts to create in-house or commercial video content
How to Use
You may encounter slight variations in the name of this font, depending on where you use it. Here’s what to look for.
Desktop
In application font menus, this font will display:
{{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_family_name}} {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_subfamily_name}}Web
To use this font on your website, use the following CSS:
font-family: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.family.css_font_stack.replace('"', '').replace('",', ', ')}};
font-style: italicnormal;
font-weight: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.font.web.weight}};
Glyph Support & Stylistic Filters
Fonts in the Adobe Fonts library include support for many different languages, OpenType features, and typographic styles.