Suggestions for Sans SC

[NightFurySL2001]

It is unbearable to say the least that Sans SC, in the pursuit of "officialness", had given up plenty of the Plexness that made IBM Plex, well, IBM Plex. There are lots of unnecessary edits in SC that are not present in TC/JP, which lots of them have degraded the quality and beautiness of IBM Plex Sans SC.

The following are some suggestions that can be taken by restoring partially to the JP/TC versions while still being usable in SC. These suggestions are made fully in mind that the "official" GB 18030 standard does not specify these changes in writing.

辶/之 component

This is the component that received the most edit for the worst performance. The geometric-grosteque style of IBM Plex Sans has been lost in favour of curves. I suggest to revert this design back to the JP style as shown below. Plenty of commercial fonts (shown here Alibaba PuHuiTi) maintain the straight legs, at least for 辶.

凵 component at bottom

The current design slants the bottom of 山 while removing one of the leg. Although a viable solution, it still seems unbalanced especially at the extreme weights. It would be better to retain both legs to maintain the balance of this component and maintain the geometric style too. This design is used in PingFang SC, the macOS/iOS system font.

人 component on left/top

The original design in JP/TC calls for a symmetrical design for 人 on the left side, consistent with the geometric design style. SC forcibly changes all of these to match writing tradition, which violates the design language and leave a sore point for readers as the left curve takes more space than usual while having the head looks chopped-off too. This is even more noticeable in 釒, 飠 and 龠 component.

隹 component on top

There is no reason to add the feet of 隹 when on top. This just breaks the geometric design with additional decorations. Plenty of commercial fonts (shown here Alibaba PuHuiTi) do not have the legs.

Additional minor adjustments

There are more additional changes in SC that are modified to suit the "official" standard, which are too long to be listed here. Notable changes includes 心 and 夕 components which had major restructring, as well as a few more components. These are not expected to be reverted to JP/TC, but will be better if so.

[Buernia]

I don’t think the 人 component on the left violates the design language. Since the 丙 component can exist in both forms (#571), the 人 component can also be designed to be asymmetric. Besides, the similar component in KR (ㅅ) also has a similar design.

[NightFurySL2001]

I don’t think the 人 component on the left violates the design language. Since the 丙 component can exist in both forms (#571), the 人 component can also be designed to be asymmetric. Besides, the similar component in KR (ㅅ) also has a similar design.

The hangul component ㅅ and hanzi 丙 does not have components protrude under the roof and sharing the inner space; the hanzi component 人 however does (人下面还有部件，比如亼；谚文ㅅ和汉字丙下面没有东西). From the images it can be seen for common characters, the whole left side have to be shifted downwards to give more inner space which lowers the center of gravity (压低重心). Less-common characters just received a replacement without adjustment which makes the white space even smaller (留白不均) and be less readable in heavier weights (直接糊了).

It should also be noted the design of 人 in IBM Plex Sans JP/TC/SC has always been counted as 2 strokes, so there should be no issue using the JP/TC 人 on top left in SC.

[josephcfong]

凵 component at bottom in PingFang SC has been solved in the current version, because the visual design gives way to written standards. So the example no longer exists.

[lxgw]

Additionally, the Text weight of IBM Plex Sans SC is slightly thinner than that of IBM Plex Sans TC.

[NightFurySL2001]

Plex team might want to reconsider 主 component which is edited inapropriately with thinner stroke and less angle.

Also probably better to keep the vertical stroke in 南 instead of slanting. Many heiti fonts in China already use vertical 南, e.g. Microsoft YaHei, OPPO Sans and Alibaba Puhuiti (shown). PingFang SC uses a mixed of vertical and slanted.

[pkj-l]

凵 component at bottom in PingFang SC has been solved in the current version, because the visual design gives way to written standards. So the example no longer exists.

But old versions of PingFang SC can still be seen in the daily life in Chinese mainland, including apple.com.cn, and some people are still using old iPhones with old versions of iOS.