Archive | Originally published 2022-04-21. Ages, crowdfunding progress and current affairs are retained as reported at the time. Please refer to the product pages for current availability and licensing.
On 21 April 2022, Morisawa and Arphic announced an agreement under which Morisawa would acquire further shares in Arphic and make the Taiwanese company part of its group. Morisawa had first invested in Arphic in August 2013, acquiring a 16 per cent stake. The development brought a locally founded Taiwanese type company into a Japanese group.
The announcement said that Arphic would continue its existing type development and services after joining Morisawa, strengthening the group’s position in Chinese type. Morisawa president Akihiko Morisawa pointed to the shared use of Han characters in Japanese and Chinese as a basis for compatibility and collaboration in type development.
Arphic had more than thirty years of history in Taiwan. Although the acquisition was not expected to change day-to-day operations, it prompted wider questions about the independence of Traditional Chinese type businesses. The article also recalled that Tsai Ing-wen’s 2016 campaign had licensed the Taiwan-developed Jingxi Hei, using the purchase to highlight the importance of legitimate font licensing.
With relatively few companies focused on Traditional Chinese type development, the announcement drew comments expressing concern about the loss of another independent Taiwanese foundry, surprise at the scale of the news, and hopes that Arphic’s fonts would remain available. These were reactions reported at the time, rather than evidence of a change in font availability.
