Kuro Hana Mincho
Kuro Hana Mincho (黒華明朝) is a free Japanese mincho (serif) font by lavsic, derived from the widely used open-source typeface Source Han Serif (源ノ明朝). Where many font modifications aim for neutrality, Kuro Hana Mincho takes a decidedly artistic direction: the horizontal strokes have been refined to appear thinner, and the overall proportions have been adjusted toward a condensed, vertically elongated form. The effect is a typeface that feels slender and upright, with an elegance that the creator describes as evoking the beauty of flower petals. The sharpness at the stroke terminals and the fluid, flowing lines are designed to conjure a sense of glamour and a certain bewitching allure, like a blossoming flower, hence the name “Kuro Hana” (黒華), meaning “dark flower.”
The font is available in an ExtraBold weight, making it particularly striking for display settings such as titles, posters, video thumbnails, and game UI. The creator notes that because the modification process was largely automated, some characters may appear slightly misshapen. Kuro Hana Mincho is released under SIL Open Font License 1.1 and is free to use for both personal and commercial purposes, including embedding in videos, thumbnails, and games.
Usage Permission
- Free for personal, non-commercial, and commercial use.
- Released under SIL Open Font License (OFL) 1.1.
Link
To download, visit the page above and look for the button highlighted in the screenshot below. Click on the red button that says “Free Download” to start the download. Bear in mind that you will need to have a Pixiv account in order to download, which is rather easy to create. Once installed, you can select this font in your writing or design tools under the family name “KuroHanaMincho”.
Supported characters
- Hiragana and Katakana
- Kanji (Up to full JIS Level 4 support)
- Alphanumerics
- Latin and Cyrillic scripts
- Symbols and Punctuations