# LXGW WenKai is an open source Chinese font from Klee One > LXGW WenKai, also called 霞鹜文楷, is an open source Chinese font derived from Fontworks Klee One, supporting simplified, traditional, Japanese, and Korean through a three-weight family under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. **lxgw/LxgwWenKai** — An open-source Chinese font derived from Fontworks' Klee One. 一款开源中文字体，基于 FONTWORKS 出品字体 Klee One 衍生。 - Repository: https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai - Stars: 26,103 · Forks: 643 - Language: Shell - License: OFL-1.1 - Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/lxgw-lxgwwenkai ## Derived from Fontworks Klee One LXGW WenKai, written 霞鹜文楷, is an open source Chinese font derived from Fontworks Klee One. The README describes it as a font with a Japanese textbook style that blends the look of FangSong and KaiTi. In December 2020, Fontworks released seven Japanese fonts on GitHub under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, and Klee had the largest character count among them. DIY font enthusiasts had patched Klee with commercial fonts for phone systems, but those patches mixed styles awkwardly and could not be used commercially. To enrich the open source Kai category, the author began completing Klee One with simplified and traditional Chinese characters on January 20, 2021. Because Klee One Regular was too thin for reading, the author used the original SemiBold weight as the Regular weight. ## A three-weight family for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Over time the project grew into a three-weight font family that supports simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The author named it 霞鹜文楷 because of its literary feel, though notes it suits poetry and medium-length text or annotations better than long body text. The font supports Unicode Variation Sequences for choosing punctuation width and position. The README states the full version covers the entire CJK basic and Extension A regions, with scattered characters from Extensions B through I. The Lite version drops some less common characters to make embedding easier. Several derivative families extend the line further, built on the same source glyphs. ## Character coverage and how it was built The README lists the character coverage in detail. The main Han section completes all 20,992 characters in the CJK Unified Ideographs basic plane and 6,592 characters in Extension A. It also completes every Hangul syllable encoded in Unicode so far, 11,172 of them, though the Lite version excludes Hangul. A practical note from the README is that more than four thousand glyphs in the full version were generated by the zi2zi deep learning method, and some shapes are rough. The author is not a professional designer and warns that patched-in characters may look slightly off, with stray spikes in the Medium weight and floating points in the Light weight. Character addition requests are closed because the files have grown too large. ## Getting the font: download, package managers, or build You can get LXGW WenKai from the GitHub Release page as TTF files, or from the fonts/TTF folder in the repository. Mirror sites listed in the README include Maoken, Zfont, and Ziyouziti, though these may lag the latest GitHub release. macOS users with Homebrew installed can run brew install font-lxgw-wenkai, and Windows users with Scoop can add the nerd-fonts bucket and install LXGW WenKai or LXGW WenKai Mono. To build from source, the README says you run the make build command, which depends on the LxgwWenKai-shared submodule and runs only on Unix-like systems with Python 3. Domestic users can also fetch builds from the Chongqing University open source mirror, which updates within 72 hours of a GitHub release. ## Related versions: Screen, Lite, GB, TC, and KR The README points to several sibling families. LXGW WenKai Screen bases its metrics on the Medium weight and matches Android default Latin font Roboto, for root-free font swapping on some Android phones. LXGW WenKai Lite drops Hangul and less common characters so developers can embed the font in software. LXGW WenKai GB adjusts shapes to the G source glyph standard and includes all characters in GB 18030-2022 implementation level 2. LXGW WenKai TC serves traditional Chinese users and old-glyph fans using inherited glyph references. The Korean version, LXGW WenKai KR, is available too. Merged Latin pairings include LXGW Bright with Ysabeau Office and the monospace LXGW Bright Code with Monaspace Argon. ## License and what you may not do LXGW WenKai is adapted from Fontworks Klee One and released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Klee is a trademark of Fontworks. Under the license, anyone may use the font personally or commercially for free, share it, install it on systems, embed it in software or apps, and modify it, as long as the OFL terms are kept and OFL.txt travels with redistributions. The README stresses the limits. Selling the font files alone is forbidden by OFL 1.1. Derivative fonts may not use the reserved names 霞鹜, 落霞孤鹜, or LXGW without the author's written permission, and may not be promoted under the author's name. The font cannot be released under another license or mixed into one file with conflicting licenses such as GNU GPL or IPA. The README also warns against buying the font from shops that resell it, since that violates OFL and sends no money to the author. ## Conclusion LXGW WenKai is an open source Chinese font that started from Fontworks Klee One and grew into a three-weight family covering simplified, traditional, Japanese, and Korean text. You can install it through Homebrew or Scoop, download TTF files from GitHub or mirrors, or build it from source with make. The project is practical rather than perfect: some glyphs are machine generated and the addition channel is closed. Released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, it is free for personal and commercial use, with the clear rule that the font files themselves must not be sold and reserved names need the author's permission for derivatives. ## FAQ ### What is LXGW WenKai and what is it based on? LXGW WenKai, also written 霞鹜文楷, is an open source Chinese font derived from Fontworks Klee One, a Japanese font released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. The author completed Klee One with simplified and traditional Chinese characters starting in January 2021, producing a three-weight family. ### Under what license is LXGW WenKai released? LXGW WenKai is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, the same license as its Klee One source. You may use it free of charge, including commercially, share it, embed it, and modify it, as long as you keep the OFL terms and ship OFL.txt with redistributions. ### How can I install LXGW WenKai on macOS or Windows? On macOS with Homebrew you run brew install font-lxgw-wenkai, and on Windows with Scoop you add the nerd-fonts bucket then install LXGW WenKai or LXGW WenKai Mono. You can also download TTF files from the GitHub Release page or build from source with the make build command on a Unix-like system. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai/issues) - [License: OFL-1.1](https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai/blob/main/LICENSE) - [lxgw/LxgwWenKai on GitHub](https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai) - [README](https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai/blob/main/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/lxgw/LxgwWenKai/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/lxgw-lxgwwenkai