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GB 2312 and GB 18030

The GB 2312-1980 character set standard represents Simplified Chinese characters. GB is short for Guojia Biaozhun, Chinese for national standard. GB 2312-1980 contains 7,445 characters, including 6,763 Hanzi and 682 Latin, symbol and punctuation characters.

As additional extensions were added and the Unicode™ Standard expanded, the GB 18030 character sets were updated accordingly. The most recent, GB 18030-2000, was introduced in to the Unicode Standard in 2000. It contains room for 1.6 million characters, can include one, two or four byte characters, and includes support for Mongolian, Tibetan, Yi, and Uyghur, as well as all previously supported Chinese scripts.

Why GB 18030 is important
The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) government requires that all language-related products introduced into the Chinese marketplace must be able to function using all the characters in GB 18030. This includes the editing and processing of all the characters, and the ability to identify and output all the characters including minority characters. Compliance is exempt for products introduced prior to March 17, 2000. Any product (including upgrades) released between March 17, 2000 and August 31, 2001 must be updated to conform to the standard. Any product released on or after September 1, 2001 must be certified by one of the government-appointed groups. Non-compliance results in the inability to sell these products in the PRC. Does your product currently fit this category? If so, what steps can you take to correct it?

Classes of Conformance
The PRC has specified three main classes of conformance. Products earn ratings based on meeting particular levels of compliance.

How Monotype Imaging can help
In 1995, Monotype Imaging was the first font company to receive an endorsement for Chinese typefaces by the PRC government in the years before the advent of GB 18030. Monotype Imaging has since enjoyed a long working relationship with China’s State Language Committee (SLC) and the Chinese Information Technology Standardization (CITS). These two groups ensure the conformance of language-related products sold in China to certain Chinese standards including GB 18030. View the complete list of Monotype Imaging Chinese fonts that have been approved by the PRC.

Monotype Imaging has already received PRC approval on two complete Asian Unicode fonts, and more are on the way. Through our relationship with the SLC and CITS, Monotype Imaging is in the unique position of having extensive experience of working with GB 18030. Using fonts taken from our World Language Fonts Catalog, one of the industry’s largest and widest ranging multilingual font collections, we have been able to assist numerous software and hardware developers with Chinese font solutions. Our staff of experts can determine what type of font support your product needs to gain approval from the PRC, and provide your company with a cost-effective and efficient solution.

For more information
For more information on Chinese fonts, please visit our CJK Primer. To help determine your needs for multilingual and Unicode-based compliant fonts, or to receive printed literature on Monotype Imaging’s Unicode-based font solutions, please contact us.