Ma Shan Zheng
Ma Shan Zheng brush kai
Type specimen
The specimen uses the official Google Fonts subset when available, otherwise a font installed on this device. If neither exists the browser falls back to a system font, so treat the official download page as authoritative.
About this font
Calligrapher Ma Shan Zheng's brushwork digitised by designer Calvin Sun and delivered worldwide through Google Fonts - the most internationally portable Chinese calligraphy face. Clear lift-and-press, wet-and-dry ink: enlarged it bleeds writing emotion, shrunk it mats together, so it is a 'one line worth ten thousand' font, not a text font. OFL plus CDN delivery made it a fixture of guochao posters, film titles and slogan walls; the companion Zhi Mang Xing running-script covers a different mood. Around seven thousand glyphs; proof beyond the common set.
Craft tip: Ma Shan Zheng's characters are inkier than print kai - widen tracking to 1.08-1.15 em so lift-and-press reads, or it mats into blobs. Reference it by its Latin name on Google Fonts; if the CDN wobbles for your audience, self-host a woff2 subset with OFL.txt bundled - compliance and uptime together.
Where it works best
Guochao hero type, tea and spirits product names, solar-term posters, film titles, handwritten quotes. Craft: the right contrast is a tidy sans underneath; embed straight from Google Fonts; keep it away from government and legal gravitas.
| Weights | 1 |
|---|---|
| First release | 2019 |
| Designed by | Ma Shan Zheng (calligrapher) |
| Rights holder | Calvin Sun, via Google Fonts |
| Scripts | Chinese |
| Licence | OFL SIL Open Font License 1.1 |
| Variable font | Not supported |
Licence and commercial boundaries
Licence:SIL Open Font License 1.1
The dominant permissive licence for open fonts: free commercial use, modification, embedding and redistribution. Its core duties are that derivatives stay under OFL without the Reserved Font Name, the licence text travels with the files, and the fonts themselves are never sold standalone. Works typeset with them belong wholly to you.
SIL OFL 1.1: free commercial, embeddable, modifiable; derivatives drop the reserved name and stay OFL, no standalone sales. Terms sit in the google/fonts repository.
Hard restrictions
- No reserved name in derivatives.
- No standalone sales.
Official channels
- Go to official download → https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Ma+Shan+Zheng
- Read the original licence → https://github.com/google/fonts/blob/main/ofl/mashanzheng/OFL.txt
Last verified:2026-09-07
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