This explains in detail the features of Noto Sans JP, reasons for its use, how to implement it, and tips for faster loading. “Noto Sans JP,” often seen in website and app designs, is a high-quality Japanese font provided by Google. If you are considering font selection, please take a look.

What is Noto Sans JP? Features and Reasons for Its Use

Noto Sans JP is a Japanese font provided by Google and is the sans-serif (Gothic) version of the “Noto” family. Its characteristics focus on readability and simplicity, making it widely used in websites, apps, and various other scenarios.

There are mainly three reasons why it is used.

  1. High-quality multilingual font support
    Noto covers many characters worldwide and features a consistent design including Japanese.
  2. Free and easy to use via Google Fonts
    It is license-free, so commercial use is allowed. Since it can be loaded directly from Google Fonts, implementation is simple.
  3. High readability with a modern design
    Especially excellent visibility on screens, it is valued in web production for not compromising user experience.

Basic Code to Load Noto Sans JP from Google Fonts

To use Noto Sans JP, add the Google Fonts link tag inside the HTML <head>. The basic loading code is as follows.

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Noto+Sans+JP&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
  • Use the URL specified by Google Fonts for the href.
  • display=swap temporarily shows the system font until the font is loaded, then switches to the loaded font. This prevents “FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text)” where text is invisible to users.

This makes Noto Sans JP available for use.

How to Reduce Font Weight to Lighten Noto Sans JP (Example: Specify Only 400 and 700)

Noto Sans JP offers multiple weights, but loading all of them increases file size and slows display.
The commonly used standard weights are 400 (normal) and 700 (bold).

Example of specifying only the needed weights to load from Google Fonts:

<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Noto+Sans+JP:wght@400;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
  • Loads only weights 400 and 700 with wght@400;700.
  • This significantly reduces loading size and improves display speed.

Using preload and preconnect to Speed Up Font Loading

Font loading strongly affects web display speed, so the following methods help speed it up.

1. preload

This instructs the browser to prioritize loading important font files.

<link rel="preload" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Noto+Sans+JP&display=swap" as="style" crossorigin="anonymous">

rel="preload" tells the browser to load this resource as soon as possible. as="style" specifies the type of resource to load.

2. preconnect

This establishes a connection to Google Fonts servers in advance to reduce communication delay.

<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com" crossorigin>
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>

The crossorigin attribute is required for CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) support.

Concrete Implementation Example

Below is a concrete implementation example to load fonts quickly.

<!-- Insert the following inside <head> -->
<link rel="preload" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Noto+Sans+JP:wght@400;700&display=swap" as="style">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin="">
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Noto+Sans+JP:wght@400;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

Explanation of Key Points

  • rel="preload" prioritizes loading the font files for weights 400 and 700 only.
  • rel="preconnect" establishes a prior connection to Google Fonts domains to reduce communication latency.
  • crossorigin="" is necessary for security-related CORS settings.
  • Finally, rel="stylesheet" loads the font CSS to make the fonts available for use.

CSS font-family Specification and Notes for Actual Use

Specify the loaded font in CSS. The basic way to write is as follows.

body {
  font-family: 'Noto Sans JP', sans-serif;
}
  • 'Noto Sans JP' is the font name loaded from Google Fonts.
  • As a best practice, specify a general sans-serif fallback font to use if Noto Sans JP fails to load.
  • It is recommended to always enclose font names in single or double quotation marks.