On May 21, 2026, students and professors from Hong Kong Polytechnic University visited the Morisawa Tokyo office.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University is one of the largest universities in Hong Kong, with approximately 28,000 students. On this day, about 30 students majoring in design visited our Tokyo office.

The Font Switch Project (FSP) included demonstrations of phototypesetting machines and lectures on fonts. Through the approximately 90-minute program, participants were able to learn about Morisawa's initiatives and Japanese typography culture.

Now, let me show you what happened on the day.

Opening scene

Let's start with an introduction to Morisawa.

We introduced the company's history, activities, and font creation process.

Next, a lecture on fonts and typography was held.

What kinds of techniques are used in font creation for "kana" (hiragana and katakana), characters unique to the Japanese language? Also, what techniques do Japanese graphic designers use to achieve readable layouts?

That concludes our introduction to Japan's unique typesetting culture.

Afterward, we moved to the entrance and conducted a demonstration using the phototypesetting machine.

We introduced the mechanism and history of Morisawa's phototypesetting machine "MC-6" and showed you how characters are actually printed.

All participants listened attentively to every program, and there was a lively Q&A session at the end. We were all very pleased to see the high level of interest in fonts and typography!

Following on from last year, the Font Switch Project has started activities to switch on the interest of students overseas in fonts. We will be introducing our future activities on this blog, so please look forward to it!