Jiu zixing

Jiu zixing (), also known as inherited glyphs form (), or traditional glyph form (, not to be confused with Traditional Chinese), is a traditional printing orthography form of Chinese character which uses the orthodox forms, mainly referring to the traditional Chinese character glyphs, especially the printed forms after movable type printing. Jiu zixing is formed in the Ming Dynasty, and is also known as "Kyūjitai" in Japan; it also refers to the characters used in China before the Chinese writing reform and the issuing of 1964 "List of Character Forms of Common Chinese characters for Publishing".
Broadly speaking, "jiu zixing" also refers to the character forms used in printing Chinese before reformation by national stardardization, e.g. "xin zixing" () in mainland China, Standard Form of National Characters in Taiwan, and List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters in Hong Kong; "jiu zixing" is generally the opposite form of the standards. The representative books that used "jiu zixing" includes "Kangxi Dictionary", ""Zhongwen Da Cidian", "Dahanhe Cidian"", "Chinese-Korean Dictionary", and "Zhonghua Da Zidian".
There are several standards of "jiu zixing" developed by scholars before, but there is no single enforced standard. Variations of "jiu zixing" standard can be see in Kangxi Dictionary, Old Chinese printing form, Korean Hanja, some printing forms in Taiwan and MingLiU in Windows 98 and earlier versions; slight differences may occur between different "jiu zixing" standards. Currently there are also open-sourced communities that developed and maintain modern "jiu zixing" standards that are based on and/or unify other "jiu zixing" forms from academic researches.
Origin.
During the woodblock printing era, words are usually carved in handwritten form (regular script) as each woodblock is different, making the job tedious per printed book. The development of wooden movable type in Song dynasty has caused the Chinese characters to take on a more rectangular form following the wood texture of the pieces. Vertical strokes are thicken to reduce engraving loss, while a little triangle is added at the end of horizontal stroke and start of vertical stroke to improve the legibility of text even after the pieces are worn out by long-term use. As the character styles start to differ widely from regular script, the calligraphic methods used on regular scripts could not be used on movable type characters and a new distinctive style designated for movable type is born. This style is developed fully in Ming dynasty, which now develops to Ming typefaces.
Comparing the style between movable type and woodblock, it can be noticed that movable type characters - which is the basics of "jiu zixing" today - is different from the random and changing nature of handwritten regular script, and emphasize clear strokes and beautiful, symmetric structure of characters. Movable type characters also emphasize the philology aspects of Chinese characters than regular script.
Characteristics.
Compared to regular script form and "xin zixing" which is based on regular script form, "jiu zixing" has many differences from "xin zixing". The nomenclature for strokes here uses the inherited name.
Classifications.
Kangxi Dictionary.
"Kangxi Dictionary" is viewed as a standard of "jiu zixing" and its character forms are referenced by multiple standards. In Taiwan it can generally be mean as "jiu zixing". This name may also be referencing the computer font "TypeLand 康熙字典體". "Kangxi Dictionary" has a few taboo words, such as "弘" and "玄", which should be corrected in current use.
Standard printing characters in Korea.
Character forms depicted in KS X 1001 and KS X 1002 can usually be used as "jiu zixing", but some fonts may not adheres to "Kangxi Dictionary", such as the first stroke of "言" is a wilted dot (or vertical dot, 竖点，), some componenets of "儿" is made to "几", etc.
Kyūjitai in Japan.
Characters form used before Japan released JIS X 0218 standard (later expanded tp JIS X 2013). In 2004, the revised version JIS X 0213:2004 has changed some character forms back to Kyūjitai. Some characters have two or more forms listed.
Checklist of Inherited Glyphs.
"Checklist of Inherited Glyphs" is an open source public orthography standard compiled and released by civil open source organization "Ichitenfont". The standard and its annex is available for all font foundries to reference and follow. The checklist standard is made with philology research and striking a balance between philology research, orthography theory, current usage and aesthetics. Mixed components in current standards are separated and normalized to different character forms, and the most representative inherited character form is chosen as the recommended form. The standard also includes other orthography form that are seen in normal daily lives which also has legitimate philology source, providing font foundries more options to adjust and adapt the character forms that follows philology sources.
Other amorphous "jiu zixing" orthography standards.
Character form before the Chinese Character Reformation.
Before the Chinese Character Reformation, normal printing press used "jiu zixing" as the character standard.
Current generation amorphous standards.
The style follows "jiu zixing" forms and styles, but some fonts may changed the strokes to follow current standard and become "xin zixing", and not fully follow the character forms in "jiu zixing" or "Kangxi Dictionary".