Fonts commonly used to write and engrave the text of ancient books: one is handwriting, which is software; the other is craftsman, which is hardware.
When people in the Song Dynasty wrote, they mostly learned from the calligraphers of the Tang Dynasty, such as Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan. Therefore, the fonts in the Song block editions mostly contain the brushwork of these calligraphers' fonts.
The Zhejiang version of the Song Dynasty mostly used the European style, and the Jian version of the Song Dynasty mostly used the Yan style, but the Shu version of the Song Dynasty incorporated Liu style brushwork into the Yan style. People in the Yuan Dynasty "mostly used Zhao Songxue's calligraphy" when engraving books, which was often called "Yuan Ti" in later generations. Zhao Songxue is the famous calligrapher and painter Zhao Mengfu in the Yuan Dynasty.
Before the Ming Dynasty and Zhengde, the style was inherited, and the fonts were mostly in Zhao style. But "since Zhengde and Jiajing...the fonts have also changed into square characters, which are stiff and sluggish. After Wanli, the fonts have changed again to horizontal, light and straight...Apocalypse and Chongzhen, the fonts have changed again to long and narrow horizontal characters. Light, straight and heavy words."