Kanji font size

[fimble]

I have good eyesight and usually view text at the minimum size my computer supports without ugly subpixel fonts, 9 point.

I am still an absolute beginner at Japanese but I am curious if experienced readers can discern the difference between such small kanji, especially the complex ones where portions of them end up looking like a single black mass.

 

[Glenn]

I don't usually read 9-point fonts in Japanese. I think they're usually 16, actually. I think I might hurt my eyes if I went smaller than 12. But I think I'd still be able to read accurately for the most part because of context. Although, I've never really tried any of this out, so it's all speculation.

 

[Toritoribe]

But I think I'd still be able to read accurately for the most part because of context.

I agree. Here's a good example in this thread. I read 待 as 持 in the thread with no doubt, since the correct kanji should be obviously 持 from the context.

But the similar thing would occur also in English, or maybe many other languages.
Visual Word Recognition

 

[fimble]

That text is pretty big though. I was thinking more like this: 窶慊｡

Given any individual letter in English of that size, I would be able to read it without context.

I'm not complaining about Japanese or anything like that, just curious about this : ).

 

[Toritoribe]

I would be able to recognize the kanji "fuji" or even 鬱 easily without any context. The problem when reading a kanji individually is not the number of strokes of the kanji but the existence of the similer-looking ones, just like 土[tsuchi] and 士[samurai ].

Incidentally, the default letter size of Windows Live Mail Japanese Version is nine point.

 

[Glenn]

Ha, I got fuji and utsu, so I guess I could read 9-point fine, although I might end up straining my eyes a bit. Although I can remember times when I've had to pull up to the screen for unfamiliar characters, so it works a lot better if you already know everything in the text you're reading, I would say.