Why are Japanese characters so 'unmathematical'?

Gylfi · 16 Oct 2012

I know this is probably a stupid question but does anyone know why most Japanese and Chinese characters have very few right angles and straight lines? I know there probably isn't a straight answer but I'm finding it very difficult to get used to and I just can't believe every Japanese person can draw these characters precisely (maybe that isn't the case). I'm trying to draw them correctly (as I find the characters lose a considerable amount of personality when they are even slightly off) but am having a slightly hard time. Any suggestions, apart from just spending a lot of time drawing them?

Mike Cash · 16 Oct 2012

There is a tremendous variety of styles and room for individual differences when writing. Surely you don't think all Japanese people have handwriting that looks like what you see printed in your textbooks? Is your English handwriting a precise facsimile of the characters you see in this post?

Gylfi · 16 Oct 2012

Mike Cash said:
There is a tremendous variety of styles and room for individual differences when writing. Surely you don't think all Japanese people have handwriting that looks like what you see printed in your textbooks? Is your English handwriting a precise facsimile of the characters you see in this post?

As I said, stupid question. The reason I asked anyway is because the number of typefaces for Japanese seems very small whereas in English there are thousands. I just assumed these exact proportions had become standard and since I've heard that the act of writing syllabaries is an artform in most East Asian countries I thought maybe a high emphasis is placed on correct proportions and technique when writing. So it really doesn't matter how you write them as long as the stroke order is correct and they are legible?

Half-n-Half · 16 Oct 2012

I pretty much thought the same thing, Gylfi, when I started learning. Even stroke order isn't always strictly followed, as I've seen Japanese people quite literally scribble when they can't remember the correct stroke order or radical. Sometimes strokes merge together in favor of speed/laziness.

kentpaul · 16 Oct 2012

Half-n-Half said:
I pretty much thought the same thing, Gylfi, when I started learning. Even stroke order isn't always strictly followed, as I've seen Japanese people quite literally scribble when they can't remember the correct stroke order or radical. Sometimes strokes merge together in favor of speed/laziness.

I remember watching this video about a handwriting app (around 13 second mark) and was when I saw kanji KAN where the square was written as a circle :3

Galaxy Note 10.1ﾃ｣ﾂ?ｧMazec - YouTube

Grandpa Frank · 17 Oct 2012

History of Japanese writing ?

Seems to me I recall reading the Kanji were originally paintings of what the stood for and then evolved into todays Kanji. So originally the kanji for house looked like a house. Not sure if that's a true reason for the way they look today.

Uncle Frank

nice gaijin · 17 Oct 2012

Latin and Greek letters were often carved into stone, which influenced their form. Kanji and Hanzi are traditionally painted with brushes, which is why there's such a variation in stroke width.

The main reason the number of Japanese fonts is proportionately low is because there are so many characters that need to be individually designed. Latin alphabets have a much smaller character set, so it's easy for even casual font makers to crank them out. Other writing systems like Korean are very modular, so a small number of elements can be configured to create their characters. Japanese has not only two visually distinct syllabaries in addition to punctuation, but a couple thousand kanji to draw. This means that making a font is extremely time and labor-intensive. But there are foundries out there making quality Japanese fonts, like FONTWORKS | フォントワークス

Gylfi · 18 Oct 2012

nice gaijin said:
Latin and Greek letters were often carved into stone, which influenced their form. Kanji and Hanzi are traditionally painted with brushes, which is why there's such a variation in stroke width.

The main reason the number of Japanese fonts is proportionately low is because there are so many characters that need to be individually designed. Latin alphabets have a much smaller character set, so it's easy for even casual font makers to crank them out. Other writing systems like Korean are very modular, so a small number of elements can be configured to create their characters. Japanese has not only two visually distinct syllabaries in addition to punctuation, but a couple thousand kanji to draw. This means that making a font is extremely time and labor-intensive. But there are foundries out there making quality Japanese fonts, like FONTWORKS | フォントワークス

Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

Why are Japanese characters so 'unmathematical'?

Gylfi

後輩

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Gylfi

後輩

Half-n-Half

先輩

kentpaul

後輩

Grandpa Frank

Sempai

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Gylfi

後輩

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