Jitai (字体): The font randomizer that fits

Just stumbled upon this thread again. I’ve been using this script since it was published on there forums and today I realized I have totally forgotten that I use it. It just feels like it’s part of Wanikani for me.

Which also means that I must have gotten used to alot of the fonts, which surprises me somewhat. Sure, I still use mouse-over every now and then, but it has become much less frequent.

Would absolutely recommend it to anyone starting och using Wanikani.

vargsvans said... Just stumbled upon this thread again. I've been using this script since it was published on there forums and today I realized I have totally forgotten that I use it. It just feels like it's part of Wanikani for me.
 Whoa, that's high praise! I guess Jitai really has proven to be "the font randomizer that fits", then, huh. I'm glad - thank you for using it!

vargsvans said...Would absolutely recommend it to anyone starting och using Wanikani.
 Starting och using? At the same time? 😁

Hmm, I don’t know how to get in touch with @embe, but… I’ve got a version of the script that may not lag and should still work properly. It needs a bit of testing, though, as the method being used might mean some words / kanji show up blank in very special cases. Try this new test version if you’d like to, and report back after some use about the lag level and whether or not words always display correctly.

If this works better it’ll give me an excuse to put the new logo in as icon, too! Not that it matters much, since it’s only really visible on the download page and on the “manage userscripts” page, but I’d like to do it nonetheless.

Thanks. Up for testing… I’ll report back after some time. :slight_smile:

I’ve done about 300 reviews and it seems to work well. :slight_smile:

Great! It’s worked fine for me too for a couple of days now, so I think it’s ready for release.

That means Jitai is now version 1.3.0! This version makes two changes:

  • The font selection method is changed a bit, and is therefore faster
  • The new logo is used!
It doesn’t make very much of a difference for most people, but nevertheless, it’s an improvement. Enjoy!

obskyr said... Starting och using? At the same time? 😁
 Haha, I usually proofread my posts, but missed this one. Should have been an "or" och inte ett "och".

Could you add a keyboard shortcut to show original font? I don’t like having to grab my mouse during reviews.

Basvdelsen said... Could you add a keyboard shortcut to show original font? I don't like having to grab my mouse during reviews.
I talked about this a bit before. Making the hover too convenient would mean you'd switch back to the default fairly often. This means you'd be getting practice with the default font after all, which would defeat the purpose of Jitai quite handily.

Great idea and nice job, really appreciated.
The script is clean and well documented too!

Thanks heaps for this, really awesome and such a good addition to wanikani. Appreciate the work you put into this! :slight_smile:

yeah, its really nice! Thanks for this :slight_smile:

Hey there and thanks for this neat script!
Some the suggested fonts further down in inside the fonts var look interesting. How do I install them? Or does this work automatically?

ekalz said..Some the suggested fonts further down in inside the fonts var look interesting. How do I install them? Or does this work automatically?
Bit late to answer, but for posterity - it works automatically.

Something fun happened the other day! WaniKani updated and added a new default font to the list. I thought this meant I had to update Jitai to include it in its "switch back to default" feature, but then I realized - I coded that part dynamically! The default font isn't hardcoded. Feels nice when you manage to think ahead properly, heh heh.

Oh, and also: Jitai has passed 10,000 downloads!!! Ten whole thousand! That's a whole gosh-darn lot! That doesn't mean 10,000 people are using it, seeing as quite a few of those downloads are probably people updating Jitai (or even web crawlers, maybe), but it's still an incredibly impressive number. Thank you all so much for using Jitai (and giving me all of this wonderful feedback along the way) - I really, really appreciate it and hope I've managed to be of help to you.

Thank you. Can’t wait to try it out (I just finished my reviews right before seeing this so now I have to wait an hour ~.~)! My friend’s been “testing” me on random kanji (he’s Japanese) and half the time I am like, “oh wait handwritten kanji look pretty different, what is this” haha

Just started using this and it’s great - thanks!

Started using this a couple of weeks ago and I genuinely didn’t realise just how much my ability to read kanji was influenced by the font being used - definitely noticing a huge improvement already!

Thanks for the script!!!

I think a lot of people have that “oh no…” moment, when they see a sign or a poster or something in Japanese - really anything beyond just text in a web browser - and it seems unreadable. I notice I’ve even myself become a bit better at deciphering that kind of thing after writing Jitai. :grinning:

Hm, seems that there is a lot of fuss on the forum about a new default font for win 10 users.
To be honest, I kind of like the new font and I’m glad I’ve been using this script since it came out. It really helped me “get over” difficult fonts, and I have absolutely no issues with the new one (I saw Viet already posted that they will change the order again so people will have their Meiryo font back lol).

I get that people think that during the learning period it is easier to have one default font that is easy to read, but I’ve found that I benefit more from having different fonts. It helps me recognize kanji faster and helps my brain find patterns easier or break up kanji into the radicals, instead of memorizing a certain “shape”.

I have downloaded and manually added some fonts to the script, but It would be nice to have a place where we can get all the extra fonts in bulk so it would be less effort if we want to use this on more pc’s or on a freshly installed pc. (more is better imo)

So, again, great script, I love it and will continue to use it. I’m glad the “new font” (yu gothic?) is part of the Jitai list and to be honest, I wish I had even more fonts as it will only help me read “Japanese in the wild”…

Thank you!

I love this so much.

It might bring in more challenge, but seeing the same font all day made it a little boring for me…
So naturally this brought in more fun :smiley: Yessssss.