# Written Kanji **URL:** \ **Category:** Japanese Language\ **Created:** [March 29, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849 "2019-03-29T03:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Izabelle](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/izabelle/32/756257_2.png) [@Izabelle](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Izabelle)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/1 "2019-03-29T03:06:10Z")
I’m trying to practice written Kanji following [Jisho.org](http://Jisho.org), and the characters look so different from the ones on Wanikani. I realize that written Kanji is different than a font, but how do we know which style to follow? There seem to be a lot of variations online. Sorry for the confusion, but this is new to me. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/2 "2019-03-29T03:13:52Z")
If you want to write kanji, you should always emulate a font that is supposed to look written, which the default WK fonts are not going to be (though it can very slightly based on your OS or device or something). Even better yet, you can try to find 教科書 fonts, literally textbook fonts. These are what textbooks use because they accurately represent how characters should be written, so if students copy them, they are copying something that is accurate. These can still have variation between them, but the important elements (stops, hooks, etc.) are preserved appropriately. If you don’t know what I mean by that, different strokes are supposed to terminate in different ways, and you usually can’t see that in a typical “computery” font where all parts of all lines are the same thickness. ---
**Author:** ![Izabelle](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/izabelle/32/756257_2.png) [@Izabelle](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Izabelle)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/3 "2019-03-29T04:04:33Z")
okay, thank you very much, I’ll take a look. ---
**Author:** ![RoseWagsBlue](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/rosewagsblue/32/713093_2.png) [@RoseWagsBlue](https://community.wanikani.com/u/RoseWagsBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 9:34am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/4 "2019-03-29T09:34:41Z")
There is even a “stroke order font” which you can install on your device. The kanji appear with little numbers that indicate the stroke order and direction. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/1/e/1e5508dda9384803c2f4f93ce14f4ec83839bc15.png) There is a logic to the stroke orders that becomes apparent fairly quickly. The stroke order font does _not_ indicate some of the elements that Leebo mentioned above, however. I enjoy writing kanji. A year and a half into this, I am starting to write cursive too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Izabelle](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/izabelle/32/756257_2.png) [@Izabelle](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Izabelle)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/5 "2019-03-29T10:10:55Z")
thank you, I did install a stroke order userscript, but I wasn’t sure if it was the one I should be learning from. Do you know if there are any websites that are particularity good at illustrating hand-written kanji? ---
**Author:** ![RoseWagsBlue](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/rosewagsblue/32/713093_2.png) [@RoseWagsBlue](https://community.wanikani.com/u/RoseWagsBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 10:32am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/6 "2019-03-29T10:32:21Z")
I have never used any particular websites. I have used a workbook that grade-school children write in, but I can’t give any particular recommendations there, because I threw it away after I completed it. Many websites give good examples of nice kana writing. If you master that, it should transfer over to kanji without too much thought. The only kanji that I have had any trouble with are the ones with lots of parallel horizontal lines. I also have a couple of calligraphy books, the best being “Shodo” by Shozo Sato, because it does a nice job of comparing different written scripts. That is the book that got me started in more of a cursive style. ---
**Author:** ![vapour101](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vapour101/32/236385_2.png) [@vapour101](https://community.wanikani.com/u/vapour101)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/7 "2019-03-29T11:09:17Z")
A pretty nice website that I use for viewing kanji in a variety of typefaces is [https://moji.tekkai.com](https://moji.tekkai.com). It has everything from Ming and Gothic to Textbook and “Pen Writing” as well as a bunch of obscure ones. I don’t know how useful the site is for practicing handwriting but it’s really fun to browse through. ---
**Author:** ![minogame](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/minogame/32/242390_2.png) [@minogame](https://community.wanikani.com/u/minogame)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 11:20am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/8 "2019-03-29T11:20:19Z")
I don’t know if you are familiar to that but jisho also has a neat animation of writing every kanji, when you open the details of the kanji i.e.: [漢 #kanji - Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%BC%A2%20%23kanji) I find this always very useful to get a feeling for the writing. ---
**Author:** ![Sulax](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/sulax/32/190013_2.png) [@Sulax](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Sulax)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 11:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/9 "2019-03-29T11:39:09Z")
I use the 漢字ステップ books they are for the kanji kanken test and show you where to pay attention ---
**Author:** ![Izabelle](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/izabelle/32/756257_2.png) [@Izabelle](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Izabelle)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/10 "2019-03-30T02:08:05Z")
yes, thank you, I have been following this. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/written-kanji/35849/11 "2020-03-29T02:13:17Z")
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