Katakana カタカナ

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by williamsharkey

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This is a work in progress to produce a font capable of printing common katakana characters from Japanese. Because Katakana are usually romanized to two English letters, IE "ka","se","te" I made a "subtractive font". When one types the letter "k", the characters for "ka","ki","ku","ke", and "ko" appear. Then, when one types a vowel, a,e,i,o or u, a mask is applied that blocks out opposing vowel combinations. For the Katakana representing a i u e or o, just type the capital vowel.

9 Comments

That's certainly an inspired technique, cleverly done. Fontstruct directly supports katakana though if you weren't aware, you can change sets at the bottom left, though this font would still be useful to have.
Comment by nazlfrag 4th august 2010
nazlfrag- Thanks for pointing that out, I was not aware of alternate sets.
Comment by williamsharkey 4th august 2010
Does typing a capital N give you syllabic n?
Comment by Bismuth 29th december 2010
Devilishly clever! :-) 10/10
Comment by riccard0 15th january 2012
Wow.
Comment by Agent Demonic Ladybug 16th january 2012
Bismuth: No, the capital N is not in there yet.

You will notice other parts missing, like the B's, H's, F's, P,s, etc.

I was distracted from completing this, it stands as a proof of concept. This pattern has the ability to represent most of the Katakana, any exceptions can be handled though some creativity.

I encourage those who have an interest in this to open up a chart of Katakana, open up the font, and complete it.
Comment by williamsharkey 16th january 2012
GUYS! I just found an amazing new fav. Check out this font! The mechanics behind it are amazing.
Comment by OsyenVyeter 10th february 2015
I want to make a non-pixel version :o
Comment by minidonut 10th february 2015
Im finishing the work on this myself. If you do indeed make a nonpixel version, Ill be sure to keep an eye out!
Comment by OsyenVyeter 10th february 2015

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