Good day, everybody.

This site (along with Heisig's book) has been of great help with learning my kanji and I'm on about ~400 after what is a relatively short time (3-4 months, during which I also did vocab and the like). It's a real blast!

But enough of that. I've recently stumbled across something odd when I was studying some of my older cards. The version of the right radical (in the book and on the site) in Heisig-Index n. 367 (桟) and related features three horizontal strokes, while the version my system font has and also the version the Android app Kanji Recognizer displays and recognises features only two horizontal strokes. I'm wondering whether that might be a mistake or a valid variation...

Thanks in advance!

What do you mean by "two horizontal strokes"? My system font and dictionary both have three strokes; there's an older form of the character that's like the right side of 賤.

This is a FAQ that really, really needs to be put somewhere, but the short answer is don't worry about it. The new kanji added to the Joyo list recently are in an uncertain state about which form you use -- it's hard to say which one is correct. Going with the Heisig shape is fine.

The kanji in question is listed on denshi jisho as:

http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E6%A1%9F

When you say the font only displays two strokes, as opposed to three, I have come across a few kanji which are rendered with "missing" strokes due to their size/complexity. For instance, I have read the 目 radical rendered as 日 in certain kanji with a higher stroke count, while browsing the internet, in order to fit the character in the predefined space. It may be the font squeezing it is (though it may be not the case).

Wikipedia lists 桟 being added to the list of 常用漢字 in 1981, with a noted variation being: 棧. They both share the 音 and 訓 readings "さん、せん" and "たけはし、たな", respectively. Unless there is a recent "official" simplification involving two strokes instead of three, I am unaware of it (though hopefully if someone is, they will be able to correct this).

Although, what little knowledge I have of the changes in recognized stroke variations have suggested that it seems to be the "drop" aspect of a radical which is affected. One example I can think of is this possibly related thread:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=10774

^It might be worth a read to see if your issue relates to this.

Most likely your phone is using Chinese font to display Japanese. There the 残 and others have one stroke less than in Japanese fonts. Other well-known character that is different between those two languages is this one: 直.

Ah, I see. Thank you everyone for your answers. The uncertainty as to the exact form of those "new" 常用漢字 seems evident.

Again, thank you for your time.