Hi there,

Does anyone have the new Hawaiian Pressed version of RTK2? It has a RED cover.

For those that do, my question is this: Is the kana written in the "cursive-ey" font that is apparant in the earlier editions of this book?

I looked at a sample PDF at http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publ...uction.pdf, and it shows that the kana is written nicely with the regular computer font. This is what I'm hoping the entire new red book is written in, because I find the other kana hard to read. Can anyone please comment?

Thanks

No one has replied to this thread, either no one cares or no one owns the book...

Either way I received a letter from the publisher of the new ones (Hawaii) claiming they don't use the ugly font, but a much more beautiful, easily readable font.

People probably think they aren't able to help without having both versions of the book since it's hard to know exactly what you're describing (also link doesn't work...)
I have the new (red) version and I don't know what font it is compared to the old one but it is easy to read and looks pretty standard. Hope that helps

Hard to tell what you mean by "the ugly font" and "the regular computer font," but I took a look at the PDF you referenced, and the sample frame shown on page 4 is in a Mincho font (note the triangular serifs on the kanji). You refer specifically to the kana--generally, the kana in a Mincho font don't show serifs (just as the "round" letters in a Roman serif font don't usually have serifs), but they do have the nice thick-thin variation in stroke weight.

Personally, I'm not crazy about Mincho fonts, because some of the conventions make it difficult to count strokes accurately. The water radical on the left side, for instance, always looks weird to me in Mincho. However, one has to learn to read it, because it's more or less the equivalent of Times Roman--i.e., the default font for many printed documents. I suppose Japanese people learning the Roman alphabet have a similarly hard time with typeset "g"s and "a"s (which are double-deckers in most serif fonts, but single deckers in printed handwriting).

--Annabel, font maven IRL

P.S. The link will work if you remove the comma at the end.

P.P.S. The body text is set in Minion, in case anyone was wondering. :-)

Ok, sorry d00dz, but here is a link to demonstrate the difference.

http://members.shaw.ca/smujohnson/pics/R...rences.png

Notice the ugly font's version of "i" in hiragana... it's one entire stroke. I find it much easier to read if it is two strokes.

The new red book solves this problem completely... so I'm told from the UOHP...

I understand the difference, but I like the old font better. It was more book-like, and it didn't just look like some computer font I could get anywhere. The new one is definitely cleaner-looking, but for some reason it makes the writing not feel weighty enough for my tastes.

I like the hand-written look because that's what we're learning how to do, write.

erlog Wrote:I like the hand-written look because that's what we're learning how to do, write.

RTK1 covered writing, not RTK2. Also, Hiragana and Katakana writing that you are "learning" to do can be covered in Heisig's other volume, Remembering the Kana.