Hi!

Does anyone know of an iPhone/iPad app that allows you to look up kanji/words like an IME on Windows? Or any other method - fast websites, e.g.? Basically, I've got a bunch of books I'd like to read, but cannot think of how to look up words. Thanks!

[ファブリス]

Handwritten Kanji Search
http://kanji.sljfaq.org/draw-canvas.html

Doesn't work It doesn't let me draw in the box...

I use "Japanese" app on my ipod Touch. It's been kind of hit or miss, mainly because I've been using my finger to write, but I just found out that there is a stylus available for touch screens, which I'm eager to try. That said, it really is great to be able to look up kanji on the fly.

Just turn on the Chinese Traditional Handwriting keyboard - it allows you to draw kanji and has most Japanese characters.

Turn it on here:
Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add New Keyboard...

Then use it to type kanji into Japanese or whatever app.

edit:oh and of course you can turn on the Japanese keyboard the same way - you can type the reading in romaji and it shows you the possible kanji. It sounds like you haven't already done this?

The daijisen japanese-japanese dictionary has it's own built-in
japanese kanji recognition. Apparently many iphone/ipad apps use
the Chinese IME for japanese handwriting recognition.

So Daijisen is very special since it doesn't rely on a Chinese IME.
With multitasking, you can easily switch between Daijisen and
whatever you're reading.

Blahah Wrote:Just turn on the Chinese Traditional Handwriting keyboard - it allows you to draw kanji and has most Japanese characters.

/Begin Rant/
IMO this handwriting keyboard really really sucks. I think I was writing a simple kanji like 目 and I had to write it at least five or six times before it gave me the correct character.

OTOH before I was using the Windows mobile Japanese handwriting and that was AWESOME. When I input a difficult Kanji and didn't know the last few strokes, I would just input random strokes and most of the time the correct kanji would appear. Again AWESOME!!!!! (too bad my wm device is such a hunk of crap)
/End Rant/

Anyways, does anybody know of an app that has Japanese handwriting recognition (for iphone) that is anywhere near as accurate as the one for windows mobile?

[Katsuo]

Some Japanese kanji don't exist in Chinese while others are drawn a little differently. 目 seems to work better when the two middle horizontal strokes stop short of the right vertical. Using the iPhone/pod/pad Chinese recognition for writing Japanese can be frustrating.

The following apps have their own built-in handwriting recognition for Japanese:
Daijisen . Chamcham mentioned this above. I haven't tried it myself.
Daijirin This is a J-J dictionary. The writing area is a bit small, but the recognition is excellent.
wishoTouch I haven't tried this one. It looks a bit expensive, and the handwriting seems to be a paid-for extra.
Shinkanji-search-free. This is free, but is no real use by itself. It's intended to get you interested in a paid-for version that includes a dictionary.

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

I do have the J-keyboard enabled, so typing isn't a problem - looking up words is. Out of the apps Katsuo listed I tried Shinkanji, paid version. It does the job, but you have to be pretty accurate about the strokes. For now it'll do, but in the future I'd like to try the other apps.

[Katsuo]

Yeah, the writing recognition on Shinkanji isn't very responsive, but it does usually get the right character.

Incidentally, here's an app with a different approach to reading unknown characters and words that I mentioned in another thread:
•JapanGoggles Free (at the moment). This is a simple OCR. If your iPod/Phone has a camera you can shoot and identify kanji & kana. It works well if the image is crisp & clear. You have to be careful not to block the light with the iPod/Phone.