Hi Folks,
I had another person bring this to my attention a couple of days ago.  I had the poster checked out and was told that the poster was fine, it was a slight difference in font from the RTK font.
As that I see this will be a problem for RTK studiers I'm in the process of making a new poster with the exact same font as the one we are used to.

I want everyone to be really excited about their purchase so If you've ordered a poster and are really unhappy with the product, as the above member is, please just email me and I will send you out a free new poster when they are ready.  This will be in about a week.

Apologies for not nailing this the first time.  If I knew my Kanji that well I would never hung out here in the first place... Again "I'm not only the hair club president, I'm also a hair club client".... errrr, maybe thats a North American thing.... never mind.

This poster business has been a bit of a learning experience for myself as well.

All the unstoked please email me.  kanjiposter (at) gmail (dot) com

paddy

I haven't seen the poster but isn't this a "problem" related to the new JIS2004 standard. Several kanji were modified in the new standard.

For example: 辻 and 賭 have an extra stroke in the new standard. Is this what you have seen?

The title of the thread is slightly inflammatory. I also notice different strokes depending on the kanji set being used. This is noticeable when I practice Anki on other computers.

That said, it's a testament to how well you're learning when just a small stroke difference makes the kanji unrecognizable. Good job in noticing.

I guess I never really noticed that alternate forms of kanji existed.  But how much variation is there?  An extra or missing stroke doesn't seem like a huge deal, but are there many, or even any, cases where totally different primitives are substituted?

paddy71 wrote:

Maybe the author could change the title to...
"Beware! Kanji Poster uses a different font that RTK"
or, preferably
"Beware! Kanji Poster is the greatest purchase I ever made, it brings love and happiness and wealth beyond belief to whomever stands before it"...

I'll second that. Although the second one is maybe a bit over the top! Maybe "Kanji poster is available in different fonts" would be better? Could you change it Javier?

I think that Dragg's question was brought up in another thread although I can't remember which one it was...

Ditto.

I'm glad to see you guys agree to it. I was hesitant to update the topic title yesterday, as the host of these forums these are sometimes difficult decisions to make because I don't want to loose the trust of the community. My approach so far has been to let people manage themselves and basically trust you. It's been working awesome so far, I've said it before, I rarely have to "moderate" anything, so thanks.

However I will update the topic title, because as explained very well by dukelexon, the errors are most likely variations on the kanji characters (I say most likely because my own kanji poster is stuck at the post office..).

Furthermore as a frequent user of photoshop and similar tools myself, I suspect true "errors" could only happen as a result of picking a completely different character than the RtK one, because the fonts are already made. I bet paddy has checked and double-checked this already.

Regarding misspellings, it would make no sense for paddy to tamper with the fonts as those are standards that are used across the world.

For those RtK learners who are new to this topic, see related topics :

Two ways to write STATELY (2138) 凛 or 凜 ?

Imprecisions with some primitives

Fonts also feature variations of style :
Water (drops) primitive

There are probably some more topics like this. Even more frequent is the discussion of variations on stroke count which is closely related to the font variants.

javiergakusei wrote:

I will try to give you some examples of some kanji that are simply unrecognizable for those who use the Remembering the kanji book (it is also different from the kanji in the Minna no nihongo textbooks) very soon if you want, although I think it is unnecessary since Paddy said he will change the poster.

You could make it an opportunity to learn these variations. If the kanji are really hard to recognize, it's better to get used to them now than to stick to the font Heisig/RTK used and risk being stumped while reading a japanese text.

Hi guys,

I think Ramchip is absolutely right. Knowing that the kanji can be written in different ways is an opportunity to learn the variations.  Maybe some of you would like to learn them while using Remembering the Kanji Vol. I, while others would prefer to first learn those in the book, and after a while try the variations.
My point is that you should be able get what you ask for. Paddy understands this, and as great guy he is, he offered me a new poster with the kanji displayed as in the RTK book, because that was what I wanted when I bought his product via this web site. He has also stated that he is willing to change the poster to any other unsatisfied RTKers. I believe that is really good. It seems that from now on, anyone will be able to choose which font they want.
That being said, I will move on and leave this topic (just as Paddy did) and apologize for stating that the poster had errors when I should have written about how the font used in the kanji poster made it a ?not so useful product? for those learning with the Heisig system?. Ok, that feels better.
Since we now know what the problem is, and more importantly, that it is being fixed, I am certain that there is no use in still talking about how the kanjiposter differs from the book. So for the really eager who still want to know (like markal), I would recommend reading the links our administrator gave, or start a new post which should not mention the kanjiposter anymore, and just focus on the different ways a kanji can be written.
This is important, so we can separate those people who want to learn about this issue, from the ones that are only interested in completing the book by using Heisig`s Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1 and using an aid such as the kanjiposter.
Thank you for the responses.

I would also be very interested to see some of the different forms the kanji are in.  This was news to me that the kanji would look different.  Though I don`t know why I didn`t think of it before--what with all the differences in the kana fonts I see. 
Could you please give some examples?  I would love to see some of these variations.  We could start a new thread, but I think at this point the publicity is only good publicity for paddy`s business...

Transtic wrote:

And last but not least, I think that in the real world you are going to face much more than just different fonts.  Specially if you have the slightest intention of becoming able to read handwritten Japanese.

Indeed. Take a look at some restaurant signs, sake bottle labels etc.

I went to the doctors today. I can't even read an English doctor's hand writing so the Japanese doctor's note was a challenge to say the least...

Last edited by wrightak (2008 March 17, 11:32 pm)

Personally I think that since RTK (the book) is trying to teach you to *write* the kanji, it would be nice if the kanji shown in each frame were in the usual handwritten style, not a printed font style. In cases like 令 [ORDERS] the difference is quite marked. It's easy enough to learn to recognise variations when you're reading, but if you've learned the wrong written form I think that's harder to fix. So it's a shame that the book (at least the ed. I have) doesn't do that.

Interesting comparison, gdaxeman.

MS JhengHei is a chinese (traditional) font though, so a few differences are to be expected.