Jisho.org Forum

How to change the font back in browser options (Opera) ? The new font looks pretty bad with & without ClearType (Windows 7).

Also, why is the kanjidic never updated in jisho.org ? For example the readings for 漫 kanji were fixed in early December but jisho is still using the old kanjidic with wrong kunyomi.

Posted By: Kim

First off I have now made the search look in multiple dictionaries. So if you search for a word in the general dictionary that exists in the name and places dictionary, it will now look there and show that match.

Is this only supposed to happen if there are no other results in the dictionary you're currently on? Because that's what it seems like. For instance, searching for "satori" in the general dictionary does not give any of the name results.

Unfortunately fonts with and without ClearType is a subjective area, so I'm afraid I can't make everyone happy. But I'd be glad to tweak this further to make sure it looks good for as many people as possible. Are you objecting to the ClearType display itself, or is there a general problem with the new font that makes it look particularly bad on jisho.org compared to other sites?

Due to some bad decisions I made years ago it is not as easy to update kanjidic as I would like, and I'm aware that the current data is a bit old. On a happier note I have been working for the past few days on a way to update kanjidic more frequently, and I hope to have this in place soon. So stay tuned.

Cheers
Kim

Posted By: Sensei-Hanzo

[p]Is this only supposed to happen if there are no other results in the dictionary you're currently on? Because that's what it seems like. For instance, searching for "satori" in the general dictionary does not give any of the name results.[/p]

Yes, this only happens when there are no matches in the dictionary you are looking in.

Further down the line I hope to make this much more seamless.

Cheers
Kim

I'm on Windows XP, and the new font looks identical to before except there are big spaces between kana. ごうかくしゃめい looks like ご う か く し ゃ め い.

Comparison of the old & new font: http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6334/compbf.png
In the last example you can see some kanjis are shown with too thick lines.

Any way to force the old font with a site-specified .css file?

@Daimie, I got a hold of a Windows 7 box today to check out the fonts. And it did indeed look quite horrible with ClearType turned off (personally I keep anti-aliasing on at all times). So I nudged up the font size a bit to have the non-ClearType AA kick in.

So the fonts should look much better for people with ClearType turned off now.

@Aki mononoke, can you tell me if the fonts look better now in your Windows XP? I had a friend try it out on their XP machine and it looked ok.

Cheers,
Kim

I still prefer the old font and size, this one is just not very pleasant to look at. You should be letting people choose their own fonts and sizes via their browser settings rather than imposing something just to satisfy Firefox users who lack font antialising.

Posted By: Hakaku

[p]I still prefer the old font and size, this one is just not very pleasant to look at. You should be letting people choose their own fonts and sizes via their browser settings rather than imposing something just to satisfy Firefox users who lack font antialising.[/p]

This change was not intended for Firefox users who lack antialiasing, it was to bring the font display closer to what is common on modern versions of Windows. I'm sorry if that was unclear.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "letting people choose their own fonts and sizes via their browser settings". I think most modern browsers allow you to override specific styles through user style sheets. Maybe you can use that to adjust the fonts to your liking?

On a general note I just made some minor fixes to the radical search to fix some display issues in Internet Explorer 7 and 8. It should now also display with proper Japanese characters, as opposed to Chinese, on all Windows browsers.

Posted By: Kim

[p]I'm also not sure what you mean by "letting people choose their own fonts and sizes via their browser settings". I think most modern browsers allow you to override specific styles through user style sheets. Maybe you can use that to adjust the fonts to your liking?[/p]

Internet Explorer doesn't have an option to override specific font settings or website settings, it only allows you to remove all specific fonts and sizes for every website browsed. Firefox is the same, it only allows you to disable all website and language fonts and sizes. In other words, changing this setting will compromise the look of every website, rather then just this one, which just isn't a very feasible option.

Most modern browsers do allow users to choose from specific style sheets (view > (page) style), but the style sheets have to be integrated in the website, otherwise you only have the basic options of style sheet or none. Moreover, the page style is never remembered, so this setting will get dropped the minute you click any link or search for something.

If the website does not specify a font at all, the browser falls back onto its respective language font settings, which are entirely configurable by the end-user. If people who lack anti-aliasing really want it that badly, they can download the font themselves and change their own settings.

One reason I want to set the font is to ensure a consistent experience for most users. This way I can be sure how the page looks and not have to worry about inconsistencies in the layout. It is also much easier to support a standardized look and feel, rather than one that is customized for different users. If I could have my way everyone would run macs, where font display is much more unified :)

This is the common on western sites, where choosing a font to match the layout is normal practice. I see no reason why this should not be true for sites that display Japanese as well.

From my limited experience with Windows the default Japanese font, if none is specified, will not anti alias, even with Clear Type turned on. So to get the consistent look I want Denshi Jisho to have, this is the way to go.

I really appreciate your efforts to improve jisho.org but as you can see, the kanji (and even kana) look very hazy and unsharp with the new font compared to romaji: http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9476/newl.png

The old font was perfect (in WinXP & Windows 7 at least), please reconsider putting it back.

I'd just like to throw in a vote of confidence; I think the new font is awesome! I like it much better than the old font. I guess it's a pretty subjective thing *shrugs*.
Windows 7/Firefox, by the way.

I'm not noticing any difference in Chrome really, certainly doesn't look like in Daimie's screenshot.

@Daimie, thanks for the screenshot, that makes it much easier to understand what you mean. It looks like you have ClearType turned off, which makes the rendering of the new font slightly weaker than with it on.

I have now looked at several screenshots from several people, and done some testing and reading on my own, and after looking at all the possible configurations I have to say that I very much prefer this font to the previous. The anti aliasing makes it much easier to read, at least for me.

@errant, glad you like it!

@Aki mononoke, I missed one thing, but you should be able to see the normally spaced kana again.

Alright, if the font is fine in other environments then it's ok.

I need some help to get my site-specified .css to work, what was the old font & font size ?

Currently this one works for the kanji page:
.kanji_result .literal:hover {
font-family: KanjiStrokeOrders !important
}

For search results I tried this one:
#word_result .kanji_column {
font-family: old_font_name_here !important
}

but it's not working, any help is appreciated, thanks.

Daimie, the font you need is "MS PGothic".

Cheers
Kim

The new font looks awful - the characters are a funny shape (they look like they're out of aspect ratio), look spindly... it just generally looks terrible. Please, please give us the old font back, or an option. This is a great site in all other respects, so I was horrified by this change.

OS is Japanese Vista SP1 btw, browser is Firefox 3.6.3. I have no idea whether ClearType is on or off as this is Japanese Vista which I don't understand the settings on, but the problem is the font itself rather than whether it's antialiased or not.

KingOfTheLolcats, could you possibly provide me with a screenshot? It sounds like you're seeing something else than what I intended, so I'd rather tweak it so yours looks good too, rather than taking the old font back.

Cheers
Kim

Posted By: KingOfTheLolcats

[p]as this is Japanese Vista which I don't understand the settings on[/p]

Would probably help you to use an operating system you can understand.

The new ordering of words is actually worse than before, as it's not preferring words with lowest number of kanji in them.

For example when searching for 幹, first result should be 幹 みき (common word), then 幹 から then 幹 かん, then words with 2 kanji, starting with the common words and so forth.
The current word ordering is very inconvenient.

What do you think Kim?

I've been getting lots of feedback on the ordering lately, so I've been tweaking it little by little for the past few weeks.

I just made some additional improvements, so your example now sorts like you expect. Just hope I didn't break any of the other edge cases people have pointed out :)

Cheers
Kim

I noticed that the following was happening:
When i search for a word that was not in the main dictionary, it automatically looked it up in the places and names dictionary, but because the reason it was not found was because i misspelled the word, my next action was to research for the word with a different spelling, but because of the auto change to the names and places dictionary, the next search would be done in that dictionary when i intended to use the main one.

I think the above situation could be corrected, if, in the case of auto changing dictionarys when no match is found, you kept the original dictionary in the drop down box instead of changing to the autochanged to one. Then the revised search would be using the original dictionary as intended.

I hope that makes sense and you can see what i mean.

at first when what you mentioned happened i was kind of bewildered, too. then after i took time out to really look at the page i figured out what occurred. so, now i do a quick check. we're so lucky to have what Kim has done so far, that a simple check shouldn't be too much of a problem.

There is an issue I faced when searching for certain words in romaji. When I search in the general dictionary I get no results, however, when I use the dialogue entry for firefox it works fine and I get the results I need. For instance, searching the word 'kuda' will not retrieve results from the GD.

@Night, hmm, odd. Are you sure you are searching in the Japanese field when you type 'kuda' into the general dictionary? Can you provide the URLs that give both the correct and the incorrect result?

Cheers

I don't know why but it seems to be working at least for the moment. Last time it only forces the Names dictionary when I search the word.