Tagaini Jisho

Kanji color depending on the JLPT level

Asked by seifip

Could you please add an option to display the kanji characters using different colors based on the JLPT level for which one needs to know them? That would be really useful for those preparing for the JLPT as right now one has to click each kanji to reassure oneself that one should or shouldn't know it

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Gnurou
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Gnurou (gnurou) said : 		#1

Hi Philip,

Indeed, a way to discriminate kanjis JLPT levels at first sight would be nice. Using colors however could turn out to be difficult to read, especially since the score of entries already use colored background.

When you talk about displaying the JLPT level, are you referring to the results list of detailed view? In the results list it would be easy to add a JLPT number just like the little tag or note markers. In the detailed view, apart from changing the color or font shape (which would make things clearly unaesthetic IMO), I see another compromise: in the next version it will be possible to select which information one wants to see displayed on kanji tooltips (what appear automatically when the mouse moves over a kanji). That way the JLPT level of a kanji could be displayed. Would that be acceptable to you?

Oh and btw, thanks for the link! ;)

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seifip (seifip) said : 		#2

This is what I would like to see in the next version of Tagaini:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3650/kanjicolors.png

It looks nice, it's very useful, it isn't available in any other dictionary, and it's fairly simple to implement. Of colours, this feature should be optional, but the switch should preferably be somewhere on the main screen and not in the settings menu, and the feature should probably be on by default to highlight it to new users.

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Best Gnurou (gnurou) said : 		#3

My apologies for the late reply.

One of the problems that I see with doing this is that the kanji colors may or may not match with the user's color scheme. I try to avoid playing with colors as much as possible, unless there is an outline to make the shape visible no matter what the color scheme is (like in the kanji popup).

As I explained, the kanji tooltip is now configurable, and it is possible to make the JLPT level of a kanji visible when the mouse moves over a kanji in the detailed view:

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3271/snapshot2vm.png

This looks like a reasonable alternative to me. Preparing for JLPT is only one way amongst many others to work on kanjis ; and although I agree that showing information relevant to the user as quickly as possible is a must for a good study tool, colors seem to be a little bit confusing in that case (especially since there is 4 - actually, 5 starting from next year - different levels).

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seifip (seifip) said : 		#4

Tooltips don't help to solve the problem at all.,. It's not easier to display the tooltip than to click the kanji, What we need is a way to instantly see thich kanji is in which JLPT. when you have ha a 5+ kanji compound it takes a lot of time to rollover or click every kanji. I believe that if it would be optional, especially due to the relative ease of implementation, it should work well.

If you really don't like the idea of different colors, maybe at least a small number under each of the characters?

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Gnurou (gnurou) said : 		#5

Right, for tablet devices the tooltip does not help.

I'll give it some more thought. I can probably do something for kanjis
displayed in dictionary entries headers (the entry name in Japanese
with the big font). I suppose you don't want the feature to be applied
everywhere in the detailed view (for instance, related words and so
on), because it would become a real rainbow then. 0.2.4 is really
coming close now, so I will try to hack something fast - it will not
be pretty, but it should at least meet your needs.

A nice color palette to display the different levels would help ;)

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Gnurou (gnurou) said : 		#6

Here is another attempt:

http://img142.imageshack.us/i/jlptlevelentries.png/

A short description of kanjis for a given entry can be displayed after the definition. It is now also possible to display the JLPT level.

As the colors are already used to reflect the study level, I prefer not to introduce new ones to avoid possible confusion. Using this system, the JLPT levels of kanjis is directly visible.

0.3 versions will allow more customization of the detailed view using HTML template. Using that it will probably be possible to customize things more in case you need something more specific, but for the moment I think this is the best I can come with.