KanjiPad

KanjiPad is a Japanese handwriting recognition software designed for learners of the language who primarily use it as a dictionary tool. To use it, the user draws a character into the box and then requests a translation. The application displays the best possible candidates on the right of the window and the user can easily select one for pasting into other programs.

However, it's worth noting that KanjiPad doesn't support entering kana, so its usefulness as an input method is quite limited. For people who already know the reading of a character, conventional pronunciation-based methods might be faster.

To use KanjiPad, the user must have GTK 1.2.0 or later installed. Before installation, the makefile must be edited to check that GTKINC and GTKLIBS point to the GTK library and that BINDIR and LIBDIR are set to the location where KanjiPad will be installed. Once set up, the user can draw their character into the large box and click on the upper button to look it up. The characters used in the application were chosen rather casually, so the developer welcomes suggestions for better characters to use.

The candidates that appear to the right of the main area can be selected by clicking on the desired character for pasting into other programs. To clear and start over, simply click on the lower button. To quit, select "Close" in the file menu. "Save" in the character menu writes out the points in the character and the selected character to a file "samples.dat" in the current directory, intended for making a file of characters for automated testing.

This release has several improvements, including makefile cleanups for RPM-ization and the move of data files to $(prefix)/share. It is a handy tool for learners of Japanese who want a quick and efficient way to look up characters.