Which font should I focus on?

[Sephael]

Hi

I've been trying to learn Hiragana/Katakana for a while now. The next step for me is to get at least "decent" (as in people can actually recognize the letters) in writing.

My problem is, there seem to be few different fonts floating around.

Maru-moji
Kaisho
Mincho

are the ones that I know of, but I guess there are few more..

My question is, which one should I focus on? As far as I know, Mincho is used for printed material as in books, newspapers etc, Maru-moji is the one seen in mangas (rounded letters) and Kaisho is the brush-written font.

Personally, I love the Kaisho font, seeing as I'm a huge fan of Shodo, the art of Japanese Caligraphy, but there is no way that I can write like that with a pen.

PS:I will give Shodo a shot whenever I have the chance, but I want to learn the basics first.

[Arikado]

Uhhh, I don't know what the problem is here. The font isn't going to change the language or anything (although some fonts are terrible to try and read when the characters get small). Just choose one that looks most pleasing to you.

[Nyororin]

For one - typewritten Japanese is a bit different than hand written. You should NOT be trying to emulate typed Japanese for handwritten. You`re setting yourself up for all kinds of problems. Learn regular hand written, then tailor it to your own handwriting style after you`ve mastered it.

Practice with something like here.

And be aware that normal handwritten Japanese ends up looking quite different from any font out there. Unless you use something like this.

[Sephael]

Thanks Nyororin, thats the answer I was looking for. I'm going to print it out asap

[Hatredcopter]

I hope you're printing out the PDFs from the first link, and not just the second one. The biggest part of having good Japanese handwriting is by following correct stroke orders, which are all shown in the first link. The difference in handwriting between people who use the right stroke order and who use the wrong one is glaringly obvious.

[Sephael]

Yup, I'm printing out all those PDF's from the first site. I've been browsing through that site for a while, and I must say that its pretty useful ! All those games, both hiragana and katakana lessons and so much more