AnimCJK
Draw animated Japanese characters (Kanji and Kana), Korean characters (Hanja) and Chinese characters (Hanzi) in correct stroke order using svg, free open-source code.
Install / Use
/learn @parsimonhi/AnimCJKREADME
AnimCJK
Description
The purpose of this project is to display kanji and kana (Japanese characters), hanja (Korean characters) or hanzi (simplified and traditional Chinese characters) stroke by stroke.
For a demo, see https://parsimonhi.github.io/animCJK/
For each character, there is one or several svg files in AnimCJK repository that contains paths defining its shape and some css code to animate it. The name of the svg is the decimal unicode of the character followed by the "svg" extension.
SVG files
SVG files are stored in several folders.
The svgsJa folder contains svg files corresponding to the union of the Japanese "jōyō kanji" (2136 characters), the Japanese "jinmeyō Kanji" (863 characters), some Japanese "hyōgai Kanji", some components, and the 35 basic strokes. In all, svgsJa folder contains 5753 characters.
The svgsKana folder contains svg files corresponding to the Japanese "hiragana" (86 characters) and Japanese "katakana" (91 characters). In all, svgsKana folder contains 177 characters.
The svgsKo folder contains svg files corresponding to Korean "hanja level 8, 7, 6, 5", some of the level 4, and some other characters. In all, svgsKo folder contains 535 characters.
The svgsZhHans folder contains svg files corresponding to Chinese "commonly used simplified hanzi" (7000 characters), some "uncommon hanzi", some "traditional hanzi" (that can appear in a simplified hanzi text), some components and the 35 basic strokes. This set includes the "HSK hanzi" (2663 characters) and the "frequently used simplified hanzi" (3500 characters). In all, svgsZhHans folder contains 7726 characters.
The svgsZhHant folder contains svg files corresponding to Chinese "HSK v3 level 1 to 3 traditional hanzi" (907 characters) and some other characters. Note that some simplified characters have more than one corresponding traditional character. In all, svgsZhHant folder contains 1014 characters.
Be careful because the characters are not always the same in all languages even when they share the same unicode. For instance 勉 (21193.svg) in Japanese has not the same glyph as 勉 (21193.svg) in Chinese.
Pay attention to compatibility characters such as 勉 (64051.svg) which has the same glyph in Japanese as 勉 (21193.svg) in Chinese, but does not have the same unicode.
Each svg can be inserted as is in a web page, or with some modifications using for instance javascript.
Usage
First, you have to download animCJK somewhere on your computer (then evenly upload it on a webserver).
Basic usage
Just insert a svg file representing a character as is in a web page.
For instance, you can use php (assume that you moved or uploaded animCJK repository on a php server). Write the code below in a file called simple.php and store it in the samples folder of AnimCJK. Then run simple.php in a browser.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0,user-scalable=yes">
<style>
svg.acjk
{
width:256px;
height:256px;
}
</style>
<title>Simple usage of AnimCJK</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Simple usage of AnimCJK</h1>
<?php
include "../svgsJa/20013.svg"; // include Japanese 中
?>
</body>
</html>
Alternately, you can use HTML and Javascript. Write the code below in a file called simple.html and store it in the samples folder of AnimCJK. Then run simple.html in a browser.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0,user-scalable=yes">
<style>
svg.acjk
{
width:256px;
height:256px;
}
</style>
<title>Simple usage of AnimCJK</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Simple usage of AnimCJK</h1>
<figure id="svgBox"></figure>
<script>
window.addEventListener("load",function(){
fetch("../svgsJa/20013.svg") // get Japanese 中
.then(r=>r.text())
.then(r=>document.getElementById("svgBox").innerHTML=r);});
</script>
</body>
</html>
Anki cards
You can insert svg files as HTML code in Anki card's note fields.
For instance, using Anki card editor, select "Recto" field of a card's note, then click on the "hamburger" icon, select the menu that allows to modify the HTML and paste the content of any AnimCJK svg file representing a character anywhere in the HTML code.
Other usages
Several samples are provided to show how to use AnimCJK. These samples are stored in the samples folder. See also https://parsimonhi.github.io/animCJK/samples
Using php, javascript or any other languages, you can easily modify svg files in order to change size of characters, colors, animation duration, etc.
- to insert several characters in the same page, see animeSeveral.html.
- to change colors of a character, see color.html, rainbow.html or red.html.
- to change the size of a character, see size.html.
- to change the speed of drawing a character, see speed.html.
See other samples for more usages.
Technical details
To animate a character, AnimCJK uses the following method: the character shape is split in several paths (one per stroke). These paths (called "stroke" paths) are used as clip-path, and dashed lines (called "median" paths) are drawn over these paths. The space between two dashes is large enough to cover the whole path. Initially, the path is covered by a space of the dashed line. Using a css animation, one moves the position of the dashed line. As a result, one has the impression that the strokes are drawn gradually. See https://css-tricks.com/svg-line-animation-works/ for more details.
If several characters are inserted in the same page (for instance if one want to display "一二三"), and if one need to animate them one after the other, one has to modify the animation-delay of each stroke in the css of the svg. If a character is displayed several times in the same page (for instance if one want to display "谢谢"), one also need to modify the id of its elements. This can be done using javascript. Alternately, one can encapsulate each svg in an iframe.
Note: some kana (those which have a stroke overlapping on itself as あ, ぬ etc.) are special. The stroke which overlaps is split in several parts. So automatic procedures on these characters require some specific codes.
Note: some characters have special versions stored in folders that have the "Special" suffix. These versions have some strokes split in several parts in order to be able to show the radical of characters like 由, 甲, etc. See "Radical" sample to see how it works. If you don't intend to show the radical of characters in a different color when drawing a character, you don't need to use these special versions.
Decomposition system
To display components of a character in different colors, a specific decomposition system to AnimCJK called "acjk" can be used. "acjk" decompositions are stored in dictionaryJa.txt, dictionaryZhHans.txt, etc.
An "acjk" decomposition starts with a character, followed by its number of stroke (which indicates that the character is not decomposed), or followed by an ideographic description character (which indicates that the character is decomposed). The ideographic description character is followed by several component decompositions (3 for "⿲" and "⿳", 2 for ⿰","⿱","⿴","⿵","⿶","⿷","⿸","⿹","⿺" and "⿻). If a component has no corresponding character to represent it, its decomposition just starts with the ideographic description character. If a component has no corresponding character to represent it and no decomposition, its decomposition starts by a "?" followed by its number of stroke. A component may be represented by a character that has more strokes than it, followed by the decomposition of the component instead of the representing character. A component may be represented by a character that has a different glyph, but is semantically the same as the component. Special case 1: when a component is also the radical of the main character, a special mark is inserted just after the component character (actually a "."). Special case 2: sometimes, a component is split in several parts (when some strokes of other components are drawn "between" its parts). In such a case, each part is represented by a specific decomposition starting with the component character which is split, followed by a special mark (actually a ":"), followed by the decomposition of this part. When there is more than one special mark, the radical special mark is inserted first. It is mandatory to decompose a component which contains the radical of the main character. It is optional to decompose other components. If a character has several possible decompositions, just concatenate them.
Plugin for Wordpress
A plugin for Wordpress to insert animated kanji in a webpage using BBCode can be downloaded at:
http://gooo.free.fr/animCJK/animkanji_wp_plugin_page.php
Related works
Makemeahanzi
This project is derived from the remarquable Makemeahanzi project which is designed to display Chinese characters. See https://github.com/skishore/makemeahanzi for more details. However many characters have been modified (or added) in animCJK for various reasons:
- many Japanese and Korean characters have a different stroke order, or have a different glyph, or have a different stroke direction or are not commonly used in Chinese, and therefore are not in Makemeahanzi.
- many Chinese traditional characters have a different stroke order, or have a different glyph, or have a different stroke direction or are not in Makemeahanzi.
- many character shapes were just slightly modified to look prettier.
- some commonly used (but not frequently used) Chinese characters are not in Makemeahanzi.
- some uncommon characters are not in Makemeahanzi.
Even if character shapes have the same look in both Makemeahanzi and AnimCJK, the svg files are different: the css is different, the svg structure is different, the coordinate system is different, the stroke paths are different, the median paths are different. However, for people who wo
