I would like to suggest adding an option to randomize the fonts used for the quiz questions and answers (when they are in japanese of course), this could be achieved with the fonts used for the hankos.
I believe such an option would help me practice reading kana/kanji that are not written in "textbook" fashion. I'm able to read kana and kanji at a fairly good pace, but as soon as I encounter kanji/kana written in handwritten style, "modern style" or any other unusual style it takes me a long time to read them and it becomes frustrating.
If I could use the time I spend with vocabulary/kanji quizzes also practising reading varied kana/kanji styles that would be very beneficial for my study.
And probably make the quizzes more unexpected and varied. (and harder :-[)
The fonts used in the hankos are not ones commonly available - they are used in the hankos successfully because they are written into the hanko, then saved as a png (image file) - in other words, the fonts no longer exist. =/. Having non-standard fonts would be ..err..very tricky.
While I don't know the specifics of the fonts you use, modern browsers (and that thing called Internet Explorer) support fonts in WOFF/TTF/OTF.
http://caniuse.com/woff
http://caniuse.com/ttf
I don't mean to say there wont be some issues, because I use this features often and sometimes certain fonts do have issues with certain browsers...
I also realize that this technical issues won't matter if no one else feels they need a feature like this ;)
I do realize that downloadable fonts are available, but Japanese fonts are veeery large relative to 'English' fonts, and would put a strain on both the server and browser if it tried to download them, creating an negative (very slow page load) impression on the user =/
Didn't know that, but it does makes sense.
Just adding 3 or 4 fonts like that would definitely slow things down... it would be even worst for mobile users :-[.
Oh well, another idea thrown to the trash bin :)).
One option I've seen on other sites (specifically, the seemingly now-defunct cojak.org; shame, I wanted to link to an example) is where you put in the names of the fonts you want to use via the user preferences and it'll display variants of the character as rendered across the fonts you've selected.
Now, one small warning about font variation, however: Even though they all use 漢字, you (the user) want to make sure the fonts you select are actually Japanese fonts. Chinese and Korean have their own quirks when it comes to writing some characters that can cause confusion otherwise—especially if you're learning a character for the first time.
That said, I do like the spirit of this suggestion, and if I dig through my resources I can find some free fonts people could install to get some of these these kinds of choices. That way, instead of making the site load an embedded font, users can download and install the ones they want and the preference pane can be pre-configured to allow mixing in the ones the user selects.
If nothing else, just having links to free Japanese fonts besides MS Mincho would be awesome, no?
Count me as one who'd appreciate font variation as well, but I had no idea it would be that much of a load on the server.
I like Kaji's idea of mixing things up at the user end, so I'll be watching this thread.
Something I might be able to offer in the future is being able to see different versions within the kanji dictionary, but for the entire site, the above answer remains.
To those interested in this feature an alternative solution as been made available on this [url=http://www.renshuu.org/index.php?page=community/forum_topic&topic_id=5825]thread[/url].
