Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

The default fonts in most systems do indeed contain the kanji but they often don't look that great. They are readable, sure, but if your goal is to have something that looks good the default fonts won't do. Fortunately there are countless really nifty fonts out there. I even had one that renders like traditional running script which you can turn into poor man's calligraphy by putting together a couple of characters and then doing some slight edit work to connect the tails so it looks like one single brush stroke.

Apart from fonts, you can generally do this with just about any image manipulation program. I don't recommend the standard Paint that comes with Windows but anything better than it should do the trick. More or less all of them allow you to simply use the text tool to input the kanji and then place them on the image. It's no more difficult than writing random text over an image. If you don't have a way to input japanese text you can either check my thread on the topic that is linked at the help forum here or you can simply copy and paste characters from the Internet. For short texts you can simply consult a dictionary and just copy the characters over. Remember to choose a decent font because like said, most of the defaults simply give you blocky characters that aren't pretty at all. There are fonts for all different script types as well as variations from very clear and readable to very unclear and artistic. Just pick what you like. If you are aiming for a brush-like look you can use some filters to make the text look less like it was just stamped on the image.

If you need help with figuring stuff out, drop me a note and I'll do my best. I often do this kind of stuff for various reasons. Odds are that I can help you to find some decent fonts too.

philthefluter wrote:

Thanks for the help. This inquiry is to help out my friend, Val who recently went to Japan for the first time. He took many photos and wants to superimpose relevant kanji over some images. He uses windows but I use mac. I will inquire again to see what programmes he uses and pass on your useful advice.

Drop us a line when you know more. It doesn't really matter what he uses because just about any program can do this. Here's a quick one I threw together for illustration purposes.



Figured that this particular haiku from Issa would go nicely with the theme. Depending on how clear or artistic you want to make it you just pick the right fonts and go for it. If you want something closer to photo titles you might want to look into some of the default fonts that should already be installed. They look rather plain and boring but are quite readable and thus great for when you actually want someone to be able to read what you have written.

nomaD43 wrote:

I like that font you used Amokrun. What is the name of it and the foundry?

The font itself is available here:

http://musashi.or.tv/aoyagikouzanfont.htm

It is the font I use pretty often in situations that call for more artistic look that is still readable. Not quite as bad as some running scripts and yet looks very nice. It is also covers quite a few characters. I don't recall ever having to use a character that wasn't there. Many great fonts have far less coverage and thus are tricky for cases like this. Say, I actually tried to use another font for that particular haiku but it was missing one kanji.

As a side note, this font can be used to make some pretty nice calligraphy practice sheets. Print a bunch of characters and try to copy them on another paper. Most of these characters look pretty much the way I'd assume they would on paper.