36432
I am translating my mobile game from english to japanese. It is pixel art
style, so I need pixel art font. I found one with 8px height, but I don't know
if it is too small to understand, because I don't know any japanese myself.
These kanji glyphs worry me the most.

So my question is, do you understand these glyphs or are they too hard to
read?

Here is a full image: <https://i.stack.imgur.com/S3T7v.png>

Here is just a part of it: [![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ith2s.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ith2s.png)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-04T21:21:03.910
36423
2021-04-22T10:20:01.293
15987
question
kanji katakana hiragana
Is this 8px height font understandable for japanese knowing people?
By themselves, most kanji (the glyphs) at the bottom are hard too recognize.
As part of a sentence wuth some context, you can read it, but it definitely
does not look nice at. I'd say 8 pixel is a bit too low.

However, I recently did some hobby programming as well and found this font:

[PixelMPlus](http://itouhiro.hatenablog.com/entry/20130602/font)

It's freely available and a true type font without any embedded bitmap font.
It comes at 10 and 12 pixel, which is much easier to read and looks better.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-04T22:05:59.987
36424
2016-07-04T22:05:59.987
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36423
answer
TLDR: **Use at least a 9px font unless you want negative reviews.**

This is [美咲フォント](https://littlelimit.net/misaki.htm), isn't it? Actually, it's
indeed **7px** per glyph plus 1px padding :) I know this font, but didn't
mention it in [my previous
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/36420/5010), because I thought
you will never need this in smartphone games with LCDs with >200 dpi.

8px (7px + 1px) kanji fonts are used in some real games on 3DS, which is
equipped with very low-res screens. For example, the 3DS version of _Dragon
Quest X_ and games from _Etrian Odyssey_ franchise use this font (or something
similar), because they needed to display many characters simultaneously.

However, such fonts are only readable and understandable with the aid of the
context. And even with the context, some kanji are still hard to recognize
even to a native speaker. I remember great many _Dragon Quest_ users
[complained about the difficulty in recognizing
characters](http://jin115.com/archives/52039970.html) when the 3DS version was
released. Even the native speakers could not distinguish between 鉄の剣, 鋼の剣 and
銅の剣 ("iron, steel and copper sword", respectively).

If you do need this tiny font, you have to be more careful than usual. You
have to tell your translators to avoid using complicated kanji in the
translation process. Try to use it as sparingly as possible, and never use it
in the critical parts of your game.

Example (screenshot from _Etrian Odyssey_ taken from [this blog
article](http://gunboydx.blog113.fc2.com/blog-entry-76.html)):

[![SEKA-Q](https://i.stack.imgur.com/j06Gg.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/j06Gg.png)

The list on the left uses a 9px (in actual glyph height) font, which I think
is not tough to read. Under "SKILL" and "ITEM", there are 7px characters, and
I can barely recognize the kanji under "ITEM" (魔神の礎). The 9px font is used
throughout the game with almost no problem.

If you are developing a smartphone game and want to add the pixel-art feelings
to it, perhaps 10–11px bitmap font is a reasonable choice, which is readable
enough, and "jaggy" enough. Or you can use TrueType fonts designed exactly for
this purpose (for example,
[this](http://itouhiro.hatenablog.com/entry/20130602/font)).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2016-07-05T03:03:38.470
36432
2021-04-22T10:20:01.293
2021-04-22T10:20:01.293
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5010
36423
answer
I think the majority of these are legible with no problem. But a good number
of them might be difficult to work out.

I think you would be safe using Hiragana with spaces, which has plenty of
precedent for games. Or, you could use only the legible Kanji and replace the
others with Hiragana and Katakana.

Here's the same sentence with a few options:

```

     "Push the blue turtle"
    
```

>   * 青い **亀** を押す -「亀」  
>  would be hard to read in such a small font.
>   * 青い **かめ** を押す・青い **カメ** を押す  
>  just switch the complex kanji to hiragana or katakana. this is probably the
> easiest to read imho.
>   * あおい かめを おす  
>  switch everthing to hiragana with spaces. lots of precedent for this, no
> problem unless you have a lot of text on one screen.
>   * アオイ カメヲ オス  
>  all katakana with spaces
>   * あおい カメを おす  
>  mixed kana with spaces
>   * あおいかめをおす  
>  all hiragana, no spaces. don't do this unless your game is about **Genji
> Monogatari**.
>   * Aoi kame wo osu  
>  all romaji. don't do this unless your game is designed _make people argue_.
>
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-05T03:12:45.260
36433
2016-07-05T03:21:53.327
2016-07-05T03:21:53.327
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answer