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Simply I find when I'm writing I can only make kanji so small before they
become sloppy, but I can write kana nice and small. Is it allowed to write
half-width Katakana/Hiragana alongside regular width Kanji?

If you can how would this work horizontally and vertically? If not, what's the
point of half-width?
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2014-11-15T22:18:25.803
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orthography kana handwriting
When writing by hand, can kana be half-width and kanji be full-width?
This probably varies from person to person, at least a little bit, but
**generally each character should be approximately the same size as any others
(i.e. full-width)**. If you don't, especially with katakana (which are formed
from pieces of kanji), you can end up with situations where **you cannot tell
whether something is kana or kanji**. For example

>   * ﾒﾘ vs 刈
>   * ｶﾛ vs 加
>   * and probably many others that don't come to mind immediately.
>

I'm not entirely sure what the general use of half-width kana is; the only
places I have ever seen it used is in places that are never mixed with kanji,
such as the name input for a bank transfer at an ATM (my name is also recorded
in half-width katakana in my bank book). Many websites also explicitly require
you to input the reading of your name in full-width kana, as well.

I would say that the general rule of **always use full-width unless explicitly
told otherwise** is probably safe.
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2014-11-15T23:20:13.783
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In usual handwriting, kana often turn out smaller than full-fledged kanji,
especially kanji with many strokes. (Though practising writing both kanji and
kana the same size is probably an important step towards achieving a nice
balance between kanji and kana size.)

Some fonts have comparatively small katakana, which I find very easy to read.

![small katakana in the book 時をかける少女](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aGb62.jpg)

This is from the book 時をかける少女, 角川文庫

I don't think half-width katakana have anything to do with handwriting. Half-
width kana are squashed in the horizontal direction by a factor of two and
used for saving space in typed documents (e.g. on 通帳, in ATMs, etc.), when
choosing a small enough font size would be too small to read easily. I don't
really recall seeing half-width kana mixed with kanji.

In any case, I think it's fine to write kana a little smaller than kanji, but
I don't think you should aim for squashing your kana horizontally.
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answer