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Some kanji have alternative writings that are significantly different from
each other (e.g. different numbers of strokes). For example, see
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/29715/1749).

I'm looking for ways to find alternative writings for a given kanji **in
electronic form** (that I can copy-paste as text; IOW, bitmapped images won't
do).

Does anyone know of an online reference for finding alternative drawings of a
character?

* * *

**NB:** I wrote the example below before I was aware of the issues that Shen
Kuo explained in his first answer. I now realize that this example is likely
to be confusing rather than illuminating to most readers. I've kept it as is,
since several comments and at least one answer refer to it. If you do find it
confusing, please ignore it.

* * *

For an example of the sort of search I'm trying to perform, consider the
character

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/K8sXe.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/K8sXe.png)

Every place I've looked online shows the second character of the compound そうち
(device) like this:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t0QCW.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t0QCW.png)

Note that the last stroke of this character is a simple horizontal one across
the bottom.

In contrast, I have a several _printed_ sources that show a different writing
for the second character of this compound, where the last stroke consists of a
vertical component along the left side of the character, followed by a
horizontal one across the bottom; some instances are shown below:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zZd0Z.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zZd0Z.jpg)

Note the last two characters in both books' titles. These two characters are
supposed to be the compound 装置, but the second one of the characters is drawn
differently from 置1. Incidentally, my old Nelson kanji dictionary (2nd revised
edition, 1974; 17th printing, 1984) shows the same drawing of this character
as that shown in the picture above (see character 3644). AFAICT, it does not
mention the form 置 at all.

FWIW, none of the search tools that I've tried that accept handdrawn
characters as input have retrieved the alternative form of 置.

* * *

1These books use this alternative drawing of 置 _throughout_ , not just in
their cover titles. If you right-click on the image, and open it at full
resolution in a different tab, you will be able to find other instances of
this alternative drawing of 置 besides those appearing in the main titles.
CC BY-SA 3.0
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question
kanji resources
How to find alternative writings of a kanji in electronic form?
置 is the Japanese form of the character, used in Japan.

[![Zhi](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t0QCW.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t0QCW.png),
as you gave it, is the Chinese form of the character used in simplified and
traditional Chinese.

Because of Han unification, most browsers display characters using their
Chinese form _unless_ your browser's language tells them to do otherwise (i.e.
your browser is in Japanese). Most people have their browsers in English here,
so they have to see the Chinese forms. Some websites do actually allow you to
display forms selectively, but to great hinderance, Stack Exchange is not one
of them despite having JSE that has to put up with this a lot.

I wrote more about this in another very similar question recently, which has
other useful information: [The component 曷 and the kanjis 褐, 喝, 謁,
渇](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/29715/the-
component-%E6%9B%B7-and-the-
kanjis-%E8%A4%90-%E5%96%9D-%E8%AC%81-%E6%B8%87/29716#29716)
CC BY-SA 3.0
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answer
I'll leave my old answer up there, and write up what I said in the comments
now that you've edited your question.

Character variants are uncountable. Officially, you already have:

  * Japanese 新字体, used in official print, according to the 常用漢字 list and 人名漢字 list
  * Japanese 旧字体 that weren't actually phased out fully, especially in names, according to the 人名漢字 list
  * 簡体字, simplified Chinese as published by the Chinese gov
  * 繁体字, traditional Chinese as used in HK and published by their gov
  * 繁体字 as used in Taiwan and published by their gov (slightly different to that in HK)
  * Hanja (漢字) taught in Korea in high school as their gov decrees

Then you get non-standard characters, like 飴, that people aren't taught in
school but most can read and use, and you see often in written language
anyway.

Then you get 朝日文字 such as (officially 臍), which aren't standard 新字体, but apply
their logic to characters that weren't simplified.

On top of that, there's ゲバ字, which pretty often simply use simplified Chinese
in Japanese. In calligraphy too, many characters are written like simplified
Chinese (many simplified characters were based off calligraphic variants).
Fonts also have variations based upon calligraphy and handwriting style.

Then do we count ryakuji, too, like 㐧 rather than 第, and 门 rather than 門?

The creation of characters is ongoing, and there are always new abbreviations
coming about as part of their evolution, so you won't find any cohesive works.
The Kangxi dictionary contained 47,000 characters, of which about 40% are
graphical variants, and there are now new variants invented in the 200 years
since.

Digitally, there isn't even one system of encryption, and not all characters
that you see written are encoded. Unicode is possible the most commonly used
standard, but it's not totally comprehensive. But, most people use it, and you
seem to be too, hence the problems with Han unification.

You imply in your question that the chinese 直 is a valid variant of 直 in
Japanese. In this case, **wiktionary** gets closest, because it lists out
every language's simplification of any character, and has articles on most
encrypted variant characters, such as for 步 etc.

But it's not finished, and new characters are made and encoded everyday.

You can't beat it, but you can sit along for the ride.
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