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When writing furigana I was told if it's written「フリガナ」write it in katakana. If
it's「ふりがな」then write it in hiragana.

I'm curious if there's a standard or everyone that makes a document just kind
of chooses if they want it in hiragana or katakana?
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katakana hiragana furigana
Is there a standard for furigana? ふりがな vs フリガナ
I don't know of any examples where one would write the furigana differently
than the kana reading. Doing otherwise seems confusing to me.

Kanji represent meaning while kana represent sound. This is why there are
often multiple possible kanji for a given sound, and a given kanji might be
read in multiple ways. Furigana is a reading aid so the reader knows which
reading was intended.

Remember, in general, one is not required to write furigana. It is only
written as an aid to the reader. Thus if you do not know if a word would be
written in hiragana or katakana, or if you do not know which reading was
intended, it might be a good idea to omit the furigana to avoid an error.

One extra note, from what I know, Japanese children learn hiragana before
katakana. Thus all furigana written for children of that age are in hiragana.
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I found a [website](http://www.rireki.net/name/) advising you how to fill in
your full name when you are asked for the furigana.

> 名前の「ふりがな」は、氏名欄の表記が「ふりがな」と平仮名で書いてあれば平仮名で、 「フリガナ」とカタカナで書いてあればカタカナで書かなくてはいけません。

It's safe to assume that rule would be followed elsewhere.

Other forums I checked had posters who said the same thing. However, there do
exist people who are not sure which to use, or have a preference for one kana.
カタカナ does seem more official and important-looking from what I could gather.
On the other hand, the habit of using ひらがな as ふりがな is very common. I can post
more links to these discussions if you like.

**Edit**

If you need further convincing, you can read this [psychology
blog](http://sinri.net/sinrigaku/28.html) where the author takes for granted
that same system of using the same script as the one 'furigana' is written in
- in effect, answering 'yes' to your question. For such an assumption to be
made, it's only natural to conclude the rule is wide-spread.

The blog writer suggests it is common for the person filling in the form to
copy the model given by the other person (who wrote the form). What follows
are humorous examples that test that pyschological impulse where doing so
might be considered absurd and contrived.
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Both of the standard notation of furigana 「フリガナ(Katakana)」, 「ふりがな(Hiragana)」,
in general Japanse documents especially for pronounce of name, address.

In my childhood, hiragana notation is used for Kanji, katakana notation is
used for foreign words.

Some Japanese apps check characters according to furigana
notation「フリガナ(Katakana)」,「ふりがな(Hiragana)」,「ｶﾀｶﾅ(Half-width Katakana)」.

In very old Japanese computing, there is only used Half-width kana and forced
to use 「ｶﾀｶﾅ(Half-width Katakana)」.
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My experience with ふりがな in general is that there are a few accepted standards.
The most widely accepted standard is to use ひらがな for all kanji, unless the
kanji is standing in for a word that is a loan word (for example, 功夫 -> カンフー).
This kind of usage is not very common, but some words as this exist.

Another "standard" is mostly seen in academic settings, typically when
teaching foreign students. To teach the difference between 音読み and 訓読み for
kanji, you can use カタカナ for 音読み and ひらがな for 訓読み. Since 音読み tend to be
borrowed readings derived from Chinese, it helps to see the difference in
origin as you're learning vocabulary, and so this is often used as a tool in
the classroom.
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Yes, when the form says `ふりがな` you usually have to fill it with hiragana, and
when the form says `フリガナ` you usually have to fill it with katakana. Both
styles are common. In online forms there may be an explicit instruction or an
example.

If you are a form designer, you can basically choose whichever you like, but
there are several considerations:

  * Modern Japanese speakers generally have gotten used to furigana written in hiragana in novels and such. If you asked a not-so-old Japanese speaker to write down how to read their name, you would usually get a name written in hiragana. But [foreign names written in hiragana can look really bad](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/19441/5010).
  * Historically, there were times when hiragana was not available on computers, and [old paper forms tended to use katakana](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/17393/5010).
  * Mixture of hiragana and katakana can cause troubles when you need to sort names alphabetically, although recent programs are usually clever enough to handle this situation correctly.

I feel forms/programs developed recently mainly use furigana in hiragana.
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