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I work for a company that creates mobile apps to control and maneuver toy
robots. Recently I've seen our Japanese translators as well as our Japanese
business partners (native speakers) using the word ドロー to mean "draw" in the
following context:

"Draw, Block, and Text Coding" They've recommended: "ドロー、ブロック、テキスト"

"Draw" means that the user of the app would be able to draw a line or path on
the mobile screen and the robot would follow that path design as it moves
around. They can then see the programming coordinates of this path.

Why would you want to use the katakana ドロー instead of 描く？ Does it sound better
from an advertising perspective? Does it make more sense for children to read
this word?
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2018-05-07T13:30:21.043
58427
2018-05-10T00:30:47.940
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question
words katakana
When is it ok to use ドロー instead of 描く?
描く is not a valid choice because it's a verb, whereas ブロック and テキスト are nouns.
A better alternative would be a Sino-Japanese word
[描画](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%8F%8F%E7%94%BB), which is a noun (and suru-
verb). Unfortunately, 描画 and ドロー are equally difficult words, so translators
may have chosen the katakana word which visually goes well with the other two.
Late teens and adults who are interested in technologies will probably
understand ドロー. (If your target audience is small children, they won't
understand テキスト, either.)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-07T15:55:26.757
58432
2018-05-07T15:55:26.757
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answer
If they plan to use it for advertising it makes sense to use katakana instead
of kanji or even hiragana. Katakana is cool and (by lack of a better
expression) has an edge to it. Hiragana looks cuter so it’s mostly targeted
towards girls / women / very small children.

If they don’t plan on advertising with it, it still makes sense because ドロー is
a noun. The other two are also nouns.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-10T00:30:47.940
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2018-05-10T00:30:47.940
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answer