Kanjidic (Small version)

The small version of Kanjidic is just like the newest standard one, with one big difference: it lacks the stroke order diagrams of the newest one (the newest one also includes the Classic Nelson index code and the SJIS code--but that won't matter for most users). Therefore, the small version takes up about 8 MB of memory card space instead of 141 MB. Unless you're starved for space, I recommend the new version; the stroke order diagrams can be quite helpful to learners. If you prefer to save space, though, you can download the small version through this link.

     Kanjidic is just what it sounds like--a kanji dictionary. It has all 6355 kanji in the JIS X 0208-1990 set, searchable by kanji, SKIP code, and reading (readings in words, not nanori readings--there are too many and it would largely duplicate data in Enamdict). As with Edict, I think the way my version is indexed makes it a bit more useful and elegant than other versions of Kanjidic I've seen. This three-way version has separate indexes for kanji, readings, and SKIP codes, so that it shows more information in the list of results, as shown below. The other version shows only the kanji in the list of results, but it adds a stroke order diagram for each kanji. Click each for a full-resolution VGA image--note that the Axim's VGA screen is actually much sharper than I can reproduce here (see below).

Searched by kanji and reading; you can also search by Unicode code; plans for the future are to add a radical search
Searched by SKIP code (in the search window, you can use the hyphens or leave them out--you'll get the same results)

Use is pretty simple: enter the kanji, a reading of the kanji, or the SKIP code in the search window and hit the "Find" button. These screenshots are from EBPocket on the Windows Mobile platform, but if you're using WDIC on the Palm, your results and way of of using it will be the same. If you don't know SKIP codes, spend half an hour learning the system--it's an ingenious and marvelously easy way to look up kanji. For the finer points of use, consult the general instructions for all dictionaries.

Codes in the entries:

     Kanjidic is one of the fruits and the intellectual property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, under the fearless leadership of Prof. Jim Breen, at Monash University in Australia (copyright and license terms).

Note that I've sized the images above to appear about the same physical size as the Axim X50V's screen (depending on your monitor, of course); however the actual Axim screen squeezes a full 480x640 pixels into that space, so it's much sharper and easier to read (more pixels in the same size=higher resolution). You can click each image to see the actual 480x640 pixels you'd get on the screen of an Axim or other VGA PDA, although because the image will then be much larger than on the Axim screen it still won't look quite as sharp as the real thing. And of course you can change the text size to be larger or smaller, too, which will also affect legibility.

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