stroke-types.html

---
layout: default
title: Stroke types
name: stroke-types.html
---

<div class="page-header">
  <h1>Stroke types in KanjiVG</h1>
</div>

<p>
This page discusses the values of
the <a href="svg-format.html#type">type</a> attribute of the SVG paths
within KanjiVG.
</p>

<p>
  The type attribute specifies the shape of the stroke. It can be used
  to know how the stroke should be rendered.
</p>

<p>
  The values of this attribute use the keys of
  Unicode's <a href="glossary.html#cjk-strokes">CJK Strokes</a>.
</p>

<p>
  The best documentation available on the meanings of these stroke
  types seems to be that found
  in <a href="ref.html#cjk-strokes">Proposed additions to the CJK
  Strokes block of the UCS</a>, and the explanation of the stroke
  types there mostly consists of a list of examples, so there is some
  remaining ambiguity about how best to use these.
</p>

<p>
  In some cases these stroke types, in particular ㇁ (U+31C1), or ㇔
  (U+31D4), may appear to be in error, but check the explanations
  below before suggesting changes.
</p>

<p class='undocumented'>
  Undocumented and unknown features, and notes on possible flaws in
  the data, are distinguished with a pale green background.
</p>

<dl>
<dt id="cjk-stroke-t" class="stroke-type">㇀</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke T</b>
<code>U+31C0</code> This stroke is the lower left one in 冰 and 氾. It
always goes from left to right and
upwards. See <a href="#cjk-stroke-p">㇒ (CJK Stroke P)</a> for a
similar-looking stroke which goes in the opposite direction.
</dd>

<dt id="cjk-stroke-wg" class="stroke-type">㇁</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke WG</b>
<code>U+31C1</code>

This is used for the down stroke of 犭 and the lower right part of ⻖.
Some fonts, including the default font used by KanjiVG's host,
github.com, represent this shape as being almost identical
to <a href="#cjk-stroke-sp">㇓ (CJK Stroke SP)</a>, so it may appear
to be an error on a browser screen. However, this is the correct shape
for 犭 and ⻖.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇂</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke XG</b>
<code>U+31C2</code>
This is used in, for example, for the long vertical stroke of 戈.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇃</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke BXG</b>
<code>U+31C3</code>
Used for the second, long stroke of 心.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇄</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SW</b>
<code>U+31C4</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇅</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZZ</b>
<code>U+31C5</code> 

This relatively rare shape is used, for example, for stroke 15 of 麌.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇆</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZG</b>
<code>U+31C6</code> This is used for the right side of 印 or 掏.
</dd>

<dt id="cjk-stroke-hp" class="stroke-type">㇇</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HP</b>
<code>U+31C7</code> This is the correct stroke type for 又，双，叒，
and 今. See also See also <a href="#cjk-stroke-hg">㇖ (CJK Stroke
HG)</a>.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇈</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZWG</b>
<code>U+31C8</code>

The examples given in the Unicode reference are 飞，风，瘋，九，几，气，虱 
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇉</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SZWG</b>
<code>U+31C9</code>

This is used, for example, for the bottom part of 弓.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇋</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZZP</b>
<code>U+31CB</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇏</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke N</b>
<code>U+31CF</code> This stroke type is used for the right part of 人
and similar strokes in 大 and 天, and also for the long stroke at the
bottom of 道 and 走.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇐</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke H</b>
<code>U+31D0</code> This is used for horizontal lines, such as the top
and bottom strokes of 西.</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇑</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke S</b>
<code>U+31D1</code>
</dd>

<dt id="cjk-stroke-p" class="stroke-type">㇒</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke P</b>
<code>U+31D2</code> This stroke is the lower left one in 木, always
goes from right to left and downwards. See <a href="#cjk-stroke-t">
㇀ (CJK Stroke T)</a> for a similar-looking stroke which goes in the opposite
direction.
</dd>

<dt id="cjk-stroke-sp" class="stroke-type">㇓</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SP</b>
<code>U+31D3</code>

This stroke is used for vertical strokes whose ends turn
left. Depending on the font, it is easily confused
with <a href="#cjk-stroke-wg">㇁ (CJK Stroke WG)</a>, but that is
actually a stroke going diagonally left to right at its top.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇔</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke D</b>
<code>U+31D4</code> 

This is used for a short dash. Although the usual form of this in
fonts is a line slanting down to the right, the dash may slant either
down and left, such as the left stroke of 心 or 灬, or down and right,
such as the right strokes of 心 or 灬.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇕</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZ</b>
<code>U+31D5</code> This is used for the upper right part of 口, or
the middle upper stroke of 巨.
</dd>

<dt id="cjk-stroke-hg" class="stroke-type">㇖</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HG</b>
<code>U+31D6</code> This is the correct stroke type for 疋，了，予，矛，
子，字，疏，写，and 冖. See also <a href="#cjk-stroke-hp">㇇ (CJK
Stroke HP)</a>.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇗</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SZ</b>
<code>U+31D7</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇙</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke ST</b>
<code>U+31D9</code> 

This is used for the bottom left of 衣 or 食.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇚</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SG</b>
<code>U+31DA</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇛</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke PD</b>
<code>U+31DB</code>

This stroke type is used for the left vertical stroke of 女, or kanji
which contain 女 as a component, or for 巛 and kanji containing a 巛
element.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇜</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke PZ</b>
<code>U+31DC</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇞</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SZZ</b>
<code>U+31DE</code>

This rare stroke type is only used in the character 亞, and characters
such as 壼 which contain 亞 as a component.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇟</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke SWG</b>
<code>U+31DF</code>
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">㇡</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZZZG</b>
<code>U+31E1</code>
</dd>


<dt class="stroke-type">
６
</dt>
<dd>
<span class='undocumented'>For reasons which have not been documented,
this was used in some characters such as 蠣 or 寓 to represent one of
the lower strokes.</span>
</dd>
</dl>

<p>
  In some cases another field consisting of alphabetical
  letters. <span class='undocumented'>These letters refer to a set of
  stroke types which Ulrich Apel designed but has not documented. The
  letters seem to indicate the intersections of the ends of strokes
  with other
  strokes. See <a href="https://github.com/KanjiVG/kanjivg/issues/324">issue
  324 on Github</a> for more details.</span>
</p>

<dl>
<dt class="stroke-type">a</dt>
<dd>
End touches middle part of other stroke
</dd>
<dt class="stroke-type">b</dt>
<dd>
End touches end of other stroke
</dd>
<dt class="stroke-type">c</dt>
<dd>
<span class='undocumented'>Unknown</span>
</dd>
<dt class="stroke-type">v</dt>
<dd>
<span class='undocumented'>Unknown</span>
</dd>
<!-- this one has gone, see https://github.com/KanjiVG/kanjivg/issues/342
<dt class="stroke-type">va</dt>
<dd>
"㇕va" seems to have been used as a substitute for the ㇁ stroke of 犭
and for the bottom right stroke of ⻖.
</dd>
-->
</dl>

<p>
  Where the value has two possibilities, a slash is used to separate
  them. For example, the bottom dash in 冬 (fuyu, "winter") may slant
  either upwards or downwards, so this is represented
  by <code>kvg:type="㇔/㇀"</code> in the KanjiVG source file.
</p>

<h3 id="unused-patterns">CJK Strokes which are not used</h3>
<p>
The following elements of the CJK Strokes block are not used in KanjiVG:
</p>

<dl>

<dt class="stroke-type">
㇌
</dt>

<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HPWG</b>
<code>U+31CC</code> 

This stroke pattern is used to represent the right side of ⻖ and
related shapes when it is written as two strokes, per the Chinese
convention. KanjiVG always uses three strokes to write ⻖, with the
right side broken into upper and lower pieces, so this pattern is not
used by KanjiVG.

</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">
㇊
</dt>

<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZT</b>
<code>U+31CA</code> 

The main use of this seems to be to represent the 言 component known
as <span class='romaji'>gonben</span> in simplified Chinese characters
like 计, or other simplified Chinese forms such as so it is not very useful for Japanese.
</dd>

<dt class="stroke-type">
㇎
</dt>

<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke HZZZ</b>
<code>U+31CE</code> 

This rare pattern seems to only be used in the Chinese drawing of 凸.
Japanese uses a different stroke pattern for this character.
</dd>
<dt class="stroke-type">
㇣
</dt>
<dd>
<b>CJK Stroke Q</b>
<code>U+31E3</code> 
This only occurs in characters which are not part of KanjiVG, such as 㔔.
</dd>
</dl>

<!-- This list was extracted from the files by a computer program
which checked every value of every type on every stroke and found the
following unused. However, the choices seem to be questionable, since
KanjiVG is actually using more ambiguous things for these in many
cases, so I haven't put them into a <dl> format to explain why they're
not used, like the above ones. -->
<pre>
㇍ (Used for upper right of 投 etc. KanjiVG seems to use ㇈ for this.)
㇘ (Used in some stroke orders of 肅)
㇝ (Used for printed forms of the right stroke of 八 or 入)
㇠ (KanjiVG uses ㇈ instead of this)
㇢ (Rare pattern used by 乄)
</pre>