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I'm confused by all the different of fonts that can be used to learn to write Hiragana (e.g. the end loop of き may be closed or not). I understand that it is usually related to the difference between print and handwriting style, but after all my research I still don't know which handwriting font is really used by kids in schools when they learn Hiragana. I mean when teachers are creating handwriting worksheets - which font are they using ? Thanks for your advices.

senshin
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Pierre
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  • @naruto A typography question! _*searching for a "Leave open" button*_ @ Pierre Did you know there's something called [教科書体](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%95%99%E7%A7%91%E6%9B%B8%E4%BD%93-477886) ([picture](http://www.justsystems.com/jp/products/smile_katei/images/feature2_ph006.jpg)) – Earthliŋ Jun 26 '15 at 11:35
  • @Earthliŋ Thanks ! No, I didn't know this. It looks that in all countries (I mean even in West countries) there is a lot of variations about how to learn to write characters - at least in Japan, strokes order seems to be always the same ! – Pierre Jun 29 '15 at 07:57

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The font is called 「[教科書体]{きょうかしょたい}」, literally, the "Textbook Font".

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Ambo100
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  • Thanks @l'électeur - so it is used for text book, but is it used to learn to trace characters as well ? Just want to be sure because it seems that some simplifications are done when kids learn to draw/trace characters . In particular, I mean the "wavy" start of the letters (coming from calligraphy I imagine) seems to be not used sometimes (eg for ん, the first stoke can be just a straight line and not begin with a small angle). – Pierre Jun 29 '15 at 08:39
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    For example, I found this PDF to learn to trace characters and it has not the wavy starts[link] (http://japanese-lesson.com/resources/pdf/hiragana_writing_practice_sheets.pdf) – Pierre Jun 29 '15 at 08:54
  • I know this is years late, but it really doesn't seem to answer Pierre's question. This is not a font you would use to learn how to handwrite. – Mark S. Nov 25 '17 at 02:23
  • @MarkS. If not 教科書体, what font is used to teach kids to write Hiragana in Japanese primary school? – Chocolate Nov 25 '17 at 04:30
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    @Chocolate Something simpler looking, like the one linked in Pierre's comment, or the one at http://happylilac.net/hiragana_nazorigaki2015.html I don't know what this is called so all I can do is wait for someone to post another answer. – Mark S. Nov 25 '17 at 04:34
  • ^ そのリンクのページ、児童用じゃなくて幼児用ですよね。。「小学校の教科書で習う字体に**準じて**文字の形を作成しています」とは書いてありますけど・・でも両方、基本的には「教科書体」だと思うんですけど違うんですかね・・・ – Chocolate Nov 25 '17 at 04:42
  • I couldn't find a source to install 教科書体 on my machine. There were some google hits but they were all in japanese. Maybe it looks like you have to purchase it? I wonder what's the best font out of the ones that are included with the OS? I browsed the fonts on my mac, looking for one that was clean, without calligraphic flourishes, but which did have the "broken" form of sa, ki, and ri hiragana which according to [this answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/78585) is better for learning. There weren't many that met those criteria. Really just YuKyokasho and YuKyokasho medium. – ziggurism Jul 07 '21 at 00:18
  • [Here](https://i.imgur.com/k4VxXZ3.png) is how it looks on my mac. Do you think it is a good font for learning and printing teaching guides? a good substitute for 教科書体? – ziggurism Jul 07 '21 at 00:19