Aug 08, 2023 14:05:00

``Soan'' that can convert text to old type (kuzushiji) has appeared, so I tried to convert modern sentences into a tasteful look

It is possible to convert the Japanese text used in modern Japan into the old typeface (

kuzushiji ) used in the old typeface editions published in Japan in a very short period from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century. 'soan' has been released by the ROIS-DS Humanities Open Data Joint Usage Center . Soan generates an image by converting the text to old type, so I tried using it immediately.

Soan: A Service to Convert Modern Japanese to Old Type (Kuzushiji) | ROIS-DS Open Data Center for Humanities (CODH)
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/soan/

Today, August 7th, a service/library 'soan' that converts input text into images using images of old typefaces was released. It also incorporates functions that could not be realized with the Android app 'Vertical Writing Viewer', such as the use of continuous type and different use of hentai kana. Please try playing! https://t.co/OYbWuZapkn #soan pic.twitter.com/NpIEsfWRaj

— 2SC1815J (@2SC1815J) August 7, 2023

“Soan” released today is a digital tool for modern Japanese people to use Kuzushiji on a daily basis.

I think it would be interesting for everyone to try their best to decipher the somewhat cryptic messages written in Kuzushiji. What does the sentence below say? #soan https://t.co/QIn5K5wyr8 pic.twitter.com/ME6mmWcqKg

— Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH) (@rois_codh) August 7, 2023

It's easy to use Soan, access the dedicated page and enter the text you want to convert to the text box under 'Shared Server Service' in the part labeled 'Old Type (Kuzushiji) Conversion Service' at the top of the screen. Enter it and click 'Generate old type (kuzushiji) image!' As samples, 'I am a cat' and 'Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan' are prepared, so this time I converted a sentence of 'I am a cat'.

However, at the time of article creation, there are frequent cases where the image is not output due to an error in the shared server service, perhaps because of the flood of users.

In such a case, it is OK if you use the browser-completed Soan. The browser-based Soan is available from the following.

Soan: A library for drawing modern Japanese with old typefaces (kuzushiji)
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/soan/demo/

It is easy to use, just enter the imaged text in the text box and click 'Generate image'.

An image will be generated below the text box. Since there is a button 'Download image' under the image, you can also download the generated image from here.

The downloaded image is below. It was output as a JPG image of 1100 vertical × 900 horizontal pixels.

From the 'Settings' button next to the 'Image generation' button, you can change the use of fonts, the use of continuous characters, line length, line spacing, margins, generated image size magnification, etc.

When I converted the introductory sentence on the page

about GIGAZINE , it became as follows. Arabic numerals and katakana are replaced with old typefaces, but Arabic numerals '0' are replaced with symbols '〇', and alphabet notation seems to be output without being replaced with old typefaces.

Soan is a `` old typeface data set '' created from books printed using typefaces about 400 years ago, and a JavaScript library `` so The text is converted to kuzushiji using the soan library .

The images generated using Soan can be used freely, but the old typeface dataset itself used by Soan is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , so the entire old typeface dataset If you use , you need to pay attention to the license.