Simple Furigana 4+
Add Furigana to Japanese Text
telethon k.k.
-
- $4.99
- Offers In-App Purchases
Screenshots
Description
SimpleFurigana is a text editor that will transform how you read and compose Japanese text. Simply start typing, select Japanese text and right-click, or open existing Word documents or webpages, and SimpleFurigana will automatically add Furigana (ruby characters) to annotate Japanese Kanji characters.
Studying for the JLPT? Designing a worksheet? SimpleFurigana allows you to filter Furigana to match your level of Kanji knowledge (or that of your students) by Japanese school year or JLPT Level.
SimpleFurigana offers all the typographical features you expect from a Mac application and allows you to format your text and the Furigana annotations to your liking. Of course, SimpleFurigana supports both horizontal and vertical layouts. Design and export your documents, worksheets, or beautiful calligraphy as PDF or images.
If you are designing webpages, you can export the text with furigana as HTML as well.
SimpleFurigana can even produce Microsoft Word documents (.docx) with furigana annotations.
In addition, SimpleFurigana supports roundtrip editing via PDF (in case you need to make changes after export) and bulk Furigana annotation using AppleScript.
SimpleFurigana includes several state state-of-the-art dictionaries for Kanji transliteration, and of course interfaces with your Mac's built-in Japanese dictionary. And if automatic transliteration fails, you can always manually correct Furigana as well. No internet connection is required for transliteration, and none of your data ever leaves your computer.
What’s New
Version 1.3.2
bug fixes and performance improvements
Ratings and Reviews
Works well, also excellent developer support
I once wrote a negative review of this app, but I have since received excellent assistance from the app’s development staff who addressed all of my concerns. Because of this, my review and rating of the app is now very positive.
Perhaps the best way to use this app is as a primary editor for Japanese text. Type or cut-and-paste Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana text into the upper window, make any necessary Furigana corrections in the lower window, and save each composition in a separate Simple Furigana managed work file. If you want to go back to a composition later to make changes, just re-open the work file, make and save the updates, and print or export the result as necessary. You can export the generated furigana text in the lower window as HTML text or as an image. You can of course copy the text from the upper window into a standard text file if you decide you don’t want to display Furigana.
I initially had a problem where many inappropriate hiragana translations were being generated, but the translations improved significantly after being directed to select a different dictionary in the app. Alternate dictionaries can be downloaded from the App Store within the app, I was recommended to use the Unidic dictionary. The app still produces some inapproriate translations with the Unidic dictionary, but in my experience fewer than with the default dictionary. By clicking on any problematic words in the lower output frame you can easily correct them.
With a new software release on Dec. 6th 2018 - 1.2.0 (18) - another issue was resolved where if you changed the font size on the text in the upper input frame, any furigana corrections that you had previously made in the lower frame were lost. Also with this release, it became possible to change the print orientation from portrait to landscape within the print dialog. I am very thankful to the development staff for quickly resolving these issues after I reported them.
FYI, the HTML that is required to create Furigana text is actually quite simple and a sample is included below. You can use it as a template if you need to find specific kanji and their associated hiragana readings in an exported file using an html editor or text editor.
For example -
<ruby>力<rt>りょく</rt></ruby>
- will produce the “power” kanji (力) with the “ryoku” on-yomi reading (りょく) above it.
I have also found that you should add the following lines to HTML text produced by Simple Furigana if you want it to display properly in a browser for whatever reason. The first set of lines should be in the beginning, the last set of lines at the end, and the <p> and
lines wherever you want paragraph breaks and page breaks. I successfully tested this with Internet Explorer running on Windows, but for some reason I couldn’t make Safari on MacOS accept any files I created with Simple Furigana HTML output. This isn't a capability I use very much anymore, so I haven’t really pushed for a resolution. It’s easy enough for me to RDP from my Mac to one of my Windows systems whenever MacOS lets me down in this way.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>
</body>
</html>
Again, I am very happy with this app, and I frequently use it. I now give it 5 stars, both for its features and for the helpfulness of the developer.
Developer Response ,
Dear SU100,
thank you for amending your review of SimpleFurigana. I really appreciate the time you have taken to provide detailed feedback and suggestions. Naturally, I am also very happy to hear that you are finding the app useful. My original response is appended below.
I would like to make the following comments:
- in the current version, the page orientation for printing can be changed in File-> Page Setup. I admit that this is not the ideal place, so I have added this option to the regular print panel dialog as well.
- Losing furigana corrections when changing the font size (or other typing attributes) is indeed annoying and unintended behavior. I have (hopefully) fixed this issue in the next version.
- in principle, the Edit->Copy as Formatted HTML or File->Export->HTML and selecting HTML text should add paragraph and line breaks and produce a properly formatted HTML file (including colors, font sizes etc.). Please let me know if HTML output can be improved in any other way.
Again, thank you very much for your suggestions. If you have any further ideas on how to improve SimpleFurigana, please don't hesitate to contact me at support@telethon.jp or through the feedback option in the app.
With best regards from Tokyo
Morten
-----------------------------------------------------
Original Response:
Thank you very much for your feedback.
Kanji to Kana conversion is naturally a difficult problem and hence software is bound to make mistakes, especially when it comes to unusual readings, names, etc. To alleviate this problem, SimpleFurigana allows you to chose between different dictionaries for Kanji-Kana conversion. These dictionaries can be downloaded for free from the App store. If you find the output of the default system dictionary unsatisfactory, my recommendation would be to install the Unidic dictionary, which should provide better Kanji-Kana conversion.
In addition, SimpleFurigana also allows you to alter the automatically generated Furigana, simply double click on a word in the text with Furigana at the bottom half of the window and edit the Kana / Romaji.
Besides PDF or image output, SimpleFurigana also allows you to save the annotated text as HTML (with ruby tags), which should allow for more straightforward editing.
I will have a look at the bug that truncates the text during export.
Again, very much for your feedback. If you feel the above suggestions don't solve your problems, please don't hesitate to contact me to discuss how SimpleFurigana can be improved.
With best regards from Tokyo
Morten
(Developer of SimpleFurigana)
A little buggy, but it does the job
This isn’t a great app, but is one of the few that existin this realm. It applies furagana properly above the kanji, which helps with reading but there are many issues. The two largest:
1) The result page isn’t selectable. It comes out as a full image. You can select individual words, kinda…but that leads to
2) Installing new dictionaries isn’t possible. I think the overall goal was to allow one to select a word, and see the definition. You can click ‘install’ on the dictionary, it goes to the store and confirms the free purchase, then proceeds to not install them. Instead, a progress bar sometimes shows some progress, but it never finishes and many times it doesn’t even show that.
For $5, roughly, I can’t say I recommend the app. The only problem is trying to recommend an alternative is difficult, given there aren’t many tools in this area, that’s a problem. Part of me wants to try and develop my own solution.
Doesn’t seem to work on Sierra OS, mostly works on El Capitan
I think the app has great potential, but on Mac OS Sierra I seem to get the spinning beach ball and can’t do anything and the app is useless. On El Capitan the app works and is responsive. However, the free in-app purchases of the dictionaries never finish downloading. I haven’t been able to see any translation to English. The speech feature doesn’t seem to read the Japanese, but appears to read individual character codes.
App Privacy
The developer, telethon k.k., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
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Information
- Seller
- telethon k.k.
- Size
- 8.2 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
-
- Mac
- Requires macOS 12.0 or later.
- Languages
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English, German, Japanese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2015-2023 telethon k.k.
- Price
- $4.99
- In-App Purchases
-
- Unidic $0.00
- NAIST-JDic $0.00
- Ipadic $0.00
- Jumandic $0.00
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.