![]() ![]() ![]() Both represent the same phonetic sound, but their source electronic character sets are different, as evidenced by their encoding. The left-hand column of the above image shows a full-width character 「ア」 and the right-hand column shows the half-width character 「ア」. However, 2-byte characters (16 binary digits) are able to display 65,536 different combinations, which is sufficient for languages with many thousands of characters, such as Japanese and Chinese.” Image: But 256 values is not enough to represent all the many Japanese letters. “1 byte is 8 binary digits (bits) and can show 256 different combinations. (Byte is a unit measuring the amount of data used in a computer.) “Half-width characters are sometimes called 1-byte characters, and full-width characters as 2-byte characters. Although they look similar, minus a little distortion, they come from different electronic character sets.Īn article from Morgan Data System KK, a company that supports data entry and survey data aggregation, provides an explanation of zenkaku and hankaku, full-width and half-width characters, which I have translated and paraphrased below: The above image shows full-width in the top row and half-width on the bottom row. So why hasn't this been fixed? And where did these two character types originate? Image: Neto Labbo Man enters information into an online form and receives an error message stating, "Please input alphanumeric in full-width characters." What are full-width and half-width characters? As evidenced by numerous online discussions, Japanese, too, dislike the inconvenience of switching between full-width and half-width characters when filling out forms online. It's not just Japan's foreign residents who find toggling between the two character types annoying. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |