StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer vs Other Ways to Practice Writing Kana
Hiroki Obara · DeveloperStudyX Japanese Letters TracerComparison
Hiragana has 46 basic characters and katakana has another 46. Add dakuten, handakuten and the small-kana combinations, and anyone learning to write Japanese has well over a hundred shapes to get right, each with a fixed stroke order. The people choosing a way to practice them are usually one of two kinds: a parent getting a child ready for school, or an adult learner who can read kana but has never been taught to write it.
There are several good ways to do this, and an app is only one of them. This post compares StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer (かきカタ in Japan) with the realistic alternatives, and says plainly where the alternatives are the better choice.
What StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer Does
To keep the comparison fair, here is exactly what the app offers and nothing more:
- An animated stroke-by-stroke guide for 142 characters: the 46 basic hiragana and 46 katakana and their dakuten and handakuten forms. Yoon such as きゃ and small kana are not included.
- Tracing with a finger, a stylus or a Logitech Crayon.
- An audio reading of the character, played with the speaker button.
- A size button (Large, Medium, Small) that scales the model character and line width, and centerlines you can turn on or off.
- No ads, no in-app purchases, and a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.
- iPhone (landscape) and iPad.
It does not teach vocabulary, grammar or kanji, and it does not grade your strokes. It shows the correct order, lets you trace it and lets you hear it.
Option 1: Paper Kana Workbooks
The printed hiragana workbook is the classic tool, and for good reason. A child holds a real pencil, feels the friction of paper and sees a page fill up. Pencil pressure, grip and the small stop at the end of a stroke (the とめ and はね that Japanese teachers care about) are learned on paper in a way no glass screen fully reproduces. Workbooks are inexpensive, need no battery and are easy to find in any Japanese bookshop.
Where they differ: a workbook cannot show a stroke moving. Stroke order is printed as small numbered diagrams, and a young child often cannot read those diagrams alone, so an adult has to sit alongside at first. A workbook also has no sound. And once a page is filled in, it is used up, which is not a problem, but it does mean buying more or printing more.
Option 2: Free Stroke-Order Charts and Printable Sheets
There are many free stroke-order references online, including our own hiragana and katakana stroke-order pages (in Japanese), which show every character stroke by stroke in numbered diagrams. Printable practice sheets are also easy to find.
These are excellent for checking. If you are unsure whether a stroke in さ goes down first or across first, a chart answers it in two seconds and costs nothing. The limitation is that a chart is a reference, not practice. It will not watch you write, and it will not keep a small child engaged for ten minutes.
Option 3: A Parent or Teacher at the Table
A person who knows the correct stroke order and sits with the learner is still the best teacher there is. They can see a pencil held the wrong way, notice that a child is tired, and praise the one character that came out well. No app does these things.
The catch is simply that it depends on the person. Not every parent writes Japanese confidently, especially in families living outside Japan, and not every parent has time every day. An app with animated guides can take over the part of the job that is demonstrating the correct order, so the adult’s time goes to encouragement rather than to looking things up.
Option 4: Other Apps
Tracing apps for kana vary a lot. Some are games with rewards and levels, some are part of a larger Japanese course, and some show ads or ask for a subscription. If you are comparing, the questions to ask are these: which characters does it cover, does it animate the stroke order, is there audio, are there ads, and is it a subscription or a single purchase.
Two of our own apps also overlap with this one, and it is worth knowing how they differ. StudyX Japanese Letters Table is a speaking kana chart with a listening game and, on iPad, a blank space to write in. It has no model to trace and is built for meeting the kana, not for drilling stroke order. It does include yoon such as きゃ in its chart. StudyX Smartpaper Letters covers more than 10,000 characters including kanji and gives a score after each character you trace. It is designed with iPad and Apple Pencil in mind, though it also runs on iPhone. If kana stroke order is the only goal, the Letters Tracer is the most focused of the three.
Side by Side
| Letters Tracer | Paper workbook | Free charts / printables | Parent or teacher | Other apps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shows strokes moving | Yes | No | No | Yes, by demonstration | Varies |
| Audio for each character | Yes | No | No | Yes | Varies |
| Real pencil on paper | No | Yes | Yes, if printed | Yes | No |
| Covers dakuten | Yes | Varies | Varies | Yes | Varies |
| Covers yoon (きゃ) | No | Varies | Varies | Yes | Varies |
| Ads | None | None | Varies | None | Varies |
| Cost | One-time purchase | Price of the book | Free | Time | Varies |
When Another Option Is the Better Choice
- If you want real pencil control, paper wins. Writing on glass with a finger does not train grip or pressure. One routine uses both: learn the order in the app, then write the same characters on paper.
- If you only need to check a stroke or two, a free stroke-order chart is enough. There is no reason to buy an app for that.
- If you want your handwriting judged, a teacher does it best. Among our apps, scoring is a feature of StudyX Smartpaper Letters, which compares each traced character with the model when you finish it.
- If you want a full Japanese course, this is not one. It covers one step, kana stroke order, and stops there.
- If a child is not ready to write yet, a speaking chart such as StudyX Japanese Letters Table may be the gentler first step.
Where the App Fits
The Letters Tracer is useful when you want the correct stroke order demonstrated every time, with sound, without ads, and without an adult having to demonstrate it. It works well next to a paper workbook rather than instead of one.
If you need yoon and small kana as well, a paper workbook or a parent fills that gap.
If you want to see it in use, Getting Started with StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer walks through a first session, practice tips covers daily routines, and Who Is StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer For? describes the learners it suits. More about the app is on the StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer page.
