About the "Match shape" option

The "Match shape" option adds the ability to search for a kanji using only the shape of the input, with no dependence on stroke order. This addresses the needs of people who want to input characters such as 卍, 凸, or 亞, where the stroke order is not very clear. It also matches hiragana and katakana.

"Match shape" is still experimental. I am working to improve it or even integrate it into the other searches. Since it's a purely shape-based match, currently it works best for relatively simple inputs, and tends to fail for more complex inputs. It's a completely new system and so it's also as yet rather flaky.

The stroke order dependent search is unaffected by this addition.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about "Match shape", please send an email to me or to the discussion group I've set up at Google Groups.