Help with transcribing names
 

Hi,

I am trying to make a birthday gift card for a Japan-loving friend of mine, and need help with Japanese writing.
I am trying to write the following 5 names in Japanese, vertically (I put hyphens between the syllables to make the pronunciation clearer):

Ke-ren
Shpil-sher
Mo-rag ('rag' pronounced like 'rug' in english)
Tze-pe-le-witz ('witz' pronounced like 'vitch')
Coo-per

Thanks!
Mike.

We cannot type vertically here. Can you take horizontal?

This might be a silly question, but can I take the horizontal writing and 'flip' it myself to make it vertical? If so, is there a specific way go about it?

Anyway, horizontal is also much appreciated.

Thank you!

There is a way if you are already familiar with Japanese writing. You don't really "flip" it, though. I will try to explain that later.

Ke-ren カレン
Shpil-sher　シュピルシャー
Mo-rag 　モーラッグ
Tze-pe-le-witz 　ツェペルヴィッチ
Coo-per　　クーパー

With Keren, write it like:
カ
レ
ン

You don't rotate the letters in any way; Just rearrange them vertically.

The horizintal bars that you see will be written vertically in vertical writing.
ー becomes I like the upper-case "I" without the little horizontal strokes at top and bottom.

The difficult part would be the smal letters that you see in the three names in the middle. I will post this now to see how the Japanese letters appear in large fonts and try to explain what I have to from there.

OK, you see the small letters ュ,ャ,ッ,ェ and ィ used in the three names in the middle? When writing them vertically, you need to change their positioning. In horizontal, they are placed at the bottom just as the normal letters (except the horizontal bar). In horizontal, the base line is at the bottom of the letters just as in European languages.

In vertical writing, the base line is at the right-hand side of the letters. Let me show you using Shpil-sher.

シ
ュ
ピ
ル
シ
ャ
|

Simply move the two small letters a little to the right so that all the letters are lined up on the imaginary vertical line at the right.

Absolutely brilliant!

Thank you very much for your help.
One final question, though. She is an artist, and I want the lettering to appear calligarphic. Since I am printing this in a graphics software, is there a specific font you recommend using?

Mike.

Thing is I am not very PC-literate. I do know that many Japanese girls like the one named Lovely Capsule nowadays, though.

All the letters used to write those names above are called Katakana and they are very simple with much fewer strokes compared to Kanji, the Chinese characters. So, you can choose from more fonts than when writing using all the three writing systems of Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji).

Sorry I'm not being of much help in this regard. Hope some other members can chip in with recommendations.

I am ever so grateful, thank you!

I don't think you would be well-advised to make katakana more calligraphic. The structure of the characters don't really lend themselves well to it.

But if you just want to make it "artsy," Lovely Capsule does look nice: Lovely Capsules Font | dafont.com

You might check these out if you want something that is a bit more handwritey: 12 Japanese Handwriting Style Fonts. Free download! | Jayhan Loves Design & Japan

Ke-ren 可憐　　　　　　　　
Shpil-sher　　　　蹴蒜奢亜
Mo-rag 猛羅愚
Tze-pe-le-witz 絶蔽流美地
Coo-per　　　　　　　空波亜