Draw to Search — Kanji, Emoji & Kaomoji
Draw a character or a picture on the white pad and similar kanji, emoji and kaomoji (Japanese text emoticons) appear at once. Tap one to copy it. Stroke order doesn't matter — great for looking up kanji you can't read.
Draw hereA character or a picture
Choose a photoPaper, signs, screens or any photo
Reads the Japanese text and finds emoji for what's in the picture at the same time.
The larger the characters appear in the photo, the better.
ResultsAll three appear at once. Characters you tap are added to “Selected” below
Selected
What this tool does
HANEPad is a free tool for finding kanji you can't read, and emoji or kaomoji you want to use, just by drawing them. It's handy for Japanese learners and anyone living in Japan. No installation or sign-up is needed. Your drawings and photos are processed only inside your browser and are never sent to or stored on a server.
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✍️Find kanji without knowing stroke order
Most handwriting input only works if your stroke order and stroke count are right. This tool ignores both — if the shape looks similar, it finds it. It matches 2,357 characters including hiragana, katakana and kanji.
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🖼️Read characters from a photo
Take a photo of a document, sign or screen and the tool reads the Japanese characters and shows their readings and meanings — faster than copying them by hand, and it works for complex kanji you couldn't draw.
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🎨Draw a picture to find emoji
Sketch a heart, a house or an animal and it finds the closest emoji among 1,914. Useful when you can't remember an emoji's name.
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😀Draw a face to get kaomoji
Draw a smiling or crying face and get kaomoji (Japanese-style emoticons like (^_^) ) that match the expression. They are picked from kaomoji people actually use, not generated.
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🔎Meanings, readings, radicals and stroke counts
Tap a kanji to see its English meanings, on'yomi and kun'yomi readings, name readings (nanori), stroke count, radical, school grade and JLPT level. Data for 13,108 kanji is included.
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📋Copy selected characters together
Characters you tap collect in “Selected” below. Gather several, then copy and paste them all at once.
Kanji, emoji and kaomoji are all refreshed at the same time every time you draw, so you don't need to choose a type first.
How to use it (3 steps)
- Draw on the white padWith your finger or mouse, draw one character, or a picture just clear enough to recognize. You can change the color and width. “Undo stroke” removes one stroke at a time.
- Tap a resultKanji, Emoji and Kaomoji results appear. Tap one to copy it; for kanji you'll also see its meaning and readings.
- Copy them allTapped characters collect in “Selected”. Gather as many as you need, press “Copy all” and paste into an email or document.
To search from a photo, switch to “Photo” and add an image. Text reading and emoji search run at the same time.
When it comes in handy
You find a kanji you can't read
Draw it as you see it to get its reading and meaning.
You can't look up a kanji in a dictionary if you don't know how to read it, and counting strokes to find the radical takes time. Here you just draw the shape you see and candidates appear — even with the wrong stroke order or count. The dictionary holds 13,108 kanji, so old forms and variants found in contracts and older documents can be looked up too.
You can't type a kanji in a name or place
Draw it, find it, then copy and paste it.
Some characters, such as 﨑, 邉 and 栁, don't show up in a Japanese keyboard's conversion list even when you type their reading. Draw it, then paste it with “Copy all” to use the exact character. When making a list of names, you can collect several in a row and paste them together.
Finding the right emoji or kaomoji for a message
Draw a shape or a facial expression and similar ones are listed.
There are so many emoji that scrolling through the list takes ages. Roughly sketch a heart shape, or a party popper for a celebration. Kaomoji work the same way: draw a smiling face for happy ones or a crying face for teary ones. If your drawing isn't a face, the tool says so and shows the kaomoji with the closest mood for reference.
Exploring related kanji
Tap a badge such as “8 strokes”, “Radical 山” or “Grade 1” to see all kanji in that group.
The badges shown for a kanji — such as “3 strokes”, “Radical 山 (やま)”, “Grade 1”, “Old JLPT level 4” and “Frequency #131” — can all be tapped. They open a list of kanji with the same stroke count, the same radical, taught in the same school grade or at the same JLPT level, or the frequency ranking (2,501 kanji). The current kanji is highlighted and scrolled into view. Tap any kanji in the list to copy it and see its details.
The text in a photo isn't recognized well
The larger the characters appear in the photo, the better the results.
The tool resizes the text before reading it, but in a photo of a whole page taken from a distance each character is still too small to read. Move closer to the characters you want, or crop the image to that part. Handwriting, faded print and photos taken at an angle are hard to read. If it fails, drawing the character in “Draw” mode is more reliable. Photo reading is for Japanese text.
Why do emoji take a moment to appear?
The tool waits until you finish drawing before it starts searching.
The first time only, loading the picture-recognition data takes a little while.
Are my drawings or photos sent anywhere?
No. All searching happens inside your browser.
The handwriting patterns, the kanji, emoji and kaomoji data, and the picture-recognition model are all downloaded from our server to your browser and run there. What you draw and your photos are never sent to us or to any other company, and no external AI service is used. You can safely use photos of confidential documents.
This tool lists characters that look similar to your drawing or photo; it does not guarantee the correct character will always appear. Always check official spellings of names and places against the original. Kanji readings, meanings, radicals and stroke counts come from
KANJIDIC2 (Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group / CC BY-SA 4.0), emoji names from
Emojibase (MIT / Unicode CLDR), and handwriting matching uses
Kanji Canvas (MIT). See
sources and licenses for details.
We accept no liability for any loss arising from the use of this tool. See our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for details.