Does Pleco scale to a large screen size?

Hello, apologies if this has been answered elsewhere. I didn't find a result in my search.
I'm considering buying a larger device (Samsung Galaxy S7 Plus tablet 12.4"), for easier reading and handwriting whilst using Pleco. Please would you kindly confirm whether the Pleco app utilises the full screen space available or remains a phone-sized app? Thank you.
 

Shun

状元
Hello kateabernethy,

welcome to the forums. I am almost certain that Pleco for Android does adapt to any tablet screen size, at least it did when I ran it in an Android tablet emulator some years ago. To be safe, Mike or someone else will need to confirm.

Hope this helps, Shun
 
Thank you Shun I will await any further responses.
I wonder if many people buy a device for a particular app, rather than an app for a device!
 

If you go to the above link and scroll to the pictures on the far right you'll see that the layout changes. If I were a betting man I would put money down that it is the tablet view you get on a bigger screen.

1620411530236.png
vs
1620411539663.png
 
Thank you Shun I will await any further responses.
I wonder if many people buy a device for a particular app, rather than an app for a device!
Many people rave about how great the ipad with split screen is for using pleco while studying. I've seen people using Pleco's clipboard reader on the left side, and Anki's flashcards on the right to improve their learning experience. Personally I'm a die-hard Pleco4Lyf fanboy kinda guy, but I can see the appeal and imagine someone buying a different device to enable this.

EDIT: I found the post http://www.plecoforums.com/threads/setting-up-the-pleco-anki-link-meaningfully.6636/post-49560
 
Thank you for that. I'm a definite Pleco fangirl
What I'm hoping for with the bigger screen (apart from increasing Font size settings) is -
1 more of a character's definitions shows in the extra space compared with a phone,
2 it would be easier to handwrite multiple characters across the screen.

I've found that on my phone, the character's zhuyin notation is cut off at the bottom, unless I decrease the size of the character. I'm hoping this won't happen on a tablet.
 

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Shun

状元
Hello kateabernethy,

You're welcome, just one small remark regarding your buying motivation number two:

What I'm hoping for with the bigger screen (apart from increasing Font size settings) is -
1 more of a character's definitions shows in the extra space compared with a phone,
2 it would be easier to handwrite multiple characters across the screen.

Sadly, Pleco's current handwriting recognizer works in such a way that you can always only input a single handwritten character at a time, also on larger screens. So you enter a character, tap with two fingers, enter the next character, then tap with two fingers again, and so on. Indeed, I would also welcome a recognizer that was smart enough to be able to handle multi-character recognition in a horizontal line without making any sacrifices on the recognition quality. @mikelove probably can tell you more about this, as well.

I wonder if many people buy a device for a particular app, rather than an app for a device!

Not many, but this has happened before with excellent pieces of software. Another example I've heard of was Wolfram Mathematica in the late 1980s. It was so novel and groundbreaking that people purchased expensive Macs only because of it.

Cheers, Shun
 
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Shun

状元
Oh yes, thanks a lot! Now, if you use a stylus on an iPad, you can even write full Chinese sentences directly inside any text input field. Both of these features clearly also make heavy use of machine learning and the neural engine in the CPU.

But of course, I wouldn't be surprised if Pleco’s handwriting recognizer had a much larger dictionary for rarer Chinese characters than Apple's, if you have all the respective settings in Pleco turned on. (I don't, to improve the hit ratio for the 8,000 or so most common characters.)

FYI the 简体手写 handwriting input on iOS has this built in.
 

Shun

状元
It is! But unfortunately not, in Pleco, you simply get a line of a width you define. Still you could use a drawing app such as Procreate or Adobe Illustrator for iPad, which have all types of user-definable brushes, to create beautiful calligraphy (given enough practice). I will post a picture of an example made by me right afterwards.

I believe Samsung also has tablets with styluses on offer. I'm unsure if the software support for them is as complete as on iPadOS, though. It may be limited to Samsung's own apps there, but inside Pleco, styluses should work equally well on Samsung as on an iPad. Judging by this post from @mikelove, styluses are supported on Android:



This is a really good reason for having a tablet! Does the stylus have a brush effect?
 

Shun

状元
This one made in Procreate on an iPad could still be improved on (both the brush settings and my calligraphic ability), but you get the idea:

不到长城非好汉.png
 

Shun

状元
Thanks! Yes, if you just want the KaiTi font (which imitates calligraphic writing) with stylus recognition, that is possible, as well, by setting Pleco to that font.

This is a really good reason for having a tablet! Does the stylus have a brush effect?
... I guess this probably depends on the font...
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Sadly, Pleco's current handwriting recognizer works in such a way that you can always only input a single handwritten character at a time, also on larger screens. So you enter a character, tap with two fingers, enter the next character, then tap with two fingers again, and so on. Indeed, I would also welcome a recognizer that was smart enough to be able to handle multi-character recognition in a horizontal line without making any sacrifices on the recognition quality. @mikelove probably can tell you more about this, as well

This is actually what we've found to be the best default - we're dealing with users at a lot of different Chinese levels and it's much easier for a beginning Chinese learner to have unlimited time to draw a character + have the recognizer process it as a single character.

However, our license for our current handwriting engine is up for renewal soon, and while existing users would retain their rights to use the current one in Pleco regardless, we are considering whether we might license a new one that would offer more flexible input support. (that being said, the fact that iOS already offers that for free limits how much we can really justify spending on such a license)
 

JD

状元
iOS has a feature called Scribble that functions if you have an Apple Pencil. It allows you to write free form, and then converts the markings into text. It functions in both Mandarin and English. I haven’t used it a lot because my character writing is slow, but it does work surprisingly well.

It also supports continual writing, so you can write an entire sentence, and it will change the characters as you write.
 
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