This page discusses the values of the type attribute of the SVG paths within KanjiVG.
The type attribute specifies the shape of the stroke. It can be used to know how the stroke should be rendered.
The values of this attribute use the keys of Unicode's CJK Strokes.
The best documentation available on the meanings of these stroke types seems to be that found in Proposed additions to the CJK Strokes block of the UCS, and the explanation of the stroke types there mostly consists of a list of examples, so there is some remaining ambiguity about how best to use these.
In some cases these stroke types, in particular ㇁ (U+31C1), or ㇔ (U+31D4), may appear to be in error, but check the explanations below before suggesting changes.
Undocumented and unknown features, and notes on possible flaws in the data, are distinguished with a pale green background.
U+31C0 This stroke is the lower left one in 冰 and 氾. It
always goes from left to right and
upwards. See ㇒ (CJK Stroke P) for a
similar-looking stroke which goes in the opposite direction.
U+31C1
This is used for the down stroke of 犭 and the lower right part of ⻖.
Some fonts, including the default font used by KanjiVG's host,
github.com, represent this shape as being almost identical
to ㇓ (CJK Stroke SP), so it may appear
to be an error on a browser screen. However, this is the correct shape
for 犭 and ⻖.
U+31C2
This is used in, for example, for the long vertical stroke of 戈.
U+31C3
Used for the second, long stroke of 心.
U+31C4
U+31C5
This relatively rare shape is used, for example, for stroke 15 of 麌.
U+31C6 This is used for the right side of 印 or 掏.
U+31C7 This is the correct stroke type for 又，双，叒，
and 今. See also See also ㇖ (CJK Stroke
HG).
U+31C8
The examples given in the Unicode reference are 飞，风，瘋，九，几，气，虱
U+31C9
This is used, for example, for the bottom part of 弓.
U+31CB
U+31CF This stroke type is used for the right part of 人
and similar strokes in 大 and 天, and also for the long stroke at the
bottom of 道 and 走.
U+31D0 This is used for horizontal lines, such as the top
and bottom strokes of 西.U+31D1
U+31D2 This stroke is the lower left one in 木, always
goes from right to left and downwards. See
㇀ (CJK Stroke T) for a similar-looking stroke which goes in the opposite
direction.
U+31D3
This stroke is used for vertical strokes whose ends turn
left. Depending on the font, it is easily confused
with ㇁ (CJK Stroke WG), but that is
actually a stroke going diagonally left to right at its top.
U+31D4
This is used for a short dash. Although the usual form of this in
fonts is a line slanting down to the right, the dash may slant either
down and left, such as the left stroke of 心 or 灬, or down and right,
such as the right strokes of 心 or 灬.
U+31D5 This is used for the upper right part of 口, or
the middle upper stroke of 巨.
U+31D6 This is the correct stroke type for 疋，了，予，矛，
子，字，疏，写，and 冖. See also ㇇ (CJK
Stroke HP).
U+31D7
U+31D9
This is used for the bottom left of 衣 or 食.
U+31DA
U+31DB
This stroke type is used for the left vertical stroke of 女, or kanji
which contain 女 as a component, or for 巛 and kanji containing a 巛
element.
U+31DC
U+31DE
This rare stroke type is only used in the character 亞, and characters
such as 壼 which contain 亞 as a component.
U+31DF
U+31E1
In some cases another field consisting of alphabetical letters. These letters refer to a set of stroke types which Ulrich Apel designed but has not documented. The letters seem to indicate the intersections of the ends of strokes with other strokes. See issue 324 on Github for more details.
Where the value has two possibilities, a slash is used to separate
them. For example, the bottom dash in 冬 (fuyu, "winter") may slant
either upwards or downwards, so this is represented
by kvg:type="㇔/㇀" in the KanjiVG source file.
The following elements of the CJK Strokes block are not used in KanjiVG:
U+31CC
This stroke pattern is used to represent the right side of ⻖ and
related shapes when it is written as two strokes, per the Chinese
convention. KanjiVG always uses three strokes to write ⻖, with the
right side broken into upper and lower pieces, so this pattern is not
used by KanjiVG.
U+31CA
The main use of this seems to be to represent the 言 component known
as gonben in simplified Chinese characters
like 计, or other simplified Chinese forms such as so it is not very useful for Japanese.
U+31CE
This rare pattern seems to only be used in the Chinese drawing of 凸.
Japanese uses a different stroke pattern for this character.
U+31E3
This only occurs in characters which are not part of KanjiVG, such as 㔔.
㇍ (Used for upper right of 投 etc. KanjiVG seems to use ㇈ for this.) ㇘ (Used in some stroke orders of 肅) ㇝ (Used for printed forms of the right stroke of 八 or 入) ㇠ (KanjiVG uses ㇈ instead of this) ㇢ (Rare pattern used by 乄)