KanjiScribble
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WARNING: this program is neither well-designed, nor feature complete, nor thoroughly tested. It also requires .NET to be installed on your computer.
WARNING #2: this program is not a good way to exercise your calligraphy, either.
This is a program to help you memorize kanji by writing them. It doesn't perform any kind of handwriting recognition or automatic control - you have to check yourself and decide whether you were right or wrong. You can draw a kanji with your mouse, however it's much more convenient to use a pen tablet.
Unzip it somewhere, then run KanjiScribble.exe. It will open a file kanji.txt, which is in Unicode (UCS-2 Little Endian, Windows Notepad saves in this encoding if you choose "Unicode" in its "Save as..." dialog), its format is as follows:
... 置 ち put 与える あたえる to give 位 くらい about //begin// 類 たぐい a kind 純 じゅん purity 関 かん connection ... 敬 けい respect, honor 遠 えん far //end// 掘 ほる dig 割 わり cut, separate ...Only lines inside the //begin// - //end// section will be used when you run the program, so you can make a big file and memorize it piece by piece. The line format is
私 わたし I, myself(two spaces are used as the separator).
You can add or delete lines and move the //begin//-//end// block. You can also make your own file(s) of the same format and open them from the "Open..." menu.
So, in the left window it will show you a pronounciation and a meaning of some kanji, but not the kanji itself. Try to remember that kanji and write it with your mouse/tablet in the right window (press "Clear" if you want to erase your drawing and start over). Then press 漢字 button in the left window, and the kanji will appear. Compare it visually with your handwriting. If the kanji written by you is correct (however rough), hide the kanji on the left by pressing 漢字 button again and press 次 to proceed to the next one.
It will cycle you through the list of kanji as many times as you want. When you think you have remembered a particular kanji well enough, you can press "OK" button for it, and it will be excluded from the list. If, on the other hand, you can't remember some particularly problematic kanji, press "Not OK" for it and it will be added to a "black list", which you could save with the "Save..." menu to go through more thoroughly later.