There is a design nuance between the form of 爪 in different typefaces.

In mainland China standard, the starting point of the third and fourth strokes of 爪 are joined with the first stroke, while in Taiwan's Standard Form of National Characters, they are detached.

This difference may apply to both printing typefaces and handwriting forms, and usually both are acceptable.

In mainland China's xinzixing (new typeface), some 爫 were replaced by ⺈ (a variant form of the radical 刀), e.g. 爭 -> 争, while the others were altered their form to imitate the handwriting form 爫, e.g. 爵 -> 爵; These changes also apply to traditional Chinese characters, e.g. 諍 -> 諍, 爲 -> 爲.

Similar change were also adopted in Japanese jōyō kanji (commonly used Chinese characters), e.g. 爵 -> 爵, while the forms of kyūjitai and hyōgai kanji were left unchanged, e.g. 爲 (=為), 爰.