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About StrokeGrid
StrokeGrid is a collection of free browser tools for learning to write Chinese. Students, parents and teachers can connect character shapes, stroke sequence and Mandarin pronunciation without creating an account.
What can I do here?
- Watch Chinese stroke order for the characters and phrases you enter, with Pinyin, bopomofo and browser speech.
- Type Pinyin to find Traditional Chinese characters, choose a word and practise writing it.
- Create printable handwriting sheets with 米字格, 田字格 or plain squares.
- Browse character pages, word pages and interactive homework.
Where do the animations and definitions come from?
Stroke animations use Hanzi Writer, whose character data comes from Make Me a Hanzi. The generated study pages combine character data and dictionary entries with StrokeGrid's practice interface.
The Pinyin and vocabulary tools use HanziDB character information, CC-CEDICT dictionary data distributed through the Hanzi library, OpenCC conversion and pinyin-pro pronunciation conversion. Tools also include curated lesson vocabulary. Short glosses are learning hints and may not show every meaning.
Which writing standard should I follow?
Traditional and Simplified characters can have different forms and stroke counts. Enter the exact form your class uses. Stroke order conventions and printed glyphs can also vary across regions and typefaces; StrokeGrid does not claim that every animation matches every curriculum.
For Taiwan's standard character forms, compare with the Ministry of Education stroke order learning site and your teacher's materials. StrokeGrid is an independent learning tool and is not affiliated with the Ministry of Education.
How should I use pronunciation and meaning hints?
A character can have several readings. Automatically generated pronunciation or a short dictionary definition may need adjustment for the whole sentence. Browser audio depends on the voices available on your device. Use the lesson context and your teacher's pronunciation when they differ from an automatic hint.
Where is homework progress saved?
Lesson 2 saves writing progress in your browser's local storage on the same device. It is not an account sync service. Switching browsers or devices, using private browsing, or clearing site data can make that saved progress unavailable.