Chinese Writing Practice Sheets Free printable generator · stroke order · pinyin or zhuyin · 米字格 and 田字格
Pick any characters and print a handwriting worksheet in seconds. Every row shows the stroke order, the reading and meaning, a model character, grey copies to trace and empty squares to write on your own. Simplified or Traditional, US Letter or A4, nothing to sign up for.
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Ready-made sets
Start with a list that matches where you are. Each set opens in the same generator, so you can still switch to Traditional, change the grid, or trim the grey copies before printing.
What is on the sheet
How to practice handwriting so it sticks
- Say it as you write it. Read the pinyin aloud on every square. Handwriting is the slowest way to meet a character, so make each meeting count for sound and meaning too.
- Fewer characters, more days. Eight to ten characters a day written carefully beats forty written badly. Print the same part again two days later and write it from memory with the readings switched off.
- Follow the stroke order even when it feels slow. The order is what makes a character fast later, and it is what keeps 己, 已 and 巳 apart on paper.
- Write characters you are reading. Paste a sentence from a story you just finished. Characters you have seen in context are the ones that stay. (That is the whole idea behind the reading practice on this site and in the app.)
- Check the squares, not the row. Does the character fill the square the way the model does? Most handwriting problems are proportion problems, and the guides are there to show you.
Questions
What is on each practice sheet?
Each row is one character. Above the squares you get the character, its pinyin (or zhuyin), a short English meaning and a stroke-order strip that adds one stroke per step. The first square holds the model character in black, the next squares hold grey copies to trace, and the rest are empty for you to write from memory.
Can I choose which characters are on the sheet?
Yes. Paste any Chinese text or character list into the box and press Make my sheet. Everything that is not a Chinese character is ignored, repeats are skipped, and up to 60 characters go onto one printable set. The link in your address bar reproduces the exact sheet, so you can bookmark it or send it to a student.
How do I download the sheet as a PDF?
Press Print / Save as PDF. In the print dialog choose Save as PDF as the destination (Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox all offer it). Pick US Letter or A4 in the generator first so the pages match your printer.
What is the difference between 田字格 and 米字格?
田字格 (tián zì gé) squares have a cross through the middle, which helps you center a character and balance its halves. 米字格 (mǐ zì gé) squares add the diagonals as well, which is the layout Chinese school copybooks use for beginners because slanted strokes like 丿 and 乀 get a guide too. Plain squares are what you will meet on a real exam sheet.
Do the sheets work for Traditional characters?
Yes. Switch Characters to Traditional and the whole sheet converts: 爱 becomes 愛, 学 becomes 學, and the stroke order follows the Traditional form. Readings can be shown as zhuyin (bopomofo) for learners in Taiwan.
Where does the stroke order come from?
From the open Make Me a Hanzi stroke data, the same data the Literate Chinese app uses for its in-app writing practice. It covers more than 9,000 Simplified and Traditional characters. A character outside that set still prints, using your device's regular-script font, without the stroke strip.
More free tools
Test how many characters you know · The 214 radicals · HSK word lists with CSV downloads · Zhuyin chart · How to read pinyin
Try reading your first story
The fastest way to make characters stick is to meet them in a story you can actually finish. Literate Chinese has 1,000+ graded stories matched to the words you know — in Mainland or Taiwan Mandarin, Simplified or Traditional. Free on iOS and Android.
Prefer the browser? Read a free story on the web →