About TraceHanzi

TraceHanzi helps people learn to write Chinese characters by hand. Every page is free, and nothing asks you to sign up.

Why we built it

We are a small team of native Chinese speakers and engineers. Most good writing practice tools sit behind a subscription, and most free dictionaries were built many years ago and are hard to use on a phone. We wanted one place where you can look up a character, watch how it is written, try it yourself and print a worksheet, without paying or making an account.

What is on the site

• 5,479 characters with animated stroke order and stroke-by-stroke diagrams
• 16,596 words, including the full HSK 3.0 vocabulary
• 39,546 example sentences with pinyin and English
• Writing practice that checks each stroke, flashcards and a worksheet maker

Where the data comes from

Stroke data, definitions, word lists and sentences come from respected open projects, which we combine and check. Native speakers on the team review the pages. See data sources for the full list and licenses.

How the site is funded

The site shows ads. That is what keeps every page free for everyone.