{"id":182593,"date":"2019-07-29T07:06:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T11:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/chinese-handwriting-input\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T05:53:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:53:48","slug":"chinese-handwriting-input","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/chinese\/chinese-handwriting-input\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 Best Chinese Handwriting Input Programs to Practice Hanzi Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key part of learning Chinese is learning how to write it.<\/p>\n

For those of us who aren’t used to writing Chinese characters, there are programs out there that can help you with just that. These programs can help you perfect stroke order, neaten up your handwriting and help you memorize Chinese characters in general.<\/p>\n

Take a look at my four favorite programs to help you write Chinese characters online<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Qhanzi<\/a><\/h2>\n

Qhanzi is accurate, simple to use and contains just enough customizable options to be helpful but not overwhelming. You can draw a hanzi character and the software will suggest some hanzi that it might be.<\/p>\n

You also have the option of removing the previous stroke in case you made a mistake<\/strong> so you won’t have to start completely over on a particularly complicated hanzi. Once you find the correct character, just copy and paste it into a translator app<\/a> or Chinese dictionary<\/a> to find its pinyin and meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest downfalls are that this site doesn’t come in app form and doesn’t work too well on smartphone browsers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Purple Culture Chinese Handwriting<\/a><\/h2>\n

\"chinese<\/a>This input from Purple Culture operates similarly to Qhanzi. It has a few more add-ons but maintains a user-friendly, simple interface. To use this input website, draw the hanzi you’d like to look up in the middle box with your mouse. The space to write is split into four sections so you can more accurately draw the character.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

This input also will suggest hanzi based on what you’ve drawn and you can even save already selected hanzi so you can keep searching. This is really useful if you have a full sentence of Hanzi you’d like to handwrite and look up.<\/p>\n

For each character, you can select “Lookup in dictionary” to view its pinyin and definition all in one spot. You can even listen to the audio pronunciation of the character!<\/p>\n

Mobilefish Chinese Handwriting Recognition<\/a><\/h2>\n

\"chinese-handwriting-input\"<\/a>This input software can convert handwriting to hanzi, convert a Traditional Chinese handwritten character into Simplified and vice versa, and much more.<\/p>\n

You can even handwrite an entire email or block of text within the website,<\/strong> which has a list of easy-to-copy Chinese punctuation handy.<\/p>\n

Despite being called “Mobilefish,” this Chinese handwriting input program only works properly in web browsers on a tablet or laptop.<\/p>\n

Google Translate<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Google Translate isn’t exactly known for being the most accurate translation app in the world, especially when it comes to Chinese. However, it has a very useful Chinese handwriting input feature that many people don’t know about!<\/p>\n

You can get to this by clicking the “\u62fc”<\/strong>\u00a0(p\u012bn)<\/em> \u2014meaning “spell”\u2014drop-down menu below the first input box (the one next to the microphone icon) and selecting “Chinese (Simplified, China) – Handwrite” at the bottom of the menu.<\/p>\n

The app will provide you with a popup window to write your hanzi. The bottom of the popup window will present you with different possible characters. Once selected, that character will pop into the input box and you’ll see the pinyin and English translation.<\/p>\n

It’s actually surprising how fast and accurate the handwriting input option in Google Translate is. Plus, it’s compatible with iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why Use Chinese Handwriting Input Software?<\/h2>\n