Chinese Character Practice Paper
Square boxes with faint guide lines through the middle, the paper Chinese schoolchildren use to get each character in proportion.
Square boxes with faint guide lines through the middle, the paper Chinese schoolchildren use to get each character in proportion.
Choose Chinese Character Practice Paper from the list. It opens with the usual size already set.
Pick the paper size, the grid and the orientation. Customize holds colours, margins and more.
Download the ready PDF, or print straight from the page at 100% scale.
A Chinese character is written to fill an imaginary square, and every stroke is placed relative to that square's centre. Tian zi ge (田字格) draws the centre cross so you can see whether a stroke crosses the midline or stops short of it. Mi zi ge (米字格) adds the diagonals, giving eight directions to judge a stroke against instead of four — useful for characters with slanting strokes and for calligraphy.
The nine-square option divides the box into thirds instead. It suits compound characters, where the question is how much of the box each component should take rather than where the centre falls.
Beginners need room: 20 to 25 mm boxes for a first year, smaller once the hand is steady.
Every sheet here is free, adjustable and prints at exact scale.
Tian zi ge (田字格) has a vertical and a horizontal line through the centre, making four cells — the shape of the character 田. Mi zi ge (米字格) adds both diagonals, making eight, like the character 米. Mi zi ge gives more reference points and is usually used for calligraphy and for harder characters.
Around 20 to 25 mm for children and beginners, 12 to 15 mm once writing is fluent. Chinese exercise books are commonly about 15 mm.
Yes. Kanji are written to the same square proportion, and hangul syllable blocks are built to fill a square too. For Japanese prose, genkō yōshi paper with its column gutters is the traditional choice.
