Introducing Hanzi Grids - A tool for creating printable worksheets for handwriting practice

[semantic nuance]

thanks, imron!

[Iriya]

Isn't 楷体 (simkai) free or something? I often see it bundled with many programs. It also comes with a Chinese version of Windows.

[imron]

Free for personal use and free for putting on a website and embedding in files are two different things according to most font foundries. Technically, simkai won't be free either, it's just that Microsoft has already paid for a licence for you when you purchase the OS (likewise for the other applications).

[Shelley]

I think its great, just what I have been trying to do myself in excel. But you have got more good features than I could manage. I agree that it would be nice to have a choice of different guidline styles, and colours.

I don't know if its just cos its a beta but i found that if you leave the grid making page ie; generate PDF then you go back to the grid page it dosen't remember the characters I just put in. This has been quite annoying cos as i am just learning to use this site I have had a few occasions where having generated the PDF I realize that i want change something and then cannot go back to the grid page to change it as all the characters i inputed have gone.

I don't object to registering, but I would hope that this would mean that my work would at least be saved during that session.

Apart from this I think its brill.

Shelley

[imron]

New guide style are hopefully going to be ready today.

@shelley what browser/OS are you using. For me, it doesn't take me away from the page when I click generate PDF, it just pops up a download box, but keeps me on the same page. I'll have a look at making information persist across a session. I'm also currently working on the more fully featured ability to save content and layouts for easy access.

[Shelley]

i am using windows xp and IE 8. When I click generate PDF it opens adobe and shows me the grid and lets me save or print it etc. I don't get a dialoge box. when i use the back button I go back to hanzi grids but with none of the characters I had inputed.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you

Shelley

[imron]

Ok, I've just updated the site, with support for more guide styles: 十、米、丨and 井.

I've also made headers more flexible so you can alter the size and also the centering of text.

@shelley, I'll look at your problem next, and should be able to get something working to prevent this from happening.

[imron]

New update which adds colours, and also saves your settings when you press "Generate PDF". The settings will remain saved for the duration of a session or until you press "Reset". That should hopefully fix your problem Shelley.

[Pendragon]

really cool! I just started learning traditional characters after first working with simplified, and I think these grids will definitally help.

行書 are a big head-ache for me too, I really want to learn it but it's hard to find good material (and I'd need some kind of stroke-order to make sense of them). If you could add this feature it would make the website even more useful.

[imron]

I'm currently planning to license two handwriting fonts, one 楷体 and one 行书, but due to the Chinese New Year holiday this probably won't happen until early Feb. There will also be a small fee associated with using these fonts to help cover the licensing costs. You can see a preview of the fonts in this thread. If you already know the stroke order of a given character figuring out the correct way to write the version in that 行书 font shouldn't be too difficult.

[hbuchtel]

That is excellent, I'm really looking forward to using the 行书.

It's funny, when you first came out with this I thought "This will be useful for those just starting out . . . but I'm past the stage of practicing writing . . "

But when playing with the site I made a few PDFs with characters that I still have difficulty remembering (mostly herb names - 土鳖，白蒺藜，xx藤，等等), and have found that it is still very useful to do this kind of focused handwriting practice!

[imron]

Yeah, I was also surprised how beneficial doing something like this is.

Once you start doing it though you find out things like "oh *thats* why this character always looked wrong when I wrote it, because that stroke needs to be a bit longer/more curved/start higher/finish lower/etc".

[Mike N]

Hey Imron, I love the site! I gave you some press on my blog, but I don't know how much that's really worth. ;)

[Shelley]

Thanks imron, it now saves my work after generating a PDF. Thanks for the new options, like the star grid myself. and choice of colours is good. i may use colours to seperate characters according to their grammatical use ie: noun, verb etc. or just cos it might look nice:)

I think you have done a great job, it also seems to have encouraged people to do some more writing. ( I am a great believer in practicing writing characters improves all aspects of chinese learning)

i will now go and sort a list to input:)

Thanks again

Shelley

[imron]

I gave you some press on my blog

Thanks. Every little bit helps!

I was going to leave a comment on your blog, but there didn't seem to be a comment box anywhere (despite there being other people leaving comments, so I guess I'm doing something wrong).

Anyway, just to address a couple of your points. Nope, not a founder (that title goes to Roddy alone), I didn't join up here until about a year after chinese-forums started.

As for Simplified and Traditional, what do you mean you can't switch? You should be able to use Simplified or Traditional (even mixing them in the same grid) without any troubles. This has been a feature since the beginning.

See attached pic for an example.

[Shelley]

I know this is probably just wishful thinking but i would love a version of Hanzi grids on my android 2.1 tablet, that allows you to write on the screen following the lines and then freehand..

Then I could practice even when pen and paper are impractical.

Any plans for anything like this?

Unless there is something like that already? Remember I don't don't have access to the android market.

This is probably number 1 on my apps wish list.

Shelley

[imron]

Skritter?

I have no real plans to add anything like that - Hanzi Grids was very much designed with the single purpose of creating grids for pen and paper use.

[Shelley]

I didn't expect you to have any plans, as i said just wishful thinking:)

I think Skritter is very good but i can not justifiy the subscribtion fees.

Shelley

[imron]

Fair enough. I'll file the suggestion away under things people think might be useful, and maybe revisit the issue at a later date. It may not be too difficult just to allow freehand drawing anywhere on the page which would at least solve part of your problem.

[Shelley]

Good plan. Yes that would probably be good enough.

Thanks for giving it some thought.

I will keep my eye out for any news of this but I won't be expecting anything soon

Shelley