Hanzi Ben — a handwriting-first Chinese character practice app.
Getting started — pick a curriculum chip on the home screen: HSK 3.0 Writing (2021 official handwriting standard), HSK 3.0 Vocab (5,393 words), Hanzi Ben (2,500+ most-used words), or My Hanzi (your custom list). Choose books and chapters below it, then tap Begin Practice. Or jump into Radicals from Quick Access to learn the 100 building-block components first. Quick Access also holds the Survival Kit: 159 high-frequency connecting words (before, after, because, however…) grouped by what they do in a sentence.
Free vs Pro — Hanzi Ben is free to download and use. The free version unlocks the first two chapters of every curriculum — Hanzi Ben (Radicals, Foundation and Everyday Life), HSK 3.0 Vocab and HSK 3.0 Writing — plus a My Hanzi custom list of up to 10 characters, so you can learn comfortably before deciding. A one-time Pro purchase unlocks every curriculum, book, chapter and the complete character set in search and drawing, including all future content. Locked items show a 🔒 — tapping one opens the Pro screen. You can restore a previous purchase on a new device from the Pro screen or Settings.
Practising a card — write the character on the canvas with your finger or stylus. Strokes animates the correct stroke order; Ghost shows a faint guide beneath your drawing; Check scores your handwriting automatically and marks the card Learned if correct. Undo and Clear sit beside the canvas, and Flip reveals the back with Pinyin, stroke count, a memory tip explaining the character's visual logic, and a mini dictionary with 2–3 meanings and sample sentences in Hanzi, Pinyin and English.
Search — use the search bar to find any character by English meaning, Pinyin, Hanzi, or by drawing it, across all curricula at once. (There may also be a small surprise hidden in the search bar for the curious.)
Progress & Streak — the ✓ checkbox (manual or automatic via Check) tracks learned cards; progress bars show completion per book and chapter. Blindspots filters a deck down to only what you haven't learned yet. A 🔥 streak badge tracks your daily practice once you start, with a one-day grace period and milestone celebrations along the way. Finishing a deck offers to continue straight into the next chapter.
Works offline — handwriting recognition runs on your device, so Check, draw-to-search and everything else — browsing curricula, flipping cards, Strokes, Ghost, progress tracking, streaks — all work fully offline. The only time the app may use the internet is to download the on-device recognition model the first time, and for the app store to handle a Pro purchase or restore.
Backups — use Export / Import progress in Settings to save or restore all your local data as a JSON file.
Support — for questions, feedback or bug reports, email support@hanziben.com or visit www.hanziben.com.
Built with HanziWriter · Make Me a Hanzi · AR PL KaitiM GB · ML Kit · CC-CEDICT