Kanji & Chinese Character Stroke Order Viewer — Animated SVG, Romaji, Pinyin, Meanings (Free)

Real-world use cases

• Drill the JLPT N5 kanji you keep forgetting how to write

  You can read 水, 火, 木 on a menu fine, but the moment your Japanese teacher asks you to write 飛 (the kanji for "fly") on paper, you freeze. Filter by JLPT N5, sort by stroke count descending, and step through the multi-stroke kanji one stroke at a time. The stroke-by-stroke replay (with starting dots in red and direction arrows) is what builds the muscle memory pen-and-paper drill never quite finishes — three replays per character at half speed beats fifteen rote repetitions on a worksheet.

• Cross-check a character before you write it on a sign or tattoo

  You're getting 愛 (love) tattooed, or hand-painting 福 on a New Year's banner, and you want to triple-confirm the stroke sequence so the strokes layer correctly visually (Chinese calligraphy depends on which stroke crosses on top of which). Search the character, watch the animation at half speed, then practice on paper with the viewer paused mid-stroke so you can see exactly where each new stroke starts and ends.

• Prep an HSK 3 writing exam in the last week before the test

  The HSK 3 writing section asks you to handwrite full characters, not just type them. Filter by HSK 3, switch to Practice mode (the character hides, only pinyin and English show), and grind through 50 characters per day. Mark the misses; re-drill them the next morning. After 5 days you will have stable hand-recall on the full HSK 1-3 list, which is exactly what the writing section tests.

• Teach a six-year-old which stroke goes first in 中

  The classic kid trap: they see 中 and want to write the vertical stroke first because it's the most visually dominant. Pull up the animation: bracket, bracket, then the vertical pierces through last (rule 5: horizontal- piercing strokes go last). Watch it twice with the child, then have them write three on paper. The "draw it for me" visual sticks where verbal explanation ("写中字, 中间那 一竖最后写") does not.

• Compare Japanese vs Chinese stroke conventions for shared kanji

  For most shared characters the stroke order is identical, but a handful diverge (必 has the central point first in Japan, fourth in Mandarin standard; 田 has minor variants in how the inside cross interacts with the outer box). Search a character you know is contested, read the "convention notes" section, and decide which standard fits your study path. We mark divergences explicitly so you don't unlearn a habit when you switch from one language to the other.

Common pitfalls

• Assuming every CJK character has a single "correct" stroke order. Japanese, mainland Chinese, Taiwan, and Hong Kong educational standards diverge on 5-10% of common characters — especially anything with 辶 (走之底), 必, 田, 王, or 必. We mark the divergences in the readings panel; pick the standard that matches what you're studying.

• Practicing only by reading. Stroke order matters for handwriting recall, calligraphy, and the writing sections of JLPT N3+ and HSK 3+. If you're only ever going to type Japanese or Chinese, recognition (HSK Vocab Quiz, Japanese Vocab 100) is enough; if you'll ever write by hand, this tool plus 5 minutes of paper drill per day matters more than memorizing the readings.

• Trying to power through 500 characters in a week. Recognition fades fast without spaced repetition. Drill 20-30 characters per day max, mark misses, re-drill misses the next morning, and you'll have stable recall on 200+ characters in 2 weeks. Cramming all 500 in 7 days will leave you remembering ~40 of them by week 3.

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