---
title: "Chinese Handwriting Input: Draw a Character to Look It Up | Mandarin The WildDrawing pad"
description: "Free Chinese handwriting input: draw a Chinese character with your finger or mouse and see what it is, with pinyin and meaning, as you draw. Over 9,000 characters, works offline on your device, no sign-up."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-handwriting-input"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

Free tool · No sign-up

# Chinese handwriting input

Draw a character to see what it is, with its pinyin and meaning.

## How do I look up a Chinese character I can’t type?

Draw it in the box, stroke by stroke. The characters it could be appear under the box as you draw, with their pinyin and meaning, and get surer with each stroke. Press one to add it to your text, and press any word there to see its card.

## Does stroke order matter?

It helps but isn’t needed. Strokes drawn in the usual order and the usual direction match best, and a stroke drawn backwards, two strokes joined or a stroke missed still find the character, a little lower in the list.

## Which characters can it read?

Over 9,000 simplified and traditional characters, every one Make Me a Hanzi draws, so the common ones and many rare ones. The common ones come first when two look alike.

## Is my drawing sent anywhere?

No. The matching runs in your browser; only the character lists are downloaded, a stroke count at a time.

## More free tools

- [Chinese handwriting practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-handwriting-practice)
- [Stroke order](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order)
- [Pinyin to Chinese](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-to-chinese)
- [What does it mean in Chinese?](https://mandarinthewild.com/meaning)
- [Chinese radicals](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-radicals)

Strokes from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). The matching is ours and runs in your browser.