Printable Chinese Character Practice Paper
Chinese character practice grids with dashed internal guides. Choose tian zi ge (田字格), which divides each square into four with a cross, or mi zi ge (米字格), which adds diagonals for eight guide lines.
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36pt is half an inch — safe on virtually every printer.
Free, no signup. Print at 100% scale (not “fit to page”) so the measurements come out exact.
Live preview — US Letter (8.5 × 11"), portrait · updates as you change any setting.
Tian zi ge vs mi zi ge
Tian zi ge is named after the character 田 (field), which it resembles: a square divided by a vertical and horizontal line into four quadrants. Mi zi ge is named after 米 (rice) and adds both diagonals, giving eight sectors. The extra diagonals help enormously with characters built on diagonal strokes and with judging the centre — which is why mi zi ge is generally preferred for beginners, and tian zi ge for those further along.
Why the guides are dashed
The internal guides are printed dashed while the cell border is solid. This is a real distinction, not a style choice: it stops learners mistaking a guide for a stroke. Chinese characters have precise stroke counts, and a solid internal cross on a practice grid is genuinely confusing for someone still learning to count strokes.
Character proportion
The point of the grid is proportion. Chinese characters are written to fill an imaginary square evenly — components sit in consistent positions regardless of how many strokes they contain. The quadrants show you whether a left-right compound is properly balanced, whether a top-bottom character is correctly divided, and whether your character is drifting off centre. That feedback is the whole reason the grid exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is tian zi ge paper?
Chinese practice paper where each square is divided into four quadrants by a dashed cross. It's named after the character 田 (field), which the grid resembles.
What is the difference between tian zi ge and mi zi ge?
Tian zi ge (田字格) divides each cell into four with a cross. Mi zi ge (米字格) adds both diagonals for eight sectors, giving more guidance for diagonal strokes — usually better for beginners.
What size squares should I use for Chinese practice?
Larger cells for beginners, so complex characters remain legible while you're learning stroke order. Reduce the grid size — more columns and rows — as your characters become more controlled.
Can I use this for Japanese kanji?
Yes, the same grids are used for kanji practice. For Japanese composition with one character per square and furigana gutters, use the genkōyōshi paper on this site instead.
Printing Tips
- Print at 100% scale.Turn off “fit to page” and “shrink oversized pages” — otherwise your printer rescales the sheet and the measurements no longer match.
- Match the paper size. Choose the same size here as the paper in your tray. Printing a Letter PDF on A4 (or the reverse) scales it.
- Lighter lines print better. A light grey or blue guides your work without competing with it — and it uses far less ink.
- Use heavier paper for wet media. 100gsm and up for fountain pens and markers; standard copier paper is fine for pencil.