How to create your own Chinese character worksheets

This week I tried creating some Chinese character worksheets with the newest version of ChatGPT (5), hoping it had improved at generating these kinds of worksheets from scratch. While I managed to get a few usable ones, they still weren’t exactly what I wanted. Sometimes it added things I didn’t need, or left out things I did. And when I tried to reprompt, it would often mess up either the character or the pinyin. So for now, I’d still advise against using ChatGPT for worksheet creation, because as a Chinese learner you might not notice these small mistakes.

I’m sure the technology will eventually get there, but at this point there are still easier (and free) options for making your own worksheets. Over the weekend, I tested quite a few, and the one I recommend the most is from Hyman’s Tools.

The Best Chinese Character Worksheet Creator

Head over to Hyman’s Tools’ website and check out the different worksheet generators he provides; you might find a few other useful ones too. But the one I usually use is the Chinese Characters Worksheet Creator. There are two versions: one that adds pinyin above the characters, and one without. Pick whichever works best for you, then you’ll see a number of customization options.

Here’s how I suggest setting it up (but feel free to adjust until you find what works best for you):

• Character type: Stroke order with one empty line below (this gives you stroke order in the first line and an empty grid in the second line for practice).

• Worksheet type: I usually just leave it on the first grid option.

• Worksheet and character color: Black.

• Fill page tail: Yes (this fills the entire page with grids).

• Fill line tail: Yes (after showing the stroke order, it fills the rest of the line with characters you can trace over).

• Page header: I just leave this empty.

This is how your worksheet should look after setting it up like this:

And if you prefer to practice writing multiple-character words then just set the character type to term and one empty line below.

I prefer using this one over other worksheet generators because it’s very easy to use and it also lets me leave the page header empty, which many other tools don’t allow.

I hope you’ll find this software useful. And if there’s another generator you prefer, let me know and I’ll be happy to share your recommendations too.

Sandy