Calligrapher is a web app that aids the Chinese language learning by generating character PDF worksheets.

Try it at chinesecalligrapher.com.

The idea of the tool was formulated to encourage my boyfriend to learn Mandarin after he binge-watched a Chinese drama.

Calligrapher generates printer and tablet-friendly PDF worksheets to aid writing Chinese characters much like the worksheets that I used in elementary school. However, instead of having only traceable characters, Calligrapher gives customizable lexical context.

With Calligrapher, your worksheets are labelled with pronunciations, radicals, stroke orders, as well as individual character and full text translations. There are also different fonts to choose from, providing advanced Chinese learners with a template to improve cursive Chinese calligraphy.

More features are currently in the making. To accomodate the spaced repetition learning technique, flashcards with animated stroke orders and voice pronunciations as well as quizzes based on past user text input will soon be available.

Tools

• Frontend: JavaScript, HTML, CSS
• Backend: NodeJS, Express and EJS
• APIs for getting character information: Google Cloud Tranlation API and Hanzi
• CI/CD: Digital Ocean and GitHub Actions