Printable Chinese Character Grid (Free PDF)

Tian zi ge, the "field character grid", is the standard sheet for learning to write Chinese characters. Each box is divided by a dashed vertical and a dashed horizontal line into four quarters, and those guides are what keep a character balanced: the learner places each component in its quarter and keeps the whole character centred, rather than letting it drift or spread. This sheet prints the grid in red, the way Chinese exercise books do.

Three box sizes cover the usual range of practice. At 15 mm you get 12 columns by 16 rows on US Letter — small enough for repetition drills and copying a passage. At 20 mm you get 9 by 12, a comfortable size for learning new characters. At 25 mm you get 7 by 9, large enough for a beginner still working out stroke order, or for brush practice with a small brush pen.

Boxes are measured in millimetres from the real unit and the block is centred on the page with equal margins, so a sheet printed at 100% matches the grid size printed on the cover of a Chinese workbook. The sheet is deliberately empty — no model characters, no pinyin row — so it works for any character set, simplified or traditional, and for Japanese kanji practice as well. Print one sheet per character set and keep them in a folder as a record of progress.