Quick Guide
Everything you need to know to get started and make the most of 文不盲.
🧭 Where to start?
A few taps to your best path.
Do you have an account?
📘 About 文不盲
📲
Quick Access — install on your device
Install 文不盲 and launch it in one tap, like a native app — full-screen, no address bar to type.
- iPhone / iPad (Safari): tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen → Add.
- Android (Chrome): open the ⋮ menu, then Install app (or Add to Home Screen).
- Desktop (Chrome / Edge): click the Install icon in the address bar.
If it isn't installed yet, you'll also find an Install button in the site footer — tap it for a one-tap prompt. Once installed, it opens straight from your home screen or app list.
📱
App Version — the simple screen for phones and tablets
On a phone or tablet you can switch to the App Version: a stripped-back screen built for one hand. Find it in the menu under 📱 App Version, or install from inside it so it opens there every time.
It is the same account and the same progress — only the screen changes. What's different:
- One thing at a time. It opens on your next character, with the words and sentences you can already read. No browsing, no search.
- Five tabs: Learn, Games, Saved, Extras and More.
- Everything deep opens the website. Full character detail, topics, news and conversations open in a new tab — the app is a companion, not a replacement.
- Free accounts get a bookmark instead of a character bank, to mark where you stopped reading.
The full site still works perfectly on a phone — the App Version is a choice, not a redirect, and you can go back at any time from More → Visit the full site.
🌏
About our background
Most resources pick a side: Traditional or Simplified. We don't. Our goal is to teach Chinese characters as a whole, so you can read across all regions — Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and beyond. Each character entry shows you both forms.
Preparing for the HSK? When we decide which characters to unlock and in what order, we weigh the official HSK vocabulary lists alongside everyday usefulness — so the characters you meet early are the ones that show up most on the exam, and you build toward HSK readiness naturally.
Our background is Traditional Chinese, so pronunciation and character forms follow that standard. If something looks wrong, please contact us — we're always happy to review it.
👤
Guest, User & Member — what each can do
A member is a subscribed user. A user is a free, registered account. A guest is anyone not logged in.
What you can do Guest User Member Browse all public content (Learn, Speak, Topics, News, Essentials) ✓ ✓ ✓ Printable Writing Sheets – ✓ ✓ Public games (characters 1–50) ✓ ✓ ✓ Full-range public games – – ✓ Save Favourites – ✓ ✓ Profile, newsletter & reminders – ✓ ✓ Credits & MyDoc (pay-per-use article leveling) – ✓ ✓ Daily Step – – ✓ Member-only games (What's Next?, What did I say?) – – ✓ Evaluation & Character Bank – – ✓ Customize reading view – – ✓ Character Activities (learning games & tasks per character) – – ✓ Grade My Level medals & Achievements – – ✓ Puzzles & Challengers – – ✓ #️⃣
Understand Character Number
Every character has a fixed number — #1, #2, #3 and so on — that reflects the order we teach them. We weigh the official HSK lists alongside everyday usefulness, so lower numbers are the characters you'll meet and need most often. Learning in this order means each new character builds on the ones before it.
Your CharBank is simply how far along these numbers you've mastered. You'll see a character's number on its page and in your Favourites — so when a guide says "start from character #1", or you note "I'm at #350", that's the number it means.
🎨
Read anything at your level — the Customize view (Members)
The Customize tab turns any content into something you can read right now: characters in your CharBank appear as Chinese, everything else as pinyin, so you're never stuck. As your bank grows, more pinyin quietly turns into Chinese — you watch your own progress in real time.
我學很好It works in Speak, Topics, News, and MyDoc. Your known-character set updates automatically — nothing to configure.
⭐
Member Benefits — why subscribe
Guest access lets you explore. Membership puts the full learning engine to work for you — personalised to your exact level, from day one. $13 AUD/month with a 30-day free trial.
🎁 Special tester program — every new account is granted 30 days of full membership, free, the moment its email is verified. No card is needed. When those days are up the account returns to the free tier, and your 30-day trial is still there waiting if you subscribe.
Start Free Trial →🏦CharBankTrack every character you've mastered — the engine that unlocks content📊EvaluationFind your exact level and skip what you already know🎨Customize TabRead real content — known chars in Chinese, rest in pinyin📄MyDocPaste any Chinese or English article and read it at your level🎯Character ActivitiesHands-on learning games & tasks tied to individual characters🏆Grade My LevelTest your level for medals at each 100-character milestone🎮Full Game AccessUnlock the members-only games: What's Next? and What did I say?🔖FavouritesSave anything during practice or browsing to revisit✏️Custom Practice RangesSet your own start/end range and question count🪙Credits & RewardsEarn monthly credits, refer friends, redeem vouchers🤝ChallengersInvite friends — or a whole group — and compare your progress
🧱 Learn & Practise
Follow the Step-by-Step path
Head to Learn and work through characters in order — even if you already know some Chinese. The sequence is carefully ordered so each character builds on those before it. Each entry shows the character's origin, stroke order, similar-looking characters, example words, and sentences. Many character pages also carry a ✍ Writing Sheet button that opens a printable 田字格 practice grid (free with any account), and members see a Character Activities section — hands-on games and tasks (solo or group) to practise that character.🔊
Hear every character — audio & Phonetics
Every piece of Chinese content has a ▶ play button — tap it to hear the correct pronunciation, no separate app needed. Every tab (Traditional, Simplified, Pinyin, Customize) plays the same authentic Traditional Chinese audio. New to the sounds? Start with Phonetics (on the Learn page): every initial (聲母) and final (韻母) with bopomofo, pinyin, tips, and audio — plus a Phonetics practice game to drill them.✏️
Practise what you know
Use Flash Practice and Flash Test (on the Learn or Games page) to quiz yourself on any character range. Drag the max handle and the range slides as a fixed window; adjust the start freely. Members can also test words and save items to their Favourites as they go.Reinforce with Games
Games are short activities built around what you've learned — a fast way to move new characters into long-term memory. Free for everyone: Flash Practice, Flash Test, Phonetics, Whack the Character, Listen & Pick, Identity Quest, Match, Find It!, Memory, and Fill the Gap. Members also unlock What's Next? and What did I say?. At each 100-character milestone your CharBank invites you to take a Grade My Level test.
📖 Read real Chinese
Speak — everyday conversations
The Speak section has short, practical dialogues graded by difficulty. Each row in the list carries a type icon (💬 general, 🤔 homophone, 😄 joke, 📜 poem, 🎵 song) and difficulty bars, so you can pick at a glance. Switch between Traditional, Simplified, Pinyin, English, and Customize tabs to control how much support you need, and tap any sentence for the full breakdown. Members can assign a per-role voice and save dialogues to Favourites.🧩
Topics — build a sentence
On many Topics you can build a sentence hands-on: pick different words to drop into a blank, then tap ▶ to hear the whole sentence read aloud with your choice. Every character page links its related topics under Let's practice, so you can jump from a character straight into a real sentence.News — real-world articles
The News section brings real articles about what's happening around the world — world affairs, science, business, sport, culture and more — no account required. Each is summarised at four levels (Easy, Medium, Difficult, Expert), with Traditional / Simplified / Pinyin / English tabs. Members also unlock the Customize blend and can save articles to Favourites.Essentials — grammar & structure
Essentials covers grammar patterns, sentence structure, and pronunciation guides. You don't need to read them all at once — dip in when something in a lesson or conversation confuses you.
👤 Your Member Area (the My Account menu)
Daily Step
Daily Step is your member home base — open it any time from Member › Daily Step. Each day it walks you through one simple loop: meet your next few characters, practise them, sharpen what you already know, take a quick evaluation to lock them into your CharBank, then stretch with a listening challenge. Set how many new characters you want per day (1–10) in My Profile. Not in the mood for something new? Spin the Review Wheel for a review game instead — finishing it holds your step streak so it never resets, though only a passed evaluation adds a step. Every 30 steps earns credits (30, 60, 90 and on), and missing a whole day starts the streak again from zero. Prefer a nudge? Choose your reminder days in My Profile and we'll email you on the days you pick.👤
My Profile — Puzzles, Challengers, Membership & more
Your profile hub — open it from Member › My Profile. From here you can:
🧩 Puzzles — earn a puzzle piece for every 10 characters banked. Design your own puzzle, claim pieces one at a time in a colour you pick, and finish it to enter the monthly draw to have it printed and shipped.
🤝 Challengers — invite friends by email and compare progress side by side (CharBank, step streak, achievements), or gather several into a group leaderboard. A notice board tells you when someone joins, declines, or leaves.
💳 Membership — manage your subscription ($13 AUD/month, 30-day trial): renewal date, payment, or cancel any time (access lasts until the period ends).
🪙 Credits & Rewards — 10 free credits on the 1st monthly, plus more for referrals, Grade My Level, and every 30 steps of your Daily Step streak. Buy credits (AUD $10/100, $20/210), spend them on MyDoc, and redeem leftovers for a Coloring My Life voucher.
🏅 Achievements — badges for milestones (streaks, characters banked, levels graded); some award credits when unlocked.
📜 History— your activity log: credit balance & purchases, evaluation unlocks, practice sessions, and Grade My Level results.
🔖
Favourites
Favourites is your saved list — open it from Member › Favourites. Save conversations, topics, news, essentials, words, sentences, radicals, and characters with the ★ button as you browse or practise, then find them grouped by type on one page. Characters you star while practising land here too — tap Practise these to jump straight back into a session.MyDoc — read any article
Found an article online? Paste it into MyDoc (under Member) and it's instantly converted to Traditional, Simplified, Pinyin, English, and — most importantly — Customize, so you read it at your exact level right now. Works for Chinese or English (English is translated to Chinese first). Each conversion costs credits by word count (1 credit per 100 words, max 700), and results are saved to return to any time.CharBank & Evaluation
CharBank is the number of characters you've mastered — the engine behind the whole site. A bigger bank unlocks more content tailored to what you can read, and it drives the Customize view. Open it from Member › CharBank. Not sure where to begin? From CharBank tap Take Evaluation to find your level and skip what you already know. Each 100-character milestone also unlocks a Grade My Level medal test. (Members only.)✉️
Messages
Messages is your private line to us — open it from Member › Messages. Send a question, report something that looks wrong, or share feedback, and you'll see our replies right there. Available to anyone with an account. If you have access to online 1-on-1, this is where you make arrangements too.
💡 Tips for Success
- Start from character 1 even if you know some Chinese — you might fill gaps you never knew you had.
- Don't skip characters. The learning system is designed so each one reinforces the next.
- A little every day beats a long session once a week. Fifteen minutes daily is enough to make real progress.
- Use Practice regularly — even a short five-minute session reinforces what you have learned far better than just reading.
- Use your Favourites to flag characters you find tricky, then focus your next practice session on that range.
- Found an article you want to read? Paste it into MyDoc and the Customize view will let you read it at your exact level — right now, not "when you're ready."
A Note on Content
We make every effort to ensure all content — definitions, pinyin, translations, and sentences — is accurate, but mistakes can happen. If you spot something that does not look right, please let us know. We will be happy to look into it and improve.
News articles are summarised using AI. Summaries may not be 100% accurate — if something does not make sense, please get in touch.
Ready to start?
Begin Learning →