Made a free kanji tool because I kept forgetting how to write the characters I could read
When I started learning kanji, I could recognize a lot of them but completely fell apart the moment I had to write one from memory. Flashcard apps were great for reading, but none of them really made me draw. So I ended up building the thing I wanted myself, and it grew into a free site: kanjidraw.com.
What it does:
- Draw kanji with real stroke-order validation — it checks your strokes and order, not just the final shape. Difficulty ramps up (guided → from memory → stricter accuracy + exact stroke count).
- Hiragana & katakana from scratch, same guided-then-from-memory approach.
- A dictionary of 6,400+ kanji and 22,000+ words — search by character, reading (kana or romaji), or English meaning. Compounds, examples, JLPT info, etc.
- Graded reading practice (JLPT N5/N4 texts) with a furigana toggle, native audio with karaoke-style highlighting, vocab tooltips, and translations.
- Progress is local-first — it works fully offline as a guest, no account required. You can optionally sign in to sync across devices.
- It's completely free, with no ads. Also fully available in Russian if anyone here studies via RU.
It's still a one-person project, and I'm actively adding content, so I'd genuinely love feedback — especially on the stroke-order checking and whether the difficulty curve feels right.
Link: https://kanjidraw.com
u/Head-Gap8965 — 3 days ago