Chinese Annotation Tools for Reading Practice
Chinese annotation tools make Chinese text easier to read by adding Pinyin, English translations, word spacing, and other helpful information alongside the characters. These tools can help you read unfamiliar Chinese text and better understand vocabulary and sentence structure.
Wish you could see Chinese and English subtitles at the same time? See our Dual Subtitles tools for options to make that possible.
Browser & Reading Tools
★ Adds Pinyin or Zhuyin directly above Chinese text on webpages and subtitles. 3lines.org is a free annotation tool that turns Simplified or Traditional Chinese into three-line reading material with Chinese, romanization (including Pinyin), and an English or Spanish translation. Import an ePub, paste Chinese text, or load a webpage, then export the annotated result as a PDF. Available on Android and iOS.
Free App
★ Adds pronunciation guides directly above Chinese characters as you browse. Hanzi Annotator is a free browser extension that annotates Chinese text on webpages with Pinyin, Zhuyin, IPA, Wade-Giles and several other pronunciation systems. Click a character to view its pronunciation, dictionary definition and HSK level, or use optional tone colors to make tones easier to spot. It works offline after installation and does not require an account. Available for Chrome and Firefox.
Fre Chrome Extension
★ Adds Pinyin or Zhuyin directly above Chinese text on webpages and subtitles. Pinyin Annotator is a free, ad-free browser extension that adds Hanyu Pinyin or Zhuyin above Chinese characters on webpages and in video subtitles. It supports both Simplified and Traditional Chinese and can annotate entire pages automatically or let you highlight selected text for Pinyin or Zhuyin and dictionary lookup. It also works with Chinese subtitles on sites such as YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and Bilibili. The extension is open-source and works with Chrome, Firefox and Chromium-based browsers such as Edge, Opera and Brave; Safari is not currently supported. Available on the Chrome Webstore.
Free Chrome Extension
★ Tap Chinese words while reading to instantly view their Pleco dictionary definitions. Pleco’s Document Reader lets you paste Chinese text and tap unfamiliar words for instant dictionary lookups without leaving what you are reading. The Pleco app is free, with basic clipboard reading available at no charge; a paid upgrade adds support for opening and reading files such as PDF, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, HTML and text documents, depending on the platform. Available on Android and iOS.
Free / Paid App
★ Read Chinese webpages, web novels and your own files with built-in reading assistance. Readibu is a free Chinese reading app with optional Premium features. It lets you read content from Chinese websites or import EPUB, PDF and TXT files, with pinyin or zhuyin above the text, tap-to-view dictionary definitions, text-to-speech, simplified/traditional conversion, HSK difficulty analysis and vocabulary saving and export. Premium adds features such as sentence translation, cloud sync, offline reading, quizzes and syntax analysis. Available on Android and iOS.
Free / Paid App
★ Read Chinese texts with detailed word and character lookup tools. SmartHanzi is a free reading assistant for working through Chinese webpages, PDFs and other texts. Tap or select unfamiliar characters to see possible words, dictionary definitions, simplified and traditional variants, stroke order, character components and related words. It also includes dictionary search by Chinese, pinyin or meaning, plus HSK-based quizzes on most versions. Available for Windows and Mac through the SmartHanzi website, and on Android and iOS.
Free Software / App
★ Hover over Chinese text on webpages to see pinyin and English definitions instantly. Zhongwen is a free pop-up dictionary extension that helps you read Chinese directly in your browser. Hover over simplified or traditional Chinese characters to see pinyin with tone colors and English definitions from CC-CEDICT. You can also save vocabulary to a built-in word list, access Chinese Grammar Wiki notes, add words to Skritter, and export saved vocabulary for use with Anki. Available as a free extension for Chrome and Firefox.
Free Chrome ExtensionText Annotation & Converters
★ Adds pinyin and English definitions to Chinese text. Chinese-Tools.com’s Chinese Annotation Tool is a free, browser-based tool for making Simplified Chinese text easier to read. Paste in Chinese text and the tool annotates it with pinyin and English dictionary definitions, helping you identify unfamiliar words and work through a passage without relying on a full machine translation. Its interface is fairly basic, but it provides a straightforward way to turn plain Chinese text into a study-friendly reading aid.
Free Web-Based
★ Adds pronunciation to Chinese text using five different phonetic systems. MandarinSpot is a free annotation tool that lets you paste Simplified or Traditional Chinese text and add pronunciation above the characters. Choose from Hanyu Pinyin, Zhuyin Fuhao (Bopomofo), Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin, or Palladius, with options for word spacing and vocabulary lists. Unlike annotators that create three full lines of Chinese, pronunciation, and English, MandarinSpot does not add a continuous English translation beneath the text. Browser note: The annotator may not work correctly in Safari; Chrome is recommended.
Free Web-Based
★ Adds pinyin above Chinese text and English meanings underneath for easy three-line reading. The Pure Language Pinyin Text Annotator is a free, no-sign-up tool that turns Simplified or Traditional Chinese into textbook-style annotated text, with tone-marked pinyin above the characters and English meanings underneath each word. You can hide the English line when you only want hanzi and pinyin, and results can be copied or printed as a clean handout. The tool accepts up to 2,000 Chinese characters at a time.
Free Web-Based