Chinese Annotation Tools for Reading Practice

★ 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.

★ Adds Pinyin or Zhuyin directly above Simplified or Traditional Chinese Bible text. Equipd Bible is a paid Bible reading and language-study app that supports compatible EPUB Bibles, including EPUBs from JW.org. It can automatically add Pinyin or Zhuyin above Chinese characters, display multiple Bible versions side by side, and send selected Chinese words to Pleco for definitions. Visit their website. Available on iOS.

★ Look up Chinese words directly on top of almost any app without copying or switching screens. Hanping Chinese Popup OCR is an Android reading tool that uses screen capture and OCR to recognize Simplified or Traditional Chinese and display a popup with pronunciation, definitions, audio, copying, and saved-word options. It works with websites, messages, maps, photos, and other apps, making unfamiliar Chinese easier to check while you read. Learn more on their website. Available on Android.

★ 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.

★ 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.

★ 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.

★ 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.

★ 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.

★ 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.