What is Reddit's opinion of Inkstone?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

https://www.skishore.me/inkstone/

It's an android app but I don't think it's on Google Play for whatever reason. Scroll down to "installing from binary", download the apk you need (probably armv7) then open the apk from your phone/tablet (you may need a file browser for this and make sure you've enabled "unknown sources" in your security settings).

Edit: WAIT I'M WRONG it's in the Play store now. The apk is still free so I guess you can buy this version to support the developer/get automatic updates etc.

If you're on Android, I'd recommend Inkstone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.id126c0rsxlvjwv18cf44u&hl=en_US

It's only a few bucks upfront, no subscription, and is offline. There's not too many premade lists, but you can import your own. You need to import it from a file, you can't add new words/characters directly though the app, so it's not super convenient, but it works.

It currently does not support syncing across devices, since it's all offline. Not sure if that's a must for you or not.

If you're technically inclined, it's open source so you could build and install the app for free.

Use Meteor.JS or Cordova. I wrote a webapp that I've compiled to an Android app, iOS app (unsigned; can't distribute), a macOS dmg, and a Windows exe. It uses canvas for the actual handwriting graphics, but CSS transitions for all the other effects.

The alternatives to Skritter I'm aware of are:

- TOFU Learn

- Inkstone

- Noodle Chinese

There's a few other writing apps around like Train Chinese and Word Tracer.

Recently, I've been trying to keep Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese up to date, so such resources are listed there.

You're talking about the hurdle of not knowing enough characters, as opposed to appropriate written style, right? Allow me to attempt to push Heisig on you, even though it's target isn't necessarily heritage speakers (I'm not one, but I'm done with the 1500 characters of book one and onto book two for the 3000 and a bit that it teaches). However, since it's focus is on the (simplified or traditional) characters, not speaking or grammar, I feel like it would work well for heritage speakers from any dialect. I also agree with reading apps like Decipher Chinese, Du Reader, Chairman Bao, etc. Pleco has some reader compilations available for download too. Copying my unjustly (:-p) downvoted response on this topic:

You won't learn the accepted etymologies, but if this is for memorization purposes, you want to use the Heisig method, probably in combination with an app like Skritter (I'm using the non-beta version and, possibly because I used the beta version for a bit, I seem to have gotten a free additional year after my subscription ran out). The two volumes of Remembering the Hanzi will take you up to the 3000 "most common" characters and this. James Heisig's main argument is that it's extremely difficult to take the etymologies past a certain point in terms of learning and that learning the characters in a certain order where they build on each other makes it much easier. I also think that it really helps to graft a certain deep sense of how the characters work onto non-native Chinese speakers/readers like myself that helps with later learning of etymology and the sort of word/character play that can go on.

One thing to note is that at least the hanzi version of Heisig's books (co-written with someone at Brigham Young University Hawaii) will use very middle American folksy Christian stories and memory aids at times, but the point after 500 characters is to train you to think up your own mnemonic stories (for example, for 亻 as a radical in characters it suggests using a person that's very familiar to you and I ended up using Karl Marx, which for me has been ridiculously effective). Also, without an app like Skritter or putting in the work yourself, you will not learn character pronunciations from Heisig (possibly a sign of Heisig originally using it for Japanese). I think it's very important and helpful to memorize the pronunciations (for Mandarin, in my case), but this does mean you can use the Heisig system for Cantonese or any Chinese dialect. The biggest problem is that you need to be disciplined to use the Heisig system and it's very difficult to do that in conjunction with a typical structured Chinese course (like at a university) where you need to learn characters based for the next quiz or test that are only presented on the basis of common Chinese words and phrases contextual to each lesson and scenario (so memorizing the characters means you're doing it without much "rhyme or reason").

There's a competitor by Tuttle called Chin-E-Z or something that I think goes to 2000 characters (and I think tries to make Mandarin pronunciation part of the mnemonic system, which Heisig doesn't). Also, there's a free (directly from Github) or low price non-subscription competitor to Skritter called Inkstone but I haven't used it. Finally, I'm very suspicious of the actual efficacy of Chineasy for learning to read and speak Chinese, based on listening to the Chineasy podcasts (and the constant entrepreneurial Ted Talk ideology around it). I'm not disagreeing with its ability to spark initial interest in Chinese and make it less intimidating, however.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.id126c0rsxlvjwv18cf44u

You won't learn the accepted etymologies, but if this is for memorization purposes, you want to use the Heisig method, probably in combination with an app like Skritter (I'm using the non-beta version and, possibly because I used the beta version for a bit, I seem to have gotten a free additional year after my subscription ran out). The two volumes of Remembering the Hanzi will take you up to the 3000 "most common" characters and this. James Heisig's main argument is that it's extremely difficult to take the etymologies past a certain point in terms of learning and that learning the characters in a certain order where they build on each other makes it much easier. I also think that it really helps to graft a certain deep sense of how the characters work onto non-native Chinese speakers/readers like myself that helps with later learning of etymology and the sort of word/character play that can go on.

One thing to note is that at least the hanzi version of Heisig's books (co-written with someone at Brigham Young University Hawaii) will use very middle American folksy Christian stories and memory aids at times, but the point after 500 characters is to train you to think up your own mnemonic stories (for example, for 亻 as a radical in characters it suggests using a person that's very familiar to you and I ended up using Karl Marx, which for me has been ridiculously effective). Also, without an app like Skritter or putting in the work yourself, you will not learn character pronunciations from Heisig (possibly a sign of Heisig originally using it for Japanese). I think it's very important and helpful to memorize the pronunciations (for Mandarin, in my case), but this does mean you can use the Heisig system for Cantonese or any Chinese dialect. The biggest problem is that you need to be disciplined to use the Heisig system and it's very difficult to do that in conjunction with a typical structured Chinese course (like at a university) where you need to learn characters based for the next quiz or test that are only presented on the basis of common Chinese words and phrases contextual to each lesson and scenario (so memorizing the characters means you're doing it without much "rhyme or reason").

There's a competitor by Tuttle called Chin-E-Z or something that I think goes to 2000 characters (and I think tries to make Mandarin pronunciation part of the mnemonic system, which Heisig doesn't). Also, there's a free (directly from Github) or low price non-subscription competitor to Skritter called Inkstone but I haven't used it. Finally, I'm very suspicious of the actual efficacy of Chineasy for learning to read and speak Chinese, based on listening to the Chineasy podcasts (and the constant entrepreneurial Ted Talk ideology around it). I'm not disagreeing with its ability to spark initial interest in Chinese and make it less intimidating, however.