# Start Writing: Stroke Order — Chinese, Japanese & English

> Chinese, Japanese & English (iPhone/iPad app by 家豪 张.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/start-writing-stroke-order/id6806713678 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [家豪 张](https://appshunter.io/developer/6804893160)
- Category: Education, Reference
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 40 MB
- Languages: American English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified, China)
- Released: 2026-09-11
- Data updated: 2026-10-26

## What is Start Writing?

Handwriting is muscle memory, and muscle memory needs the right kind of
repetition. Start Writing gives you a proper practice sheet, correct stroke
order, and a scheduler that brings each character back just before you'd
forget it.

WRITE THREE SCRIPTS
Chinese characters, Japanese kana and kanji, and the Latin alphabet, each with
its own paper. Chinese and Japanese get the square grid with diagonal guides
that teachers use; English gets the four-line baseline grid.

STROKE ORDER, ANIMATED
Watch any character draw itself stroke by stroke, then trace over the model
and write it from memory. Stroke-order data covers the characters you'll
actually meet, not just a starter set.

SCORING THAT TELLS YOU SOMETHING
Every attempt is checked against the reference form for stroke count, position
and proportion, so you find out which stroke drifted rather than just seeing a
number.

REVIEW AT THE RIGHT MOMENT
A spaced-repetition scheduler tracks each character separately. Characters you
write cleanly move further out; the ones you fumble come back sooner. Your
daily goal splits new items from reviews so a session has a clear finish.

BUILT FOR APPLE PENCIL
Pressure and tilt come through to the stroke. Choose ink colour and stroke
width, or turn on finger writing when the Pencil isn't nearby.

THIRTY-FOUR THEMED SETS
Numbers, family, body, colours, nature, animals, food, time, school,
greetings, actions and places — written in parallel across all three scripts
and graded from beginner to intermediate. Twenty-five starter sets are free.

RADICALS AND KANA TABLES
223 Chinese radicals ordered by stroke count, the full gojūon tables for
hiragana and katakana, and the alphabet in upper and lower case. Every entry
is practiceable on its own.

TRACK WHAT YOU'VE DONE
A contribution-style activity map, streak count, per-character history and
mastery breakdown. All of it computed on your device.

NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING
Start Writing collects nothing. There is no account, no analytics and no
advertising SDK. Your writing history stays on your device unless you turn on
iCloud sync, in which case it goes to your own private iCloud database and
nowhere else.

ONE PURCHASE
The full version is a single purchase — no subscription, no expiry. It unlocks
importing your own articles and word lists, iCloud sync and restore, Home
Screen widgets, ink colour and stroke width, nine word and sentence sets, and
unlimited books.

Free forever: stroke-order animation for all three scripts, scoring, tracing,
twenty-five starter sets, daily goals, practice history and statistics.

Character shape data comes from the Make Me a Hanzi project (Arphic Public
License) and letter models from open-source school teaching fonts (SIL Open
Font License). Full licence texts are in Settings › About › Open Source
Licences.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premium | $14.99 | one-time |


## Is Start Writing safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Start Writing.

## Is Start Writing legit?

Start Writing: Stroke Order has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Start Writing is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.3.0 — 2026-10-21

Bug fixes and improvements.

### 1.2 — 2026-10-03

- Home now shows what Premium includes, with the real price, until you unlock it.
- After a round that goes well, you may be asked to rate the app (at most a few times a year). You can also rate any time from Settings.
- The purchase screen can reload if the App Store was unreachable, instead of leaving the button disabled.
- Fixed the purchase screen's Close button, which read "Off" in English and Japanese.

### 1.1 — 2026-09-18

Fixes based on real use:

• Scoring no longer shifts the page. The score now appears in a panel that slides up, so the character you just wrote stays exactly where you drew it.

• The single-character practice screen now follows your paper choice. It previously forced white paper regardless of the setting, which made night practice needlessly harsh.

• Larger text sizes are handled properly. The current-book row on Home used to collapse, and small badge labels stayed tiny while everything around them grew.

• Score labels no longer truncate in English.

### 1.0 — 2026-09-11

First release.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-26.*