About kanji stroke ordering

There are some common rules for writing kanji, although they are not cast in stone.

  1. Kanji are written from left to right.

    川 州

  2. Kanji are written from top to bottom.

    三 工

  3. Horizontal lines are usually written before vertical lines.

    十 井

  4. When a character is symmetrical, start in the middle then draw strokes on the left and right.

    水 小

  5. The outside of the character except the bottom line (in enclosed kanji) is drawn before the inside portion.

    日 国

  6. A left sweeping stroke is written before a right stop sweep.

    人 父

  7. A vertical line that pierces through the center of a character is written last.

    中 車

  8. A horizontal line that pierces through the center of a character is written last.

    女 子

  9. A short left sweep is drawn before a horizontal line, however a long left sweep is drawn after the horizontal.

    右 左

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