The Stroke Count Method (simplified Chinese: 笔画; pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: bǐ huà) is an input method editor

Input method editor

An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...

 used for entering Chinese character

Chinese character

Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...

s on mobile phones and other electronic devices which is based on the order of the stroke

Stroke (CJK character)

CJK strokes, also called CJK strokes or CJKV strokes are the calligraphic strokes needed to write the Chinese characters used in East Asia...

s of hand-written characters. This input system simplifies character entry by using only 5 different keys that each denote a different stroke:

1. A horizontal stroke from left to right (simplified Chinese: 横; pinyin: héng)
2. A vertical stroke from top to bottom (simplified Chinese: 竖; pinyin: shù)
3. A long diagonal stroke downward from right to left (simplified Chinese: 撇; pinyin: piě)
4. A very short dash stroke downward from left to right (simplified Chinese: 点; pinyin: diǎn)
5. A horizontal stroke from left to right, ending with a downwards hook to the left (simplified Chinese: 捺; pinyin: nà)

Some people find this method of entering characters into a mobile phone to be faster than pinyin. In fact, many Chinese people - particularly in the southern regions of China like Hong Kong and Macau

Macau

Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

 - do not learn pinyin, and must rely solely on this method of entering characters on their phones.

See also

• Chinese input methods for computers
  Chinese input methods for computers
  Hundreds of Chinese input methods are available for entry of Chinese characters into computers, but most keyboard-based methods rely on either pinyin phonetic readings or root shapes in Chinese characters...
  
  
• Eight principles of yong
  Eight Principles of Yong
  Stroke order animated and in color gradation from black to red The strokes numbered Where there are multiple numbers in an area, the strokes overlap briefly and continue from the previous number to the next....
  
  : how stroke styles is taught to student calligraphers