字ToneWickCHINESE, ILLUMINATED
Your texts stay in this browser

A SMALL DAILY DISCOVERY

Every character opens a door.

Start with a little story, or bring your own Chinese. Tap a word. Find your rhythm.

Warming up the reading lamp…

ON YOUR READING DESK

A little light, a little Chinese

Display changes never overwrite your original text.

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Tap a word for its meaning. Space to listen.
Ready when you are.
Characters · 字
42px
Pinyin / tones
22px

A voice for your page

Optional self-hosted MeloTTS Mandarin. Enable it on the ToneWick VPS; no paid speech API is used. This is not a Pleco voice and is not a certified Taiwan accent.

Natural mode needs the optional aligner. Its timing is an estimate checked against the audio. Word mode keeps reliable segment timing but does not invent a syllable clock inside a word. Character drill is clearest for experimenting with tone motion, but isolated readings can differ from connected speech.

Text to be sent · this reading page only

    
    
Generated audio is held in this tab. The server copy is deleted after download where possible and expires automatically. Closing this panel does not cancel a queued job: use Cancel below.

    
Connect the self-hosted voice to begin.

  
  
A WORD, OPENED

  
    
Bring your own Chinese

    
Copy Chinese from a website and paste it below, or choose a PDF or text file. We turn its text into the same rich reader. Your file stays in this browser.

    
    

    
    
    
0 / 100,000 UTF-16 units

    
Plain text files: up to 2 MB. Website formatting and scripts are discarded; only text is read. Nothing is silently truncated.

    
    
Switch freely later. The original pasted or extracted text is kept unchanged.

    
  
  
Your unchanged source
This is the original pasted or extracted text, before display-script conversion. Copy it freely. For PDFs, it is the reviewed text layer, not the PDF file itself.


  
Your small library
Saved on this device, in this browser. Keep a backup before clearing browser data.

  
Your word pocket

  
Two paths. One reading desk.

    
Choose Taiwan or HSK underlines without changing tone colours or pronunciation. TBCL, TOCFL and the different HSK editions are separate lists, not interchangeable rankings.

    
A word’s colour is its lowest listed level in the selected source. A missing word is unlisted, never automatically “advanced”. Whole words share an underline; characters keep their individual tone colours.

    

    
Personal imports remain in this browser and can coexist. The website operator must verify source accuracy and redistribution rights before installing a public list.

    
    
    
CSV: word,level,pinyin; pinyin optional. TBCL: 1–7. TOCFL: N1, N2, 1–6 or unsplit C. HSK2: 1–6. HSK3: 1–9 or grouped 7-9, exactly as sourced. Do not split grouped levels by guessing.

    
    
Restoring TBCL never removes HSK, or vice versa. Traditional/simplified aliases use OpenCC when installed. Original text and imported lists are preserved.

  
  
FIND YOUR READING VOICE
A little type tasting

    
Choose a card to change the reader immediately. Web fonts load from this website, only as needed. Device choices use installed fonts. Missing characters can still fall back.

    
    
    
  
  
Text tools & safekeeping
Recorded audio, precisely followed
Attach an audio file and its timing JSON. Timings must match the displayed text exactly. Playback follows the supplied timestamps. This is optional; browser narration needs no audio files.
No pair selected. Maximum audio file size: 50 MB.
Audio can be saved with a saved text. Library backups exclude audio files; retain the originals. Script conversion invalidates timing unless the displayed text still matches.

  
A little light on how it works
Reading & pronunciation
Tap a word for definitions, then tap a character in the word to inspect it. Pinyin is machine-assisted and can be wrong for names, ambiguous words, or Taiwan/Mainland differences. Correct a particular occurrence in the dictionary panel. Displayed tones are dictionary tones, not a full transcription of tone sandhi. Zhuyin is transliterated from the same pinyin, not a separate authority.
Flow mode uses the voice’s boundary events when available, otherwise the current phrase is highlighted. Word-paced mode follows each spoken word’s start event. Character drill gives isolated sounds and may misread polyphonic characters. Narration uses the voice’s pronunciation, not your on-screen correction.
Your own text
Use Paste / import for Chinese copied from a website, plain text files or PDFs with a selectable text layer. Review extracted PDF text before reading. Scans need external Chinese OCR first; the app does not reproduce PDF page layout. Display conversions always start from your saved source; Text tools can show or export that source.
Follow-along & experimental motion
Voice & tone motion opens the guide controls. A frame follows the current word without changing its tone colours or level underline. Optional motion follows a single character only when its timing is available. Rising goes up, falling goes down, third tone dips then rises, first tone moves sideways, and neutral stays still. Returning to centre is a visual reset, not another tone. Reduced-motion preferences keep characters stationary. This is a learning experiment, not live pitch tracking or a proven memory treatment.
Privacy & persistence
Normal reading needs no account and does not upload your documents. There is no tracking or analytics. The optional Practice story feature requires a ToneWick story access key and your confirmation: only then does it send the reviewed excerpt, selected words and settings to the VPS and chosen AI provider. PDF bytes and opening passwords are not sent. Do not submit confidential material. Books, settings and vocabulary live in IndexedDB on this browser and origin. They are not encrypted or synchronized. Story-server results expire within the configured 1–24 hours while the service is running; provider retention and backups are separate. Delete server copy does not delete a story you saved locally. Other people using this browser profile can access them. Browser eviction, private browsing, clearing site data or changing the website address can remove access. Export backups.
Text analysis is local. A voice marked “network” may send text to its operating-system or browser voice provider; consent is requested before using it. A “local” label is the platform’s own report, not an independent audit. Timed audio attached here plays locally. Optional MeloTTS neural reading sends only the reviewed page text to this website’s separately authenticated VPS service after consent. Once models are installed, that worker performs inference offline, without a speech-provider API. Generated audio is temporary in this tab; the server copy is deleted after download where possible and expires under the configured retention policy. Logical deletion does not erase snapshots or backups.
Keyboard & display
Space play/pause · Esc close a panel (or stop) · +/− character size. Tab to words and press Enter for the dictionary. Character size (24–128 px) and pinyin size (12–72 px) have independent, fixed-position controls. Use Alt +/− for pinyin size and P to hide/show pronunciation hints without forgetting their size or mode. Ctrl/Cmd browser zoom is not intercepted. Browse live font previews to choose a self-hosted family after website preparation, or use an installed-device stack. The selected preview reports loaded or fallback status. The source package contains no font binaries; prepared sites fetch their own same-origin font subsets. Tone colours belong to the Chinese characters; Taiwan/HSK underlines are independent.
Data & acknowledgements
Original Lantern sample texts and starter definitions are included. Production setup adds CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0 or 3.0 as declared by the downloaded snapshot; inspect the retained header), pinyin-pro and OpenCC. The installer preserves upstream licences. Taiwan and explicitly versioned HSK datasets remain separately attributed. No Du Chinese stories, audio, branding, or code are copied.
Colour palettes use analogous hues and restrained complementary accents. Research does not establish a universally pleasing “correct” palette. Colours have text labels and can be switched off.
Source links, data licences and design references →

  

  
    
THE STORY GARDEN · OPTIONAL AI
Same words. A new adventure.

    
Meet difficult words in another setting. Choose the challenge, keep the words you need, and let a new story grow.

    

      

        
1 · Choose your material

        

        

        

        

        

        

        
ComfortHardest here

        
        
      

      

        
2 · Shape your practice

        
        
Learning and saved words get priority. “Known” words are omitted from suggestions. Change the selection freely; a different challenge resets it.

        
0 selectedYour familiarity is saved locally

        
        

        
        

      

    

    

      
3 · Ask your story runner

      

      
Only Create sends this reviewed excerpt and selected words to your VPS and chosen AI provider. Normal reading remains local. Do not submit confidential material.

      
      

      
Target selection stays in your browser. AI generation needs an enabled VPS runner.

      
Recent requests · resume after reconnecting