There are many ways of entering Chinese text into the computer. Text can be scanned in by optical means and converted into computer code by optical character recognition (OCR) software. Text can be entered via a microphone and converted to computer code by voice recognition software. Text can be entered via a stylus and tablet and converted to computer code by hand-writing recognition software. For those who cannot afford expensive high-tech peripherals/software, Chinese text can be entered via the keyboard using various methods.
Keyboard input methods can be classified in 3 main types: by encoding, by pronunciation, and by structure of the characters. The following are just some samples of Chinese input methods. Many of those input methods have variations. Full Pinyin and Double Pinyin are variation of the Pinyin input method.
Pronunciation
- Bopomofo (注音)
- Pinyin (拼音)
- Cantonese Pinyin (粤语拼音)
Character Structure
- Wubi method (五笔字型)
- Cangjie method (仓颉)
- Shouwei method (首尾字型)
- Zheng code method (郑码)
- Dayi method (太易)
- Five Stroke method (五笔划)
- Four corner method (四角码)
- Stroke Count method (笔画)
Combination of Pronunciation and Character Structure
- Tze-loi method (子来)
- Renzhi code method (认知吗)
Character Encoding
- Neima (内码)
- Unicode (国际区位码)
- Telegraph code (电报码)
Other
- English-Chinese Translation