Instructions for printing the Cantonese Flashcards

PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL ME TO SAY THE CARDS DO NOT LINE UP! YOU HAVE TO PRINT THE CARDS OUT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER!!!

Start

These flashcards are designed to be printed in portrait (not landscape) mode on both sides of a sheet of thick paper or lightweight card. Characters and meanings will not be aligned on your monitor, only when you print the sheets out correctly! *

This means you print page 1a, turn the paper over and feed it through your printer again for page 1b.

It is important that your printer is feeding its paper through perfectly in the centre.  If it is not the cards will not align correctly when you cut them out.  The idea is that the edges of each card should match on both sides.

I recommend you print just pages 1a and 1b and then cut them out to ensure your printer is set up correctly.

(Optional) Choose Your Font

Read the introduction for why it is nice to choose a font to print the cards in. You will probably need to install a font such as "AR PL KaitiM Big5" but once you have done so you can view the flashcards in it by usint the drop down box in the introduction page.

Adjusting your Printer

If your printer is not printing directly in the centre of the page you may need to adjust the sliding paper feeder - this will differ for all printers so you will just have to experiment.

Your web browser may also have some useful print settings for "margins".  For example, in Opera 6 I change my Left margin slightly to print centrally on my printer.  This also works for Internet Explorer.

Finally, in your printer settings, there is sometimes a value in "layout" or "paper" to "centre the printable area".  Again, this will be different for all printers so please consult the manufacturer of the printer if you need more information.

If you can't fix it you can still print all the pages on separate sheets of paper and then glue them together.  ie. Glue page 1a's cards to page 1b's cards.

Printing

The fastest way to print is to load your printer with card and print pages 1a, 2a, 3a etc.  Then, come back, reload the printed pages backwards and then print 1b, 2b, 3b etc.

When printing on my Epson printer, using Opera 6 and IE6, the cards appear roughly square (the width is a bit greater than the height).  Each card should of course be exactly the same size.

Finishing

A guillotine is the fastest way of cutting up hundreds of flashcards. You should be able to see the grey guidelines to help you do a fairly decent job but you don't have to be too perfect, they are only a memory aid after all!  If you don't have a guillotine then scissors are fine too - if you have children you can trust with scissors I'd recommend getting them to do it *:-)

The flashcards on this page are free, but we also offer
Deluxe and Magnetic Chinese Flashcards for sale. Please take a look! 

Using the Cards

You can use the cards to test your memory of characters, tones and meanings.  It might be helpful to carry the cards around with you to look at now and then, they take up very little space (you could easily fit 200 in a playing card box, even if you print on card).

One way of testing yourself is to take a pack of cards and try and say the word out loud, ideally with the correct tone.  The ones you get right you can discard, the ones you get wrong put to one side.  After you finish your first pack, take the pile of cards you got wrong, shuffle them and repeat the process until you don't have any cards left.

Finally, please let me know if you are using these cards - it is always nice to know whether it was worth putting something like this on the Internet.

* (people keep mailing me to say the cards are wrong, although I suspect the people that do this won't read the instructions anyway!)