Pleco for Traditional Chinese: Settings and Add-ons
How to set up the Pleco Chinese dictionary for Traditional characters and Zhuyin or pinyin, which paid add-ons matter for Taiwan, and what to pair it with.
Pleco is worth installing for any Chinese learner, and it works for Traditional-first study. Pleco says every part of the app supports Traditional and Simplified, and that readings can be shown in Pinyin or Zhuyin. The free version is a dictionary. Most of the extras people mean when they recommend Pleco, such as camera OCR and the document reader, are paid add-ons sold as one-time purchases.
This guide covers the setup, which add-ons matter for a Taiwan-bound learner, and the gaps to know about. Everything about Pleco’s features and prices here comes from Pleco’s own product pages, read in November 2026. We have not reviewed the app hands-on.
What Pleco is
Pleco is a dictionary app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Its pages describe camera and still-image OCR lookup, handwriting lookup, licensed dictionaries, flashcards, a document reader for tapping words in text, and stroke order diagrams. Pleco’s pages say it carries no ads and no subscriptions.
Pleco is a reference tool. It tells you what a word means and how to read it, and it does not choose what you learn next. Our comparison of Chinese learning apps places it next to courses and review apps.
Setting it up for Traditional Chinese
Menu labels vary between versions and platforms, so this section describes what to look for. Open Pleco’s settings and look for options in these areas.
- Character display. Set Pleco to show Traditional characters first. Both scripts are supported, so you can still see Simplified for comparison.
- Pronunciation display. Pleco can show Pinyin or Zhuyin. If you learn with Zhuyin, as Taiwanese schools teach it, choose that. Our Zhuyin vs pinyin guide helps you decide. Pleco’s Android page mentions Zhuyin with ruby support, meaning annotation set beside or above the characters.
- Handwriting search. Drawing a character you cannot type is helpful with Traditional forms, which are hard to look up by radical.
What is free and what is paid
On Pleco’s pages, the free version includes two built-in dictionaries. Pleco’s Android page lists eight more free dictionaries as downloads and 19 paid ones. On iPhone and iPad, built-in speech uses the system text-to-speech, and native-speaker recordings are an add-on. Basic reading is included, and the upgrade adds tap-lookup in text, HTML, DOC, DOCX, PDF and EPUB files.
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Pleco sells bundles as the cheapest way to upgrade. At the time of writing (November 2026), Pleco’s pricing pages list the Basic Bundle at US $29.99 and the Professional Bundle at US $59.99. The iPhone and iPad page says buying through Pleco’s web store carries a modest discount.
| Bundle | Contents, as listed by Pleco |
|---|---|
| Basic | OCR, Flashcards, Stroke order diagrams, Document reader, Mandarin Audio, Kai font, Oxford Chinese Dictionary |
| Professional | Everything in Basic, plus ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive, ABC English-Chinese, New Century English-Chinese, Tuttle Chinese-English and Guifan Chinese-Chinese dictionaries, and a male TTS voice |
Which add-ons matter for Taiwan
- OCR. The most useful add-on if you live in or visit Taiwan: point the camera at a menu, a sign or a form.
- Document reader. Worth having if you read graded readers or articles on your phone.
- Flashcards. Optional. If you already use Anki or Skritter, you do not need them. Our Anki guide covers that route.
- Stroke order. Convenient, with a caveat below.
- Mandarin Audio. Useful if your course lacks native Taiwanese audio. Pleco’s pages do not say which accent the speakers have, so listen to a few common words first.
- Professional dictionaries. Guifan is a PRC Chinese-Chinese dictionary, so it is not a source for Taiwan usage. Oxford and the ABC dictionaries are Chinese-English.
The gaps to know about
Stroke order follows PRC order. Pleco’s iPhone and iPad page says its stroke order diagrams support Traditional characters but use PRC order. Taiwan’s MOE order differs for some characters, so if you write by hand, check against an MOE source. Our stroke order rules guide is a starting point.
Taiwan readings and vocabulary. A general Mandarin dictionary may give the mainland form first. The MOE dictionary, mirrored at moedict.tw, is free to search, and our Taiwanese vs mainland Mandarin article covers everyday differences.
No curriculum. If you follow the Dangdai textbooks, Pleco is a lookup tool for the words you meet outside the lessons.
Where the site dictionary fits
Zhong’s own dictionary at /dictionary/search/ has 2,039 entries, so it is a small, focused tool. Use it for quick lookups of common words with Traditional characters and readings. Use Pleco for a menu photo, a rarer word or a document you are reading.
A practical setup
- Install Pleco and set it to show Traditional characters first.
- Choose Zhuyin or Pinyin to match your course.
- Begin with the free version. Add OCR if you will use it in Taiwan.
- Use Pleco for lookups while reading, and your course or review app for learning.
- Check moedict.tw when a reading or usage seems off.
Related reading
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