書
Symbols Mind
book
ㄕㄨ shū
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
A bound text. The Chinese character also means to write, and means calligraphy, and means a letter - all in one glyph.
Before you commit
Choose with care書 does not only mean book. Depending on what surrounds it, a reader may take it as calligraphy, as a letter, or as the verb to write.
Pairs well with讀書 for studying, 書法 for calligraphy, 情書 for a love letter. The character shifts meaning entirely with its partner.
At small sizesTen strokes, mostly horizontal. The stacked horizontals merge when inked small - keep space between them.
Meaning
A book; also writing, calligraphy and a written letter.
One of the oldest working characters, covering the whole business of writing.
Other characters for “book”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts